579 chapter 2: the image of the mystical temple Gospel, even though in other words, when it is said “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37), that is, with your whole intellect, with your whole will, and with your whole memory. For just as the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, in like manner the will is begotten of the intellect, and in like manner the memory proceeds from both. And just as the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, yet they are not three Gods, but one God having three Persons, thus the intellect is soul, the will is soul, the memory is soul, yet there are not three souls in one body, but one soul having three dignified features. And we are bidden to love the Creator by these three, as if [they were] the preeminent dignities of the soul.”18 That mellifluous Father, Bernard, expresses and suggests the same ideas more concisely, but clearly in the following words: “Our mind is the image of God, in which there are these three [capabilities]: memory, understanding, and will. To the memory we attribute everything that we know; to the understanding — everything that we discover to be true; to the will — everything that we love. By memory we are similar to the Father, by intelligence to the Son, and by will to the Holy Spirit” (Book of Meditations, chapter I).19 And so already from both the quoted text of Holy Scripture, and from the authentic meaning of the holy Fathers, any Christian will, I think, easily conclude that the image of the Most Holy Trinity is imprinted on his soul and its powers, that is the intellect, the will and the memory. It remains for us to exert ourselves most diligently to fulfill what these same most holy Teachers of ours advise us. And indeed St. Bernard says: “Now, what is in the image of something must be in conformity with its image, and not share in vain the name of its image. Let us, therefore, show in our image our quest for 18 Ambrose, On the Dignity of the Human Condition, 2: PL 17, 611-612. 19 Bernard, Most Devout Meditations about Understanding the Human Condition, ch. 1: PL 184, 487. Also in: St. Bernard’s Complete Works, II, Paris 1719, 333.
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