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Chapter 96HildE.1.96

R96: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Abt A. von St. Martin in Köln

A Call to Shine with Love

Hildegard urges that works be done with the shining splendor of love and tested with discernment so that they may be reasonable.

Hildegard's response. Concerned with the living light! These are the words I heard. You are like a craftsman who casts many vessels. And he does not make them shine through fire. From this, learn that your works should not lack the splendor of love. But dig into them with discernment. So that each one of your works may be reasonable.

Streams of Living Teaching

Saints are described as streams from the living spring, and teachers are told to season instruction with a mother’s sweetness rather than harshness.

And let these things too be done in fasting and prayer and in the good custom of the saints. They were like streams flowing out from the living spring.✦ And they gave people food that they could swallow with joy. If indeed thorns are given instead of bread.✦ They cannot be eaten, even if harsh words are spoken by teachers to their students. They don't build anyone up. Instead, they lead them into error. A teacher ought to sift the words of his teaching through a mother's sweetness.✦

Grain, Law, and the Planters of the Church

The church’s teachers grind and divide the old and new law, since the old law prophesied Christ and Christ spread his word through preaching.

so that disciples, rejoicing, may open their mouths! and swallow them down. For what is to be ground, the grain grinds.1 and it divides this into many varieties. So also the planters of the church took up legal precepts from the old law and the new. For the old law, by prophesying, pointed to Christ the Lord who was to be born. But Christ himself sent out his word into all the earth by preaching. For what is to be ground — the old law is.2

Virginity, Obedience, and Bread for the Sons of God

Virginity is presented as the pure flour of spiritual life, bringing forth obedience, so obedient disciples are to be fed with pure bread while the disobedient receive harsh treatment.

which in Christ produced every grain of truth. And the pure flour that is sifted from every carnage is virginity. which is the substance of all spiritual life in the church. And it brings forth the offspring of obedience. Hence even the obedient are sons, the kiss of Christ's mouth. Let the teacher also hold obedient disciples in the embrace of love and not in the offense of anger, because they are the kiss of God. And they are to be fed with bread of pure flour. But to the disobedient sons.

Food for the Wise and the Fallen

The disobedient receive hard rebuke or even bran, but the wise are called to remember the saints, drink living water, and be peaceful in God.

Hard flour — that is, harsh rebuke — is what must be given. But for those who abandon obedience entirely, bran is what should be set before them. which is what those animals eat that lack understanding. But you — be wise. And hold fast to the memory of the holiness of those who ate manna. And drink from the streams of living water.✦✦ And be peaceful and God-fearing in God.

Flourishing in God’s Garden

Hildegard warns against abandoning the true sun for false ideals and false authorities, and calls the abbot to begin and complete his course in God, who calls him on two divinely established paths.

So that in his garden you may flourish with the greenness of other good spices, and flee the foolishness of those who abandon the sun they see.34 And they seek another whom they neither see nor can find. But also flee the new dyers.5 They wish to impose the law by their own authority.6 And they are not strong enough. Now then, begin in him who is!✦7 So that in him you may reach completion — he who was and who is to come.✦8 You are set upon two paths established by God.✦9

Two Ways and Three Powers

God calls the abbot in good knowledge and protects him from evil knowledge, as he walks the two ways and exercises the three human powers of understanding, sensuality, and bodily motion.

So it is that he himself calls you in good knowledge, and protects you from evil knowledge. For in these ways, works shine brightly. And there are many sufferings of tribulations and afflictions. when you raise yourself on the two wings of the knowledge of good and evil. Pay attention as well to the three powers that God placed in humanity. namely, understanding, sensuality, and the motion of the body. all of which are known to him, each according to its own capacity.

Held by God Between Spirit and Body

Held by God between the two ways and three powers, the abbot is told that God’s grace calls him and the Holy Spirit kindles him to love God and ascend in good works.

In these three powers, and in these two ways I spoke of before, God holds you. For through the Spirit of the Lord you see with your understanding, and through the body you feel evil things with your senses. You know both good and evil. You are both spiritual and bodily. The grace of God calls you through divine prompting, and the Holy Spirit kindles you with his fire, so that you may love God.

The Devil’s Black Suggestion

The devil’s suggestion draws away from love of God and breathes a black, deceitful shifting upon a person, especially when it denies God.

so that you may ascend to God with good works. But the devil's suggestion sometimes draws you away from God's admonishment and prevents you from loving God. and through its fire it shows you to be a human being. and because of this it also declares it impossible for you to do invisible things at times. For the devil's suggestion breathes a certain black and evil shifting upon a human being.10 when it denies God. Since the devil denies that God exists. it knows itself to be deceitful.

Knowing God by Knowing oneself

To know oneself is to know God, yet whoever denies God denies his own being, which is great foolishness for one who sees and knows himself.

Because when he knows himself to be, he knows God to be. But he himself has some share in the sin of humans being born. Through this he tears many to pieces in the flesh. For whoever says in his own heart that God is not!11 heaven and earth and all living things that are in God and with God. and denies that he himself is. It is great foolishness that a person who sees himself and knows himself.

Doubt, Victory, and Forbidden Desires

In doubt a person may say 'I am not,' yet without God even dust does not exist; such doubt can overcome the body and kill the devil, though the devil also instills many forbidden impulses.

In his doubt he says, 'I am not.' Because even a small speck of dust without God does not exist. But when a man is in this doubt, he overcomes his own body. In spiritual wickednesses too he kills the devil. Whence reward and crown before God and his angels. And before every heavenly host he will receive them. The devil's own inspiration also brings many forbidden things upon a man. Which a good knowledge is ashamed to speak of.

Empty Glory and the Torrent of Birth

The devil uses empty glory and the torrent of birth to draw people into sin, showing them many impossible things yet having no true power over them.

His plan, however, is that empty glory should draw a person in. Just as he did there, where he built a great ruin! By this he made the wheel of a person's birth go around like a torrent.12 His own fire is this too: that he knows the person — whom God made in his own image — he incites to many unlawful things. And so he also shows that person many impossible things in created things! But he himself has no power over them at all.

Self-Will Against God’s Law

From the devil come self-willed urges that turn God’s law into mockery, but the son of God is called to appear in the eye of knowledge, created for God’s victory.

It's from this source that he instills his own persuasive urges into a person. so that he carries out his own malice by deliberate choice! And in this way the path of God's law leads into mockery. so that each person might set up the law for himself as though he were God, through ownership of his own will. And this is deeply pleasing to him. because he wants to subject neither himself nor anyone else to God. But you, O son of God — God, who created you through the victory of his own warfare, wills you too —

Look at the Sun and the Moon

The abbot is told to look at the sun in faith and attend to the moon at night, so that the fear of the Lord may guard him when vices assail and he will live forever.

So that you may appear in the eye of your knowledge. because it will not abandon you. So look at the sun through faith. so that you may be a faithful servant. and attend to the moon in the night. When vices want to overwhelm you, so that the fear of the Lord may pass through all things in you. and you will not be harmed.

Promise of Life Forever

The letter closes with the promise that the faithful servant will live forever.

but you will live forever.

Read the original Latin

Responsvm hildegardis. De uiuente lumine! hęc uerba audiui. Tu fabro illi similis es qui multa uasa fundit. et ea fulgentia per ignem non facit. Hinc disce quod opera tua fulgore caritatis non careant. sed discretione ea circumfode. quatenus unumquodque opus tuum racionabile sit.

Et hęc quoque in abstinentia et oratione ac in bona consuetudine sanctorum fiant. qui de uiuo fonte uelut riuuli emanabant. et qui cibum hominibus dederunt quem in gaudio deglutire potuerunt. Si enim tribuli pro pane dantur. comedi non possunt ita etiam etiam si stridentia uerba per magistros discipulis dicuntur. ipsos non edificant. sed in errorem eos ducunt. Magister namque uerba doctrinę suę in materna dulcedine cribare debet.

ita ut discipuli gaudentes os suum aperiant! et illa deglutiant. Molendinum quippe granum molit. et hoc in multas uarietates diuidit! sic etiam plantatores ęcclesię ex ueteri et noua lege legalia precepta sumpserunt. Vetus enim lex christum domini nasciturum prophetando ostendit! sed ipse christus uerbum suum in omnem terram predicando emisit. Molendinum namque uetus lex est.

quę in christo omnem granum ueritatis protulit. et pura farina quę de omni strage cribratur uirginitas est. quę materies omnis spiritalis uitę in ęcclesia existit. et hęc prolem obedientię gignit! unde etiam obedientes filij osculum oris christi sunt. Magister quoque obedientes discipulos in amplexione caritatis et non in offensione irę habeat quia osculum dei sunt. et pane purę farinę pascendi sunt. Inobedientibus autem filijs.

dura farina id est aspera correptio danda est. Sed his qui obedientiam omnino relinqunt. furfures proponendę sunt. quę animalia illa comedunt quę intellectu carent. Tu autem prouidus esto. et memoriam sanctitatis illorum qui manna manducauerunt tene. et de riuulis aquę uiuę bibe. et pacificus et timoratus esto in deo.

quatenus in horto ipsius de uiriditate aliorum bonorum pigmentorum floreas et stulticiam illorum fuge qui solem quem uident relinquunt. et alium quem nec uident nec inuenire possunt querunt. Sed et nouos pigmentarios fuge. qui in proprietate sua legem ponere uolunt. et non preualent. Nunc ergo incipe in eo qui est! ut in illo finiaris qui erat et qui uenturus est. In duabus uijs a deo constitutus es.

ita quod ipse in bona scientia te uocat! et a mala scientia te protegit. In his enim uijs fulgentia opera. et multę passiones tribulationum et erumpnarum sunt. quando temetipsum per duas alas scientię boni et mali eleuas. Unde etiam tres uires adtende quas deus homini posuit. scilicet intellectum et sensualitatem et corporis motionem! quę omnia ipsi secundum possibilitatem suam nota sunt.

In istis tribus uiribus et in istis predictis duabus uijs! deus te habet. Nam per spiritum domini cum intellectu uides. et per corpus mala cum sensualitate sentis. Bonum enim et malum scis! et spiritalis et corporalis es. Gratia dei in admonitione te uocat. et spiritus sanctus igne suo te accendit ut deum diligas.

et ut cum bonis operibus ad deum ascendas. Sed suggestio diaboli interdum ab ammonitione dei te abstrahit et prohibet ne deum diligas. et per incendium suum te hominem esse ostendit! et propter hoc etiam declarat impossibile tibi esse quod inuisibilia interdum facias. Quandam enim nigram et malam uicissitudinem suggestio diaboli ad hominem flat. cum deum negat. Cum enim diabolus deum esse negat. se fallacem scit!

quia cum se esse scit. deum esse nouit. Ipse autem in peccato nascentium hominum aliquam partem habet! per quam multos in carne lacerat. Qui enim in corde suo deum non esse dicit! celum et terram et omnia uiuentia quę in deo et cum deo sunt. et seipsum esse negat. Magna autem insipientia est quod homo qui se uidet et se scit.

in dubietate dicit non sum. quia etiam paruus puluis absque deo non est. Sed cum homo in hac dubietate corpus suum superat. in spiritalibus etiam nequitijs diabolum occidit. unde premium et coronam coram deo et angelis eius. et coram omni celesti exercitu accipiet. Sufflatus quoque diaboli multa illicita homini infert. quę bona scientia dicere erubescit.

Consilium autem eius est quod uana gloria hominem adeat. sicut ibi fecit ubi magnam ruinam edificauit! qua rotam natiuitatis hominis torrenter circuire fecit. Incendium quoque suum est. quod hominem quem ad imaginem dei factum esse scit. ad plurima illicita prouocat. unde etiam in creaturis multa impossibilia ei ostendit! sed ipse nullam possibilitatem in eis habet.

Vnde persuasiones suas homini immittit. ut ipse maliciam suam in optione perficiat! et sic iter legis dei in irrisionem ducit. quatenus unusquisque homo legem quasi deus per proprietatem uoluntatis suę sibi ponat. Et hoc illi ualde placet. quoniam nec se nec alium deo subditum esse uult. Tu autem o fili dei. deus qui te creauit per uictoriam milicię suę te uult.

ut in oculo scientię suę appareas. quoniam te non derelinquet. Solem ergo per fidem aspice. ut fidelis seruus sis. et in nocte lunam adtende. quando uicia te opprimere uolunt. ita ut timor domini omnia in te pertranseat. et non lederis.

sed in eternum uiues.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.4.14 — but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst forever; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life
  2. ↩Matt.7.16 — You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?
  3. ↩1Thess.2.7 — but we became infants among you, as when a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children
  4. ↩John.7.38 — The one who believes in me, just as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within him.
  5. ↩Rev.22.1 — Then he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
  6. ↩Exod.3.14 — And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.'
  7. ↩Rev.1.8 — "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "the one who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
  8. ↩Deut.30.19 — I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, so that you may live, you and your descendants,

Notes

  1. 1 ↩'Molendinum' is a hapax-like adjectival noun (from molendinum, 'that which is to be ground'); the sentence is a riddling aphorism playing on the grain/mill imagery.
  2. 2 ↩'Molendinum' repeated as a riddling predicate: the old law is itself the thing-to-be-ground, i.e., the grain that Christ's preaching mills into varied precepts. The elliptical syntax (no explicit subject for 'est') is preserved.
  3. 3 ↩Viriditas is a Hildegardian technical term carrying senses of greenness, vitality, and spiritual freshness; rendered here as 'verdure' to preserve that resonance. Pigmentorum ('spices/dyes') is metaphorical, likely referring to spiritual gifts or virtues.
  4. 4 ↩The 'sun' (solem) is metaphorical for God or the true light, a common Hildegardian image.
  5. 5 ↩Pigmentarios ('dyers/pigment-makers') is metaphorical, likely referring to those who falsify or distort spiritual teaching.
  6. 6 ↩In proprietate sua rendered as 'by their own authority' to capture the sense of self-asserted domain or ownership.
  7. 7 ↩In eo qui est — 'in him who is' — echoes the divine self-revelation (Exodus 3:14, 'I AM').
  8. 8 ↩Finiaris rendered as 'reach completion' or 'be perfected,' carrying a sense of spiritual fulfillment and consummation in God.
  9. 9 ↩Duabus viis a deo constitutus es — the two paths are a traditional image of the way of life and the way of death, or the active and contemplative lives, established by divine ordinance.
  10. 10 ↩'flat' rendered 'breathes' (metaphorical); 'vicissitudinem' rendered 'shifting' to capture the sense of alternating suggestion.
  11. 11 ↩The exclamatory force of the Latin is rendered as an exclamation; the theological weight of denying God 'in one's heart' is preserved with 'heart' per lexeme policy for cor.
  12. 12 ↩torrenter is a rare/medieval form; rendered 'like a torrent' as the most plausible sense, but the image is uncertain.

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