R232: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Kanoniker H. von Utrecht
The Fall and the Garment
Hildegard traces how God's anger at the serpent's words led to the shaming of good knowledge in Adam and to God's searching call, 'Adam, where are you?'
Hildegard. God was angered in the tree. on account of the serpent's wicked words.✦ Then, in the beautiful form in which God had created man,✦ the good knowledge in him was put to shame.✦ on account of the evil desire he had coveted.✦ And so, as if on a foreign road, God called out to him.✦ Adam, where are you?✦
Rise in the Tunic of God
Hildegard proclaims that God clothed humanity in his own humanity and now urges mortals to rise swiftly through penance and wrap themselves in the tunic of God.
And he gave him a garment, saying this to himself: Through the tunic of my humanity! I want to seek you. And afterward, in his holy humanity, he recreated humanity anew. So that when it yields, through penance it may rise again in the humanity of God. Therefore rise up more swiftly, you mortal. And wrap yourself more swiftly in the tunic of God!
Flee and I Will Pray for You
Hildegard exhorts the hearer to flee the devil and promises that in prayer she will intercede so that he may live.
And flee from the devil. And in the outpouring of prayer, when my soul looks toward God. I will gladly pray for you. And you will live.
Read the original Latin
Hildegardis. Deus in arbore offensus est. propter maliciosa uerba serpentis. Tunc in pulcra formatione qua deus hominem creauerat. bona scientia in ipso erubuit. propter malam concupiscentiam quam ille concupierat. Et ideo quasi in aliena uia deus illi clamauit. adam ubi es.
et uestitum dedit ei sic in seipso dicens. Per tunicam humanitatis meę! te requirere uolo. Et postea in sancta humanitate sua hominem denuo recreauit. ita ut cum cediderit. per penitentiam in humanitate dei resurgat. Vnde tu homo uelocius surge. et in tunicam dei te uelocius inuolue!
et a diabolo fuge. Et in effusione orationis meę quando anima mea ad deum aspicit. libenter pro te orabo. Et uiues.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.5 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
- ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Gen.2.17 — but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.
- ↩Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
- ↩Gen.3.9 — And the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
- ↩Gen.3.9 — And the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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