Catholic Radio Dramas

Where Sin Abounded Grace Has Overflowed

From a Sermon on the Song of Songs by Saint Bernard, abbot (1090-1153)

Where Sin Abounded Grace Has Overflowed

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace, except in the wounds of the Savior? Indeed, the more secure is my place there the more he can do to help me. The world rages, the flesh is heavy, and the devil lays his snares, but I do not fall, for my feet are planted on firm rock. I may have sinned gravely. My conscience would be distressed, but it would not be in turmoil, for I would recall the wounds of the Lord: he was wounded for our iniquities. What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ? And so if I bear in mind this strong, effective remedy, I can never again be terrified by the malignancy of sin.

Surely the man who said: My sin is too great to merit pardon, was wrong. He was speaking as though he were not a member of Christ and had no share in his merits, so that he could claim them as his own, as a member of the body can claim what belongs to the head. As for me, what can I appropriate that I lack from the heart of the Lord who abounds in mercy? They pierced his hands and feet and opened his side with a spear. Through the openings of these wounds I may drink honey from the rock and oil from the hardest stone: that is, I may taste and see that the Lord is sweet.

He was thinking thoughts of peace, and I did not know it, for who knows the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? But the piercing nail has become a key to unlock the door, that I may see the good will of the Lord. And what can I see as I look through the hole? Both the nail and the wound cry out that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The sword pierced his soul and came close to his heart, so that he might be able to feel compassion for me in my weaknesses.

Through these sacred wounds we can see the secret of his heart, the great mystery of love, the sincerity of his mercy with which he visited us from on high.

Where have your love, your mercy, your compassion shone out more luminously that in your wounds, sweet, gentle Lord of mercy? More mercy than this no one has than that he lay down his life for those who are doomed to death.

My merit comes from his mercy; for I do not lack merit so long as he does not lack pity. And if the Lord’s mercies are many, then I am rich in merits. For even if I am aware of many sins, what does it matter? Where sin abounded grace has overflowed. And if the Lord’s mercies are from all ages for ever, I too will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever. Will I not sing of my own righteousness? No, Lord, I shall be mindful only of your justice. Yet that too is my own; for God has made you my righteousness.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Bernard (1090-1153) was born in 1090 near Dijon in France to devout parents of the highest nobility of Burgundy. After a religious upbringing, he joined the Cistercian monks in 1111 and later was chosen abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux. St. Bernard is acclaimed as one of the most commanding Church leaders in the first half of the twelfth century and is considered one of the greatest spiritual masters of all time. He was sought out as an advisor and mediator by the ruling powers of his age. The cloistered monastic community endured the voluntary austerities of poverty, prayer and fasting all for the salvation of souls. Bernard personally saw to the establishment of sixty-five of the three hundred Cistercian monasteries founded during his thirty-eight years as abbot, yet he found time to compose many and varied spiritual works still studied by theologians and spiritual writers today. He directed his companions in the practice of virtue by his own good example.

Because of various schisms which had arisen in the Church, Bernard traveled throughout Europe restoring peace and unity. He also had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and it was said of him that no one spoke more sublimely of the Queen of Heaven. He developed close friendships with contemporaries and even popes. The passing of Pope Eugenius was one whom he considered his greatest friend and consoler. Bernard died in 1153 at the age of sixty-thee, after forty years spent in the cloister. He was the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1174 and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius VIII.