R30: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Konrad I. von Worms
Christ's Deputy and the Shepherd's Care
Hildegard addresses Konrad as one seated on Christ's chair, charged with ruling God's flock under the light of divine justice and the virtues, and prays that the Creator who spoke on the first day may grant him the sustenance of the good shepherd.
Hildegard's reply. You're a person sitting on Christ's chair! and you hold an iron rod in your hand to rule his sheep. Look at the sun of justice and at the many stars that are the kinds of virtues.1 so that you don't fail in the food of life, because the good shepherd is the one who always flourishes in good works! and who feeds his sheep in upright greenness. May he grant this to you, he who sounded on the first day. and in whose word all creation proceeded.
The Trumpet of God and the Soul as God's Dwelling
Hildegard moves from the last trumpet that will raise all humanity to the truth that the righteous are God's tabernacle, because God dwells in them through the fiery rational soul, and the one justified by works builds the heavenly city without neglecting God's law.
And who will sound the trumpet on the last day?✦ So that he will raise up all the children of humanity.✦ For certain people, living righteously, are the tabernacle of God!✦ Because God dwells in them.✦ A person, you see, is a building of God, in which he himself has a dwelling place.✦2 Because he sent a fiery soul into that person, which flies with rationality in expansion.3 Just as a wall encompasses the width of a house. But also the one who through the precepts of God has been justified in his own works — in which he has not neglected the law of God.✦4
Building the Heavenly Jerusalem
Hildegard exhorts Konrad to cut away self-will so that he may become a precious stone adorned in the highest Jerusalem, rather than falling away from the holy building by living according to the flesh.
She builds the heavenly Jerusalem. But the one who works according to the flesh and not according to the spirit will fall away from the holy building. But whoever cuts away the ownership of his own will from himself! She adorns the heavenly building with pearls and precious stones and the finest gold. Therefore, make yourself such that you may become a precious stone! And you will be adorned in the highest Jerusalem.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Tu persona es sedens super cathedram christi! et uirgam ferream in manu tua habes ad regendum oues suas. Aspice ad solem iusticię et ad plurimas stellas quę sunt genera uirtutum. ut non deficias in cibo uitę quia bonus pastor est qui semper in bonis operibus floret! et qui in recta uiriditate oues suas pascit. Hoc tibi ille det qui in prima die sonuit. et in cuius uerbo omnis creatura processit.
et qui in nouissimo die tuba canet. ita quod omnes filios hominum suscitabit. Nam quidam homines iuste uiuentes tabernaculum dei sunt! quia deus in eis habitat. Homo enim edificium dei est in quo ipse mansionem habet. quoniam igneam animam in illum misit quę cum racionalitate in dilatatione uolat. quemadmodum murus latitudinem domus comprehendit. Sed et qui per precepta dei in operibus suis iustificatus est in quibus legem dei non neglexit.
celestem ierusalem edificat. qui uero secundum carnem operatur et non secundum spiritum de sancta edificatione cadet. Qui uero proprietatem uoluntatis suę de se abscidit! celeste edificium cum margaritis et preciosis lapidibus et optimo auro ornat. Tu itaque te talem fac ut lapis preciosus fias! et in summa ierusalem orneris.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.15.52;1Thess.4.16 — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet—for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1Thess.4.16 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- ↩John.5.28-John.5.29;1Cor.15.22 — Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice John.5.29 — and they will come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. 1Cor.15.22 — For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
- ↩1Cor.3.16;2Cor.6.16 — Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 2Cor.6.16 — What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.'
- ↩1Cor.3.16-1Cor.3.17;John.14.23 — Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1Cor.3.17 — If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person. For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple. John.14.23 — Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'
- ↩1Cor.3.9;Eph.2.19-Eph.2.22 — For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. Eph.2.19 — So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Eph.2.20 — built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone Eph.2.21 — in whom the entire building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; Eph.2.22 — in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
- ↩Jas.2.24;Matt.7.24-Matt.7.27 — You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Matt.7.24 — Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matt.7.25 — And the rain came down, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Matt.7.26 — And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be compared to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Matt.7.27 — And the rain fell, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and struck that house, and it fell — and its collapse was great.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'genera uirtutum' could mean 'kinds of virtues' or 'ranks of virtues'; 'kinds' is chosen as the more natural reading.
- 2 ↩Rendered 'enim' as 'you see' to capture its explanatory force in a natural contemporary register rather than the stiffer 'for'.
- 3 ↩'Ignem animam' rendered as 'fiery soul' preserves Hildegard's distinctive imagery of the soul as fire-like. 'In dilatatione' is rendered as 'in expansion' to capture the sense of the soul's rational capacity spreading outward.
- 4 ↩'Sed et' rendered as 'but also' to capture both the adversative 'sed' and the additive 'et' — the sense is that in addition to the preceding point, this further group is included.
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