R236: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Priester C.
The Vision of the Sacrament
Hildegard introduces a true vision concerning the Lord's Body, contemplating God's unchanging divinity before and through eternity.
Hildegard. On the Body and Blood of Christ. In a true vision, with waking eyes, I saw and heard these words concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Body. God — what He was, He remained. And what He was not, He took on. What He is. Divinity, as it was before eternity. So in eternity it remained.
The Wheel of Incarnation
Using the image of an undivided wheel, Hildegard describes the Son's incarnation as the fulfillment of what was hidden in the Father's heart before eternity.
It is like a wheel that has not been divided. But the incarnation of the Son had not yet appeared as flesh and blood. What had been predestined lay hidden in the heart of the Father before eternity. But at the time when it was predestined, the Son put on flesh. And he girded himself with the strength of his own might, just as it is written. The Lord has clothed himself with strength!✦
The Virgin's Humility and Overshadowing
The angel's announcement to the Virgin reveals humility as the foundation through which the Holy Spirit visited her uniquely.
and she girded herself. And the angel himself announced the garments of the holy Incarnation to the simplicity of the virgin. In this she found the foundation of humility. just as God established this, because she named herself the handmaid of the Lord.✦ where the same angel spoke to her. 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'✦ For the Holy Spirit visited her more excellently than all human knowledge. namely, pouring himself into her in another way than he would ever be poured into any woman giving birth.
From Womb to Altar
The same divine power that worked in the Virgin's womb now transforms bread and wine into Christ's flesh and blood at the altar.
and the power of the Most High overshadowed her.✦ because in its heat it thus traced her out.1 so that in its sweetest overshadowing it might wipe away from her every fervor of sin entirely. just as a person seeks shade on account of the heat of the sun. And so the same power of the Most High that worked flesh in the womb of the Virgin over the altar, at the words of the priest, converts the offering of bread and wine into the Sacrament of flesh and blood! cherishing it by its own power. Whence also the nativity.
Healing in Christ's Wounds
In the Sacrament, sinners wounded by Adam are healed, cleansed, and incorporated into Christ's members until the end of time.
the Passion. the burial. The resurrection and ascension of the Son of the heavenly Father are made present in that same Sacrament. Just as the face stamped on a coin shows its lord, and this is so because the wounds of those who, wrapped up in Adam's transgression, are always sinning, enveloped in their sins.✦ in the wounds and in the blood of Christ may they be healed, cleansed, and anointed.✦✦ and so may they become his members.✦ And this will be so right up to the last day.
Light and Darkness at the Altar
Faithful communicants are illuminated by the sacrament, while unworthy priests still mediate divine power, and the righteous shine above the sun.
And I saw again! For if a priest, because of the many rotten scars of his own sins, lacks the dignity of holiness,2 yet if he hasn't been bound by the restraint of his superior master,3 the power of the Most High works its own miracles in that very offering! And all who faithfully receive the same Sacrament from his hand are illuminated as if by a ray of the sun. But if that one is righteous in faith and deed, his soul is illuminated above the sun's radiant splendor.
Warning Against Schism
Those who bring deception and schism into the sacred offering are like the fallen angels and perish unless they repent tearfully.
But everyone who, following the ancient serpent's counsel, brings deception and division into this most sacred offering are like the lost angels. who denied God to be one in his own honor. since they wanted to be like that one! And so these men wish to carry out their own willfulness through these sacraments. For this reason they perish along with them. unless they turn to God through confession of sins, through their repentance, and through a tearful voice, saying: Alas, alas, for we have sinned.
God's Mercy and the Error of the Sadducees
God receives the repentant as he received those who wounded his Son, while the Sadducees err gravely by denying the resurrection of life.
Then God the Father receives them, just as he received those who wounded his Son unknowingly. This Sacrament and the resurrection of life. Sadducees, who err in everything, who in this way shamelessly deny by erring. just as that man would err who said that flesh without spirit and spirit without flesh are a human being, which in no way can be. And so these people are worse than all who err. since the least creature that was made by God is not brought to completion by only one word!
Body, Soul, and the Seasons of Life
Just as winter and summer sustain each other, the failing body gives way to a soul that remains in unfailing life wherever it may be.
How could a human being who grasps the whole of creation be defined by a single word? For winter dries up. but summer flourishes. Yet winter keeps its greenness for summer. until it brings forth its own shoots in fullness. So it is with body and soul. The body fails. But the soul remains in unfailing life. In whatever place it may be.
Read the original Latin
Hildegardis. De corpore et sanguine christi. In uera uisione uigilantibus oculis de sacramento dominici corporis hęc uerba uidi et audiui. Deus id quod fuit permansit. et quod non erat assumpsit. Quod est. Diuinitas ut ante euum fuit. ita in eternitate permansit.
uelut rota diuisa non est. sed incarnatio filij nondum caro et sanguis apparuit. quę ante euum in corde patris predestinata latuit. Tempore autem illo quo predestinatum fuit. filius carnem induit. et ui fortitudinis suę se precinxit! quemadmodum scriptum est. Indutus est dominus fortitudinem!
et precinxit se. Et ipsa indumenta sanctę incarnationis angelus simplicitati uirginis nuntiauit. in qua fundamentum humilitatis inuenit. sicut deus illud posuit quia ancillam domini se nominauit. ubi idem angelus ad eam dixit. Spiritus sanctus superueniet in te et uirtus altissimi obumbrabit tibi. Nam spiritus sanctus omni humanę scientię superexcellentius eam uisitauit. alio scilicet modo se illi infundens quam umquam ulli feminę in pariendo infunderetur.
et uirtus altissimi illam obumbrauit. quoniam in calore suo ipsam ita deliniuit. ut ei omnem feruorem peccati in dulcissima obumbratione sua ex toto abstergeret. uelut homo propter estum solis umbram querit. Itaque eadem uirtus altissimi quę in utero uirginis carnem operata est. super altare ad uerba sacerdotis oblationem panis et uini in sacramentum carnis et sanguinis conuertit! uirtute sua illud fouens. Vnde et natiuitas.
passio. sepultura. resurrectio ascensioque filij superni patris in eodem sacramento apparent. uelut circulus nummi dominum suum ostendit. et hoc ideo fit quia uulnera hominum qui in preuaricatione adę inuoluti in peccatis semper peccantes sunt. in uulneribus et in sanguine christi sanentur abstergantur atque unguantur. et sic membra ipsius efficiantur. et hoc usque ad nouissimum diem erit.
Et iterum uidi! quod si etiam sacerdos propter multas putredines cicatricum peccatorum suorum dignitate sanctitatis caret. si tamen per ligaturam superioris magistri ligatus non est. uirtus altissimi miracula sua in eadem oblatione operatur! et omnes qui idem sacramentum de manu eius fideliter accipiunt. quasi radio solis illuminantur. si autem ille fide et opere iustus est. anima ipsius super radiantem fulgorem solis illustratur.
Sed omnes qui per consilium antiqui serpentis illusiones et scismata in hac sacratissima oblatione faciunt. similes perditis angelis sunt. qui deum in honore suo unum esse negauerunt. cum similes illi esse uoluerunt! ita et homines isti proprietatem uoluntatis suę per sacramenta hęc perficere uolunt. quapropter etiam cum illis pereunt. nisi per confessionem peccatorum et per penitentiam eorum ac per lacrimabilem uocem ad deum currant dicentes! ach ach quia peccauimus.
Tunc deus pater suscipit eos! sicut illos suscepit qui filium suum ignoranter uulnerauerunt. Hoc sacramentum resurrectionemque uitę. saducei qui per omnia errant. hoc modo proterue errando negant. uelut homo ille erraret qui carnem sine spiritu et spiritum sine carne hominem esse diceret quod nullo modo esse potest. ideoque isti omnibus errantibus peiores sunt. quoniam cum minima creatura quę a deo facta est solummodo uno uocabulo non perficiatur!
quomodo homo qui omnem creaturam comprehendit. uno uocabulo diffiniri posset? Hiemps enim arescit. estas uero floret. sed tamen hiemps estati uiriditatem suam retinet. donec ipsa grossos suos in plenitudine proferat. Sic sunt corpus et anima. Corpus deficit!
anima autem in indeficienti uita permanet. in quacumque parte sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.93.1 — The LORD reigns, robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
- ↩Luke.1.38 — And Mary said, 'Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her.
- ↩Luke.1.35 — And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the one to be born will be called Son of God."
- ↩Luke.1.35 — And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the one to be born will be called Son of God."
- ↩Rom.5.12 — Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, and so death spread to all people, because all sinned—
- ↩1Pet.2.24 — He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness — by whose wounds you were healed.
- ↩Ps.51.2 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
- ↩1Cor.12.27 — Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.
Notes
- 1 ↩deliniare is a rare verb; the gloss 'traced out' captures the sense of delineating or sketching, fitting the mystical imagery of divine heat impressing itself upon the soul.
- 2 ↩putredines cicatricum peccatorum rendered as 'rotten scars of sins' — vivid Hildegardian imagery of sin's corruption lingering like festering wounds.
- 3 ↩ligatura superioris magistri — 'the binding/restraint of the superior master' — likely refers to ecclesiastical or monastic authority restraining the priest; 'master' may be Christ or a spiritual superior.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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