R226: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Heinrich von Maulbronn
The Shadow of God's Mysteries
Hildegard opens by describing how God's hidden mysteries stir like wind and shifting air, moving through darkness, brightness, and purity.
Hildegard. The shadow of the mysteries of God speaks. The wind blows. and the air shifts into alternation, and clouds are folded together. so that sometimes they are turbid. black. bright. and pure.
A Soldier Caught Between Snares and Purity
Hildegard addresses the soldier of God, warning that worldly sorrow and restless ways shift between the snares of the devil and moments of brightness and purity.
That's how you act, soldier of God. For in worldly sorrow you are sometimes like someone caught in a blowing wind, tossed among the pleasures of the devil's many snares, as if adrift in shifting air. and in your restless ways like clouds folding in on themselves. so that your ways at times are squalid in turmoil, terrified in blackness, sweet in brightness and useful in purity. So listen.
The Lord on the Mountain Calls His Servants
A lord stands on a great mountain and calls his servants to pay their debt; one stands and confesses he comes from a distant land of exile, amid many sins.
A certain lord was standing on a great mountain. He called his servants and said: Pay your debt. One of those servants was standing before him. But the other sat. And the one who was standing answered. Lord, I've come from a distant land of exile. There I learned a shifting variety of customs, amid many crimes and sins.
Repentance Honored Above All Loves
The standing servant repents out of love and fear, admitting he loved God's sun, moon, and stars; the Lord praises him and promises great honors without condemnation.
Alas, because I have let your precepts pass by like this! And so, through the fear of your love, I swear that I want to repent with my whole heart. And yet your sun— the moon and the stars in great honors I have always loved. And the Lord of him answered him. Good servant! Your answer, as the wheel surrounds me, I thus receive, saying— I who live without beginning and without end want to place you in great honors above all the things you have loved, and my own power will not condemn you!
The Sitting Servant's Accusation Against God
The servant who sat answers with scorn, accusing God's sun, moon, stars, dew, and rains of burdening him so that he could not look at God.
because through repentance you called me. But the servant who was sitting there! he answered with scorn. Your sun burned me. Your moon touched me. Your stars pressed in on me.1 The hairs of my head are stained with your dew. And your rains flooded over me.2
Condemnation of the Wicked Servant
The Lord rebukes the sitting servant as most wicked, questioning why he needs help when God created all things and why he responds so rashly.
And so, hindered by all these things, I couldn't look at you. So that I don't even know what I could say. And his lord answered him. You most wicked servant. When I made the sun, the moon, and the stars. Do you really need my help? And why aren't you ashamed, that you touch me so rashly in your responses?
Bound and Cast into Darkness
The wicked servant is condemned to be bound and cast into darkness until he renders account; Hildegard then calls the addressee a soldier of Christ and urges attention to the parable.
For this is what you've earned: that you should be bound hand and foot and cast into darkness.✦ Until you render an account of everything.✦ But you — you are a soldier of Christ.✦ Pay attention to this parable. This Lord is the God who keeps watch from that height. God must be called upon by everyone.✦ Here is how this one addresses people in his admonition. You must be judged by your deeds.✦
The Faithful Who Honor God
Some labor in divine honor while others grow sluggish; those who honor God confess their fallen state and vices, yet promise to abstain from sin for the glory of God's name.
But some people labor in divine honor. Yet some grow sluggish in the trouble of weariness. And those who honor God say: We have fallen into pilgrimage through the devil's suggestion in this case!3 And in our works we have contracted many vices. This transgression we shall lament with tears. For the glory of your name we promise: that we desire to abstain from our sins.
God's Praise and the Sluggish Who Complain
The incomprehensible Lord praises those who repent, but the sluggish complain that God's honor, justice, and writings have wounded and overwhelmed them.
Still, we have honored your honor, your justice, and the writings given through you, in love. And the Lord, who is incomprehensible, praises them. He has set them above many good things, and he does not condemn them. Because in their repentance they called upon him. But those who grow sluggish in weariness of divine things — they say, "Your honor has afflicted us." "Your justice has wounded us." "The sheer number of your writings has overwhelmed us."
Weariness That Cannot Look Upon God
The sluggish say the greenness of God's spirit and the outpouring of zeal have wearied them so they cannot look upon God or excuse themselves; the Lord judges them most wicked.
The pleasure of our mind — the greenness of your spirit — overturns it. And the outpouring of your zeal has wearied us. So much so that we cannot look upon you in joy. Nor are we able to excuse ourselves. And the Lord says that those servants are most wicked. And that in his justices he has not needed their help. He says also why they should not be ashamed — because they attack him in the recklessness of their words. Whence they both should be bound and sent into punishments!
Do Not Imitate the Servant Who Sits
Hildegard identifies the standing servant as the addressee, recalling that he did few good things in the world until the Holy Spirit's admonition turned him to the good.
while they shake out all their vices within themselves. But you, O soldier of Christ! Understand these things as applying to yourself as well. For the servant who was standing! means you. When you were in the world! you did few good things. But the admonition of the Holy Spirit shook you!
Hold Fast to God in Freedom
Hildegard warns the reader not to imitate the idle servant by scorning rule, authority, brotherly fellowship, or the Holy Spirit's warnings, but always to embrace God in good will and freedom of choice.
And it turns you toward the good. So be careful not to imitate the servant who sits idle. Don't say, 'I burn in the rule as in the sun.' And don't despise authority as if it were in the moon. And don't let yourself grow weary of your brothers' fellowship as though it were among the stars. And don't turn the Holy Spirit's warning into a mockery of your mind, as if it were dew. And don't disdain a rebuke as you would rain. But always embrace God in good will and in freedom of choice.
Embrace God and Live
Hildegard closes with a final promise: by embracing God and holding fast, the soldier of Christ shall live.
And by embracing Him, hold fast! And you shall live.
Read the original Latin
Hildegardis. Umbra misteriorum dei dicit. Uentus flat. et aer in uicissitudinem uadit et nubes complicantur. ita quod aliquando turbidę. nigrę. candidę. et purę sunt.
Sic tu o miles dei facis. Nam in seculari tristicia aliquando es ut in flante uento et in uoluptate multarum insidiarum diaboli quasi in uicissitudine aeris. atque in inquietis moribus tuis uelut in nubibus se complicantibus. ita quod mores tui interdum sunt. squalidi in turbedine. exterriti in nigredine. suaues in candore atque utiles in puritate. Unde audi.
Quidam dominus in monte magno stabat! et seruos suos uocauit dicens. Debitum uestrum reddite. Alter eorundem seruorum coram eo stabat. alter uero sedebat. Et qui stabat respondit. Domine de longinqua regione exilij ueni. ubi diuersam uicissitudinem morum in multis criminibus et peccatis didici.
O ue quod precepta tua sic preteriui. Vnde per timorem amoris tui iuro quod in omni corde meo penitere uolo. Sed tamen solem tuum. lunam et stellas in magnis honoribus semper amaui. Et dominus eius ipsi respondit. Serue bone! responsum tuum me circumeunte rota sic accipio dicens. Ego qui sine inicio et sine fine uiuo te in magnis honoribus supra omnia quę amasti ponere uolo nec mea possibilitas te condemnabit!
quia per penitentiam uocasti me. Seruus autem qui sedebat! sic dedignando respondit. Sol tuus me combussit. luna tua me tetigit. stellę tuę me compresserunt. capilli etiam capitis mei de rore tuo infecti sunt. et pluuię tuę super me inundauerunt.
et ideo ab his omnibus impeditus te inspicere non potui. unde etiam nescio quid dicere possim. Et dominus eius ipsi respondit. Nequissime serue. quando solem lunam et stellas constitui. num adiutorij tui indigui? Et quare non erubescis. quod me tam temere in responsis tuis tangis.
Nam pro hoc meruisti ut manibus et pedibus tuis ligeris et in tenebras mittaris. usque dum omnia reddas. At tu miles christi. parabolam istam adtende. Dominus iste deus est qui in altitudine illa uigilat. quod deus ab omnibus inuocandus est. Hic homines in admonitione sua sic alloquitur. De operibus uestris iudicari debetis.
Sed quidam in diuino honore laborant. quidam autem in molestia tedij torpescunt. Et qui deum honorant dicunt. De suggestione diaboli in casu adę in peregrinationem cecidimus! et in operibus nostris multa uicia contraximus. Quam transgressionem flebiliter plangemus. Propter gloriam nominis tui promittimus. quod a peccatis nostris nos abstinere desideramus.
Attamen honorem tuum iusticiam et scripturas per te datas uenerati sumus in dilectione. Et dominus qui incomprehensibilis est illos laudat. et supra multa bona constituit nec eos dampnat! quia ipsum penitendo inuocabant. Qui autem in tedio diuinorum torpescunt. dicunt: Honor tuus nos afflixit. iusticia tua nos uulnerauit. multitudo scripturarum tuarum nos suffocauit.
uoluptatem mentis nostrę uiriditas spiritus tui euertit. atque effusio zelus tui nos fatigauit. ita ut te in leticia inspicere non possimus. nec nos excusare ualemus. Et dominus illos dicit nequissimos seruos esse. et quod in iusticijs suis adiutorij eorum non indiguerit. Dicit etiam cur non erubescant quod ipsum in temeritate uerborum suorum inuadunt. unde et ligandi sint et in penas mittendi!
dum omnia uicia sua in semetipsis excutiant. Tu autem o miles christi! hęc etiam ad teipsum intellige. Nam seruus qui stabat! te significat. Cum enim in seculo fuisti! pauca bona fecisti. Sed admonitio spiritus sancti te concussit!
et ad bonum te conuertit. Unde caue ne sedentem seruum imiteris. scilicet ne dicas quod in regula sicut in sole ardeas. et ne magisterium quasi in luna contempnas. et ne de communione fratrum tuorum ut in stellis fatigeris. et ne admonitionem spiritus sancti in irrisionem mentis tuę quasi in rore inducas. et ne correptionem sicut in pluuia dedigneris. sed deum in bona uoluntate et optione semper amplectere.
et amplectendo retine! et uiues.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.22.13 — Then the king said to his servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
- ↩Matt.12.36;Rom.14.12 — But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they will give an account for it on the day of judgment. Rom.14.12 — So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
- ↩2Tim.2.3 — Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
- ↩Rom.10.12 — For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich toward all who call upon him.
- ↩Matt.16.27;Rev.20.12 — 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.20.12 — And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their works.
Notes
- 1 ↩The manuscript reads 'stell' and 'tu' (truncated); normalized to 'stellę tuę' (your stars). Translation follows the normalized reading.
- 2 ↩The manuscript reads 'pluui' and 'tu' (truncated); normalized to 'pluuię tuę' (your rains). Translation follows the normalized reading.
- 3 ↩The phrase 'in casu adę' is textually uncertain; 'adę' may be a scribal form. The translation follows the most plausible intended sense: the speakers acknowledge falling into a state of exile/pilgrimage through diabolical temptation.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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