What the Young Man Refused

How precious is the wisdom by which we know God and despise the world!  The one who has found it is indeed blessed, if he holds fast to it.  What will he give to possess it?  Give obedience as its price, and you will receive wisdom in return.  If you want to be wise, be obedient.  Obedience has no will of its own:  it is at the service of another's will, subject to another's command.  Embrace, I repeat, the blessing of obedience, drawing near by obedience to the light of wisdom.  Draw near, that is, by means of obedience, for there is no approach more direct or secure, and be enlightened by wisdom.

The person who does not know God does not know where he is going, but walks in darkness and dashes his foot against a stone.  Wisdom is light, the true light that shines on every person coming against this world, not the one who is wise with the wisdom of this world, but the one who is not of the world though in the world.  This is the new self of one who has turned away from the sinful and slothful ways of his former self, and strives to walk in the newness of life, knowing that damnation is not for those who walk in the way of the Spirit, but in the way of sinful nature.

As long as you follow your own will, you cannot escape turmoil within you, even though at times you seem to escape turmoil outside you.  This turmoil of self-will cannot end until the desires of your sinful nature have changed, and God becomes for you a source of delight.  Sinners enlightened by wisdom are said to be freed from turmoil because, once they taste the goodness of the Lord, they are freed from their sin: from that time they worship the creator, not the creature, and when they leave self-will behind they are freed from their feverish turmoil.

While at last they get rid of the turmoil of desires and the discord of thoughts, they experience peace in their inmost heart, and God takes up his dwelling within them:  his dwelling-place is in peace.  Where God is, there is joy; where God is, there is calm; where God is, there is happiness.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

-Saint Bernard (1153) is considered the last of the Fathers of the Church and is a Doctor of the Church.