R156: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Äbtissin M. von Wechterswinkel
The Living Light Speaks of Barren Ground
The living light teaches that excessively broken or rocky ground cannot bear good fruit because it lacks just measure.
A reply from Hildegard. The living light says: A dry stable is useless. And soil that's been broken too much by the plow won't bear proper fruit. because it doesn't have a just measure of its own turning. And dry, rocky ground sprouts thorns and other useless weeds.
Immoderate Abstinence Withers the Soul
Hildegard warns that excessive, unbalanced fasting destroys the soul's vitality, withering the person and killing the flowers of humility and love.
In the same way, an immoderate abstinence that has no just measure and no right balance prostrates the flesh of a person. Because the vitality of proper refreshment is not given to it.1 And so a person withers. Where this is the case— there the fleeting virtues will certainly perish—namely humility and love, the most beautiful of flowers.2 Since excessive abstinence lacks the vitality of virtues, but in its place grows a wind-blown reputation for uselessness!3 And there many terrors arise, as though they were holy. But they are not holy.
The Anger of Those Who Live in Vanity
Those who pursue indulgent, vain living are full of anger and useless in their customs, while chaste souls must flee such things.
Those who live in this vanity are full of anger and have no peace. And in many of their customs they are useless. A person who wishes to lead a royal life in spiritual garb—4 let that person waste away at lavish feasts of improper foods, from which lasciviousness springs up.5 And let that person waste away in the strongest wine, in which luxury throbs.6 And other things that stir up evils— having no health in them.7 Let chaste people who cherish their souls flee from these things.8
True Grain and Right Measure in God's Gifts
God permits good food and drink given by Him, rejects harmful excess, and invites souls to cling to Him in right measure.
But let them use true grain nevertheless. And as for the drink whose strength doesn't burn with its own heat when set in fire—9 What I gave people to eat, I don't take away from them. But horrible foods—I don't know them! Because there's vanity in them. But through misguided abstinence no soul should flee to me. But let a person cling to me in right measure, and I will receive them.
Just Recompense According to Love
The Lord warns against unearned rewards and promises to repay each person according to their works and their love for Him.
And let no one gnash their teeth and demand a reward their works haven't earned!✦10 For I give to each one just recompense according to their merits, as they love me.✦11
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Uiuens lux dicit. Aridum stabulum inutile est. et terra quę per aratrum nimis frangitur. rectum fructum non dabit. quia iustum modum inuolutionis suę non habet. Et sicca terra quę saxosa est. germinat spinas atque alias inutiles herbas.
Sic incongrua abstinentia quę non habet iustum modum et rectum statum prosternit carnem hominis! quia non datur ei uiriditas iustę refectionis. Vnde etiam homo arescit. Ubi hoc est. certe ibi peribunt uolatiles uirtutes scilicet humilitas et caritas pulcherrimorum florum. quoniam nimia abstinentia caret uiriditate uirtutum sed ibi crescit uentosa fama inutilitatis! ibique surgunt multi terrores quasi sancti sint. et sancti non sunt.
Qui in hac uanitate sunt iracundiam habent et non pacem. atque in multis moribus suis inutiles sunt. Homo qui regalem uitam in spiritali habitu habere uult. tabescat in deliciosis epulis incongruorum ciborum de quibus lasciuia surgit. et tabescat in fortissimo uino in quo luxuria palpitat. et alia mouentia mala. nullam sanitatem habentia. Hęc casti homines animam suam diligentes fugiant.
sed tamen recto frumento utantur. et ui potus qui in igne caloris sui non flagrat. Quod homini ad uescendum dedi non aufero ei. sed horribiles cibos nescio! quia uanitas in eis est. Sed tamen per incongruam abstinentiam nulla anima fugiat ad me. sed in recta mensura adhereat mihi homo! et illum recipiam.
Nec ullus homo certet in fremitu dentium suorum pro non emerito premio in operibus! quia do unicuique iustam mercedem secundum merita sua ut me amat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.25.30;Luke.13.28 — And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Luke.13.28 — There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.
- ↩Matt.16.27;Rev.22.12 — For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his deeds. Rev.22.12 — Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay each one according to their work.
Notes
- 1 ↩uiriditas (greenness, vitality) is a characteristically Hildegardian term; rendered here as 'vitality' to capture the sense of life-giving vigor in right measure.
- 2 ↩uolatiles (flying, fleeting) modifies uirtutes; rendered as 'fleeting' to capture the sense of virtues that take wing and vanish.
- 3 ↩uentosa fama: literally 'windy/wind-blown reputation'; rendered to capture the hollowness and vanity of the fame that replaces genuine virtue.
- 4 ↩habitus rendered as 'garb' to capture the outward appearance/clothing sense; could also mean 'bearing' or 'manner of life.'
- 5 ↩tabescat is a jussive subjunctive ('let [one] waste away') — here used ironically, as a kind of curse or warning: may those who pursue such things wither.
- 6 ↩Same ironic jussive construction as s4. palpitat ('throbs') vividly personifies luxury as something pulsing or beating within the wine.
- 7 ↩habentia agrees with mala (neuter plural) from the preceding clause, forming a participial phrase modifying 'other things that stir up evils.'
- 8 ↩fugiant is a jussive subjunctive ('let them flee'). diligentes rendered as 'cherishing' to capture the active, loving care for the soul.
- 9 ↩ui potus: ablative of quality/description with potus; the sense is a drink described by its strength/force, which does not ignite from its own heat when placed in fire.
- 10 ↩certet (pres. subj. of certo) carries the force of striving or contending; rendered as 'contend' to capture the adversarial, self-punishing posture Hildegard describes. fremitu dentium (gnashing of teeth) is a biblical image of anguish and judgment.
- 11 ↩ut me amat is ambiguous between a comparative sense ('as [much as] they love me') and a complementizer reading ('that they love me'). The comparative reading would make the reward proportional to the depth of love for Hildegard; the complementizer reading would state a fact about the beloved. The comparative sense is preferred here as more consistent with the merit-reward logic of the sentence, but the ambiguity is real.
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