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Chapter 38HildE.1.38

R38: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Gottfried von Rhenen

Called to Imitate God

Hildegard greets Gottfried as one called by God and urges him to imitate God, who creates, rules, and anoints all things through his Word, sanctifying humanity in water.

Hildegard's reply. O you, a person taken up and called by God. Cover him by imitating him, according to his own example!1 Because God builds all things. He rules. And he anoints. For Almighty God created the world through his Word. Whom he also rules.

From Creation to the Flood

Hildegard traces God's work from creation through the Fall to the cleansing of the earth by the Flood, leading to the rise of the saints, law, and prophets.

And all things in water he sanctifies the sins of humans by washing them away. For God indeed created all creatures and governed them. And he poured the human being over with them. Just as a craftsman makes his own vessels beautiful through fire. But then the splendid day turned aside into dark night through disobedience, in its fall upon itself! And because of this humans lived in sins and forgetfulness, as if God did not exist. Then God cleansed the whole earth through the waters of the flood from the grievous sins of humans. And so the saints and the law and the prophets arose.

The Son of God Comes in Obedience

Hildegard proclaims that the Son of God came in a time of injustice to redeem the world through obedience, baptism, and repentance, and warns Gottfried not to remain in childish ignorance of God.

But most recently the Son of God came. Yet it wasn't fitting that he should show up in a time of emptiness.2 In a time when he found no justice anywhere!3 Just as humanity itself was not created either. Before all creation had yet revealed him. And yet the Son of God came! In order to redeem the whole world through obedience, through the chrism of baptism, and through repentance. Now you, shepherd, act with foresight: don't be in the childish time of not knowing God.4

A Shepherd Must Act, Not Merely Sound

Hildegard urges Gottfried to stand among the just, pursue justice, guide his people according to God's will, and be virtuous in deed rather than empty in word, so that he may live forever.

But take your place in the time of the just and the holy, and in the revelation of the prophets. In your works, lay hold of justice.5 Just as God foresaw all things before they came to be.6 And guide your people according to his will.7 You too, offer help to the people in the place of Christ. Don't be like a trumpet that sounds but does not act.8 But be a good fragrance of virtues, so that you may live forever.9 And speak.

Praise, Precept, and the Episcopal Life

Hildegard calls Gottfried to bless God continually, praise him in all his ways, teach and meditate on divine precepts without weariness, and show God through faith, good works, and daily conduct.

I will exalt you, my God and king!✦ And I will bless your name forever and ever.✦ For when you understand that you sit in the episcopal chair— in all your ways praise God; in good works exalt him.✦ And without weariness, keep repeating his precepts to his people and chewing them over. Through faith, kiss him.✦ And in good works embrace him. In your good conduct as well, show God — your God — himself.

Rule Justly and Reverence God

Hildegard instructs Gottfried to rule his people rightly, anoint with mercy, refuse bribes, invoke God's name, and live all his days in reverent awareness that God is king.

And magnify him as a just king in his judgments. so that you may rightly rule your people. And anoint with mercy. And don't drag harmful guilt behind you. namely, that you not accept a bribe for justice! And so invoke his name. so that in all these things you may have reverence toward him, for he is king! And you will do this all the days of your life.

This Life Is Brief, the Next Is Forever

Hildegard closes by reminding Gottfried of the brevity of earthly life and the promise of eternal life in the age to come.

How long will you live in this world? So that afterwards you may live forever in the endless age to come.

Read the original Latin

Responsum hildegardis. O tu persona a deo sumpta et uocata es. quatenus secundum ipsum operis eum imitando! quoniam deus omnia edificat. regit. et ungit. Omnipotens enim deus per uerbum suum mundum creauit. quem etiam regit.

et omnia in aqua sanctificat peccata hominum abluendo. Deus namque omnes creaturas creauit et eas gubernauit. et hominem cum illis perfudit. quemadmodum faber uasa sua per ignem elegantia facit. Sed deinde preclarus dies in obscuram noctem per inobedientiam in casu adę se declinauit! et ob hoc homines in peccatis et obliuione quasi deus non esset uixerunt. Tunc deus omnem terram per aquas diluuij de criminalibus peccatis hominum mundauit. et sic sancti et lex et prophetę surrexerunt.

Nouissime autem filius dei uenit. quem non decebat ut in uacuo tempore adesset. in quo nullam iusticiam inueniret! sicut etiam homo creatus non est. antequam omnis creatura eum ostendebat. Sed et filius dei uenit! ut totum mundum per obedientiam per crisma baptismatis et per penitentiam redimeret. Nunc tu pastor prouide ne puerili tempore quod deum nescit sis.

sed esto in tempore iustorum et sanctorum et in ostensione prophetarum. in operibus tuis iusticiam apprehendens. sicut et deus omnia preuidit antequam illa operaretur. et secundum ipsum populum tuum rege. Tu etiam populo adiutorium in uice christi prebe. ne sis sicut tuba quę sonat et non operatur. sed esto bonus odor uirtutum ut in eternum uiuas. Et dic.

Exaltabo te deus meus rex! et benedicam nomini tuo in seculum et in seculum seculi. Nam quando intelligis quia in episcopali cathedra es. in omnibus uijs tuis deum lauda in bonis operibus eum exalta. et precepta eius populo sine tedio iterando rumina! per fidem eum osculare. et in bonis operibus eum amplectere. In bona etiam conuersatione deum tuum ipsum ostende.

et in iudicijs suis eum ut iustum regem magnifica. ita ut populum tuum recte regas. et cum misericordia unguas. et noxiale crimen post te non trahas. scilicet ne munus pro iusticia accipias! et sic inuoca nomen ipsius. ut in omnibus his timorem ad ipsum habeas quoniam rex est! et hoc omnibus diebus uitę tuę facies.

quousque in hoc seculo uiuis! quatenus postea in infinito seculo in eternum uiuas.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.144.1 — Of David. Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
  2. ↩Ps.144.2 — my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer for me, my shield; in him I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.
  3. ↩Prov.3.6 — In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
  4. ↩Ps.2.12 — Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is kindled quickly. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩operis is ambiguous between the noun 'work' (genitive of opus) and a verb form (2nd sg. pres. ind. act. of operio, 'you cover'). The gloss favors the verb reading 'you cover,' yielding an exhortation to cover/overlay the person by imitation; the noun reading would give 'you work by imitating him.' The verb reading is preferred as more coherent with the surrounding address.
  2. 2 ↩in uacuo tempore: 'in a time of emptiness' — the phrase carries the theological sense that the Son's coming required a meaningful moment, not a void. uacuus here signals spiritual emptiness or lack of preparation, not merely chronological vacancy.
  3. 3 ↩in quo: the antecedent is ambiguous — it could refer back to tempore ('in which time') or function loosely as a general locative ('in which state of affairs'). The rendering assumes a temporal reference to the same period of emptiness.
  4. 4 ↩prouide ... ne puerili tempore quod deum nescit sis: the syntax is compressed. prouide is likely an imperative ('act with foresight / provide'), and the ne-clause warns against remaining in a state of childlike ignorance of God. The ablative puerili tempore is taken as an ablative of state or condition rather than a strict temporal reference.
  5. 5 ↩apprehendens: rendered as an imperative ('lay hold of') matching the surrounding imperative mood of the passage; could also be read as a participle ('seizing').
  6. 6 ↩illa: referent uncertain; likely refers to 'all things' (omnia) or an abstract feminine noun. operaretur: rendered as 'came to be' to capture the sense of God's foreknowledge preceding all action.
  7. 7 ↩ipsum: referent uncertain; likely God or Christ. Rendered as 'his' to preserve ambiguity.
  8. 8 ↩et before non operatur: rendered adversatively as 'but' rather than additively, matching the sense of the contrast.
  9. 9 ↩odor uirtutum: metaphorical; 'fragrance of virtues' preserves the biblical image of a sweet smell offered to God (cf. Eph 5:2, Phil 4:18).

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