R212: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Konrad von Reutlingen
A Call to the Bravest Soldiers
Hildegard, speaking as the living light, addresses brave soldiers struggling against inner contradiction and calls them to hear the call to holy pilgrimage.
Hildegard's reply. The living light speaks. O bravest soldiers, who fight against the contradiction of the double-tongued within yourselves: hear! What kind of people are those who seek life in pilgrimage? And in exile they are strangers to the share they left behind for the sake of God. For the hand of those who work. they always prepare riches for themselves. O how great is the holiness!
The Greatness of Holiness
Hildegard exalts the power of holiness to destroy sin and make its practitioners companions of angels, urging the sons of pilgrimage to run toward God and prepare eternal riches, for the living eye of God sees them.
It tramples down the poison in a deadly plague. From there a fair flower grows in the overthrow of sin! Who is the companion of angels. But you, O sons of pilgrimage, run! And cross over. And prepare great riches for yourselves! Because the living eye always looks into the mirror of a dove. It sees you.
Do Not Grow Weary
Hildegard exhorts her readers not to grow weary in their labor, for the sun of light has prepared eternal life, and she reflects on the inner person who examines himself for blameworthy fault.
Work at it, and don't grow weary from the exhaustion of a deceitful and corrupt task. For the sun of light has prepared eternal life for you. And run eagerly toward God, because his day is coming. And let the person who is hemmed in by his own doubt, tossed about in many shifting ways like surging water battered by many storms, go on just like that. It's like a tree that can't be bent the way a rod can. Because his will carefully watches over its own concerns. But he himself, in this way, examines himself. If no blameworthy fault seethes within him!
Enter the Battle as Brave Servants
Hildegard calls each person to self-care, then passionately addresses her beloved, seeing their groaning as gold and their minds as joyful, and urges them to enter the battle as brave servants who must flee the shipwrecking world.
Let each one take care of themselves. But you, my lovers! Run to me, because I see your groaning like bright and sturdy gold. and your mind joyful, and your desires full of goodwill. So enter the battle! as brave home-born servants. For those who are in exile cannot have a sure victory while remaining in the body. but they must flee the plague of a shipwrecking world.
Strengthen Your Pillar, God Seeks His Lambs
Hildegard exhorts her readers to strengthen the pillar of their mind with the cornerstone, not to grow weary, and assures them that God seeks his own lambs even among wolves.
And strengthen the pillar of your mind with the cornerstone.✦ So then, bravest soldiers, don't grow weary when your instrument changes.1 For God seeks his own lambs among wolves.✦
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Lux uiuens dicit. O fortissimi milites qui in uobismetipsis contradictionem bilinguium contradicitis audite. Quales illi sunt qui in peregrinatione uitam requirunt. et in exilio alieni sunt partis illius quam propter deum reliquerunt. Manus enim operantium. diuicias sibi semper preparant. O quanta est sanctitas!
quę in mortifera peste uenenum conculcat. Unde in euersione peccati pulcher flos crescit! qui socius est angelorum. Vos autem o filij peregrinationis currite. et transite. et multas diuitias uobis preparate! quia uiuens oculus qui semper in speculum columbę aspicit. uos uidet.
Laborate enim et ne fatigemini propter tedium fallacis et praui operis. quoniam sol lucis uitam eternam uobis preparauit. et sollicite ad deum currite quia dies eius uenit. Et hominem illum qui constrictus est propter dubietatem suam in multis uarietatibus sicut undans aqua multis procellis sinite sic. quasi arborem quę non ualet curuari sicut uirga! quia uoluntas ipsius ad curam suam sollicite uidet. Sed ipse hoc modo seipsum considerat. Si culpabile crimen in ipso non estuat!
curam sui habeat. Uos autem amatores mei! currite ad me quia gemitum uestrum uideo ut aurum lucidum et robustum. et mentem uestram letam et desideria beniuolentię habentem. Intrate ergo pugnam. ut fortes uernaculi. Qui enim in exilio sunt non possunt habere certam uictoriam in corpore manentes. sed fugere debent pestilentiam naufragi mundi.
et solidare columpnam mentis suę cum angulari lapide. Ideo o fortissimi milites non fatigemini per uicissitudinem instrumenti. quia deus requirit agnos suos inter lupos.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eph.2.20 — built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone
- ↩John.10.12-John.10.16 — The hired hand, who is not the shepherd—the sheep are not his own—sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. John.10.13 — The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep. John.10.14 — I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. John.10.15 — Just as the Father knows me, I also know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. John.10.16 — And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Notes
- 1 ↩Instrumentum may refer to the body, to the weapons of the spiritual fight, or to the conditions and circumstances of exile in which the struggle takes place. The image is of soldiers whose equipment or situation shifts but who must not lose heart.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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