R98: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Propst R. von Zwettl
The Burden of Restless Brooding
Hildegard diagnoses a brooding desire for rest that refuses the work of obedience and complains under its burden.
Hildegard's response. In your mind, brooding, you pile up burdens. You want to rest and find relief from every burden of work, and yet you don't lift your hand to do the work of your master. But with your teeth gnashing inside yourself, you say: Everything stands against me, contradicting me. I can't bear it. For this time is like the time of the sons of Israel, when their leaders labored greatly as they taught them the precepts of God.
God Never Leaves His Teachers Without Help
Spiritual leaders may sin, yet God has never abandoned them, sending the immaculate and supreme Teacher.
But they themselves, by despising God, looked into the pit of their own nature. This also now happens among the sons of Israel — that is, among the spiritual people who are in the contemplation of God. But however the sons of Israel may have sinned — God has never forsaken them to be without a teacher. The immaculate Teacher also came most recently.✦ In his humanity he wounded every iniquity. And he was the most powerful of all. Because no one like him has ever appeared.
The Example Left to Those Who Teach
Hildegard calls attention to Christ’s suffering and warns teachers to examine themselves so that neither they nor their charges are found culpable.
But think about what that one endured from the unjust, and what sort of example he left for those who teach! Pay attention. But you say to yourself, I can't accomplish any good in them. So look back at yourself.1 And see how you bear them and how you sustain them! That way they won't be blamed along with you. And that you yourself won't be found culpable along with them.
Loving Justice, Not Sharing With Iniquity
Whoever loves justice and opposes iniquity has no part with it, even if disciples do not listen.
But whoever loves justice and afflicts iniquity has no part with it in anything. Even if his disciples don't listen to him, he is just. For Christ gathered his beloved and chosen ones, even though he was welcomed by everyone. Let it not be so. Look into yourself as well, with the circumcision of God's justice! As it is written.
Golden Fringes of a Gentle Heart
Hildegard urges gentleness and mildness of mind and heart, clothing correction in golden fringes of wise love.
From within, in golden fringes! Clothed all around in variety. This is. In your mind and in your heart, be gentle and mild. And let this too be done in golden fringes. so that you may wisely do these things by spreading them abroad. and when you rebuke your subjects with the cutting edge of justice. holding love with that variety.
Winds of Rebuke and Mercy
The winds represent different forces of reproof, support, flattery, and tempering in pastoral correction.
so that you may scatter it everywhere! just as the winds are divided in their own strengths. The North Wind strikes and doesn't spare anyone. But another wind, in some ways similar to that one, sustains it. Another wind, however, meets these with flattery. But another tempers them all. The North Wind is firm reproof, in which a certain anger lies hidden.
Discreet, Merciful, and Burning Winds
One wind reproves justly, another teaches mercy, and the burning wind of love tempers and distinguishes them all.
But another wind sustains it with severity and discretion, so that a person may justly be rebuked. However, a wind that inclines more toward them teaches a person to be merciful and pious. so that in themselves they may remember another person to be, and so this wind is the eye of those same winds. But a burning wind tempers all those winds with love, and it divides and distinguishes.
Standing Firm Without Falling Into Sin
Severe reproof must stand firm in righteousness, not fall as Satan fell, fulfilling the scriptural call to be angry and not sin.
That is, the north wind must not fall with a falling sickness— as Satan fell, but so that he might stand firm in uprightness. and so that that wind which is severe— might stand firm in the steadfastness of just vengeance.2 As it is written: Be angry! and do not sin.✦ This is it.
Measured Anger Like a Father’s Rod
Anger must not consent to iniquity or crush a person, but be tempered like a loving father’s correction.
Anger ought to be of such a kind. Let it not be joined to iniquity by consenting! And let it not trample the whole person down under a hateful charge. And so that wind is gentler too. Tempered by that burning wind already mentioned. Let it persist with measured correction. As that one does who strikes his own son with a rod!✦ Whom nevertheless he loves.
Temper Yourself and Receive the Spirit’s Fire
Hildegard exhorts self-correction, discernment, and the fear of God so that vices flee and the fire of the Holy Spirit burns within.
In this way, temper yourself. Separate and discern. In faith and in the fear of God, correct yourself. Then the mocking of vices and the clouding of restless ways will be put to flight from you.34 And the fire of the Holy Spirit will burn in you.
Read the original Latin
Responsvm hildegardis. In mente tua cogitando exaggeras. quod de unoquoque labore quiescere et desistere uelis. et sic manum tuam ad operandum opus magistri tui non leuas. sed frementibus dentibus intra te dicis. Omnia quę mihi contradicendo aduersantur. sustinere non possum. Tempus enim istud tempori filiorum israel simile est quo illorum prepositi precepta dei eos instruendo ualde laborabant!
sed ipsi in lacum proprietatis eorum deum contempnendo aspexerunt. Hoc etiam nunc in filijs israel scilicet in spiritali populo qui in contemplatione dei est contingit. Sed filij israel quomodocumque peccauerint! deus numquam eos sine magistro esse dereliquit. Magister etiam immaculatus nouissime uenit. qui in humanitate sua omnem iniquitatem uulnerauit. et qui super omnes potentissimus fuit. quia nullus ei similis apparuit.
Sed quid ille ab iniustis passus sit et quale exemplum magistris reliquerit! adtende. Tu autem intra te dicis. Nullum bonum in ipsis perficere possum. Unde in teipsum respice. et quomodo eos portes et sustineas uide! ita ut nec ipsi tecum culpentur. nec tu cum illis culpabilis sis.
Qui uero iusticiam diligit et iniquitatem affligit. nec ei in ullo communicat. etiamsi a discipulis non audiatur. iustus est. Christus enim dilectos et electos suos collegit quamuis a cunctis hominibus receptus. non sit. In teipsum etiam respice cum circumcinctione iusticię dei! ut scriptum est.
Ab intus in fimbrijs aureis! circumamicta uarietate. Hoc est. In animo et in corde tuo mansuetus et mitis esto. et hoc quoque in fimbrijs aureis fiat. ita ut hęc dilatando sapienter facias. et cum circumcinctione iusticię subditos tuos corripias. caritatem cum uarietate illa habens.
ut eam ubique spargas! quemadmodum uenti in uiribus suis diuisi sunt. Aquilo namque percutit et nullo modo parcit. sed alius uentus isti in aliquo similis est qui eum sustinet. Alius uero uentus his in blandimento obuius est. sed alius omnes eos temperat. Aquilo enim firma correptio est. in qua quedam ira latet.
sed quidam alius uentus eum cum seueritate et discretione sustentat. ut homo iuste corripiat. Uentus autem qui ipsis decliuior est. hominem misericordem et pium esse docet. ita ut in seipso alium etiam hominem esse recordetur. et ita uentus iste oculus eorundem uentorum est. Sed ardens uentus omnes uentos istos cum caritate temperat. et diuidit ac discernit.
scilicet ne aquilo cum cadente morbo cadat. sicut satan cecidit sed ut in rectitudine perseueret. et ut ille uentus qui seuerus est. in constantia iustę uindictę consistat. quomodo scriptum est. Irascimini! et nolite peccare. Hoc est.
Ira talis esse debet. ne iniquitati societur consentiendo! et ne hominem odibili crimine totum conculcet. Vnde et lenior uentus ille. predicto ardente uento temperatus. cum discreta correptione persistat. ut ille facit qui filium suum cum uirga percutit! quem tamen diligit.
Tali modo teipsum tempera. diuide et discerne. in fide et in timore dei te corripe. tunc ioculatrix uiciorum et obnubilatio inquietorum morum a te fugabuntur. et ignis spiritus sancti in te ardebit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Heb.1.2;1Cor.15.8 — God appointed him heir of all things, and through him also made the ages. 1Cor.15.8 — And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
- ↩Ps.4.5 — Be angry, and do not sin; speak in your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.
- ↩Prov.13.24 — Whoever withholds the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Notes
- 1 ↩Unde rendered as 'so' (consequential) rather than 'from where' (spatial/origin), following the logical flow of the argument.
- 2 ↩The source reads 'iustę uindictę' with truncated endings, likely for 'iustae uindictae'; translated on that intended sense.
- 3 ↩Ioculatrix is a rare/coined form; rendered as 'mocking' to capture the sense of a personified scorn or jesting associated with vices.
- 4 ↩Obnubilatio rendered as 'clouding' — a darkening or obscuring of character by restless habits.
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