Reflection on O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

Bernard of Clairvaux in 1140 wrote the hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. A song sung often at Easter, I have come to love this piece for its musical beauty and its words Bernard penned in describing our Savior's death. We owe the English translation of Bernard's poetry to Paul Gerhardt, 1656, and J.W. Alexander, 1830. Hans L. Hassler in 1601 provided the melody and J.S. Bach in 1729, the harmony.

Bernard of Clairvaux moved to Clairvaux, France to join a newly founded monastery. There he wrote many works, one well-known, "On the Love of God," in addition to several poems found today as hymns. Luther and Calvin read many of his writings and were profoundly influenced.

In the aforementioned treatise, Bernard outlined four degrees of love: the first degree, Love of Self for Self's Sake; the second degree, Love of God for Self's Sake; the third degree, Love of God for God's sake; and the fourth degree, Love of Self for God's Sake. Bernard hoped to inspire us towards the highest degree of loving, but pondered its earthly possibility. "Perhaps," he says, "such experiences are rare and come only for a monent. In a manner of speaking, we lose ourselves as though we did not exist, utterly unconscious of ourselves and emptied of ourselves." Such experiences I have had most often at Easter, in remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only in contemplating the cross, can I die to myself and live as Christ. I am thankful for Bernard's words and Hassler and Bach's music, contributing to my spiritual experience at this special time of year.

O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory,
What bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners' gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior,
'Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love to Thee. Amen

Hymn 109 in The Hymnal, 1957 Board of Publication, The Evangelical United Brethren Church
Bernard of Clairvaux, featured in Foster and Smith's collection, Devotional Classics, Renovare Inc., 1993.