I remember having to take four courses in Church history while in seminary: a two semester course on the trajectory of Church history, American Church history, and the history of the Patristic fathers. I remember learning about our Saint today, Bernard of Clairvaux, who was one of the most important figures in the Church in the Middle Ages, who had an enormous influence in the Church of his era. Bernard was born in 1190. He moved to reform the Cistercian monastic order of which he was a member and an abbot. He was a trusted advisor of popes and kings. He wrote the rule for the Knights Templar, which had great influence in the Church of the medieval period. He personally had a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, which he popularized with the Catholic faithful. He promoted Mary as the star of the sea and as a powerful mediator between God and humanity. As abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux, France, he worked to make that order a strong force in the Church throughout Europe. He founded 65 monasteries in his lifetime, promoted a strict return to poverty, manual labor, and simplicity of faith. Named as a doctor of the Church, his preaching was very influential in his era. He died in 1153.
We often have images of water in holy scripture. Today, we have an image of water from the prophet Ezekiel, a cleansing image that is heard both in our first reading and in our psalm response: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” What do we need to be cleansed from today? What idols are we fixated upon? What impurities are holding us back? When we think about cleansing our lives in this sense, even though water is a good symbol for us, the working of the Holy Spirit and our cooperation and response to God are what will bring it about. May the Holy Spirit renew us. May the Holy Spirit cleanse us.
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