R228: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Mönch T. von Ebrach
God's Hidden Face and Healing Scourges
Hildegard assures the monk that God has not abandoned him, that suffering is God's will, and that divine consolation and grace will return to his soul.
A reply from Hildegard. I see that God doesn't hide his face from you. But when he binds you with his scourges, it's just as he wills. And also, a great light of God's consolation will come into your soul and into the joy of your body whenever he wills it. God also lives in your earthly dwelling. And his grace in you hasn't been clouded over. And so you will be praiseworthy before God in your soul, even though you doubt this. Because a victorious person is beloved by their Lord.
The Earth, Weeds, and the Gentle Wind
Hildegard uses the image of fruitful earth overrun by weeds and a moderating wind that weakens the weeds without harming the fruit to convey a mystical spiritual teaching.
But it also speaks of a mystical light. The earth, with its richness of bringing forth growth, produces many fruits! But darnel and other useless weeds keep forcing their way in among them. Yet at times a certain moderating force of some wind rises over this earth — whose power is such that it causes the useless weeds to be weakened. And yet it does not harm the useful fruits. Now listen.
Grace Warns the Capable but Wayward
Hildegard warns that even naturally gifted people can fall into useless works, but God's grace admonishes them through contrition or infirmity so they may do good, and she prays God's dew upon the monk for eternal life.
Some people, well suited to every task by the richness of their own nature, into this fullness of knowledge he intermingles certain useless works through the pleasure of the flesh. But the admonition of God's grace sometimes warns these people, either through contrition of mind or through the sadness of bodily infirmity and through similar things, so that they may avoid evils and do good deeds. Understand these things as applying to you. May God therefore pour the dew of heaven upon you✦ and you will live forever.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Uideo quod deus faciem suam a te non abscondit! sed cum flagellis suis te constringit sicut ipsi placet. et etiam magnum lumen consolationis dei in animam tuam et in gaudium corporis tui cum ipse uoluerit uenturum. Deus etiam in tabernaculo tuo uiuit. nec gratia eius in eo obnubilata est! unde et ante deum in anima tua laudabilis eris quamuis de hoc dubites! quoniam uictoriosus uir domino suo amabilis est.
Sed et misticum lumen dicit. Terra quę pinguedinem germinandi habet multos fructus profert! sed lolium et ceterę inutiles herbę se multociens his ingerunt. Aliquando autem quędam temperantia cuiusdam uenti super hanc terram ascendit. cuius uis talis est. quod inutiles herbas debilitari inducit. et tamen utiles fructus non ledit. Nunc audi.
Quidam homines qui in pinguedine naturę suę ad quęque idonei sunt. huic plenitudini scientię quedam inutilia opera per uoluptatem carnis intermiscet. Sed admonitio gratię dei aliquando hos monet aut per contritionem mentis. aut per tristiciam corporalis infirmitatis et per similia ut mala deuitent. et bona opera faciant. Hęc ad te intellige. Deus ergo rorem de celo tibi infundat. et in eternum uiues.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.27.28;Hos.14.5 — May God give you of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and abundance of grain and new wine. Hos.14.5 — I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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