VISIO NONA, cap. VII
The Lord's Mercy and the Hidden Face
God declares His sovereign mercy and reveals to Moses that no mortal can see His face, promising instead to shelter him in the rock and show only His back.
“I will show you all good, and I will be called by the name of the Lord in your presence, and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it pleases me.”✦ “And again he said: ‘You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.’”✦ “And again: ‘Look,’ he says, ‘there is a place by me; you will stand on the rock.’”✦ “And when my glory passes by, I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my right hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back.”✦
The Inner Meaning of God's Self-Revelation
The vision is interpreted: God promises to show the blessedness of eternal life to the pure in heart, explains why sinful humanity cannot behold His face, and describes how He spoke through prophets in shadow rather than in unveiled light.
The meaning of this statement is to be understood in this way: I, who am the Lord of all, because I exist through myself, will show you—who worship me with a pure heart—the blessedness of eternal life, which is all that is good. And I will be called Lord in your presence, I who am the creator of all creatures, when you, Israel, see the tunic of my Son, which I promised to Adam when I called him by his name, and when I gave him a dark garment because he was dark. Because of this, no human being burdened by human sins can see my face as long as they are mortal, because through the devil's suggestion they are black from the blackness of the north wind; and just as all bright things are turned away from the north wind, so the brightness of the true light withdrew from Adam when he looked toward the north wind through the counsel of the ancient serpent.1 Therefore, because no mortal has been able to perfectly behold my glory, I showed my miracles by speaking through my prophets, who spoke in shadow—which was formed from light—but was darker than its own light, just as every shadow is darker than the substance from which it proceeds.
Christ Clothed in Humanity and the Hardness of Unbelief
The Son of God came veiled in human flesh so that His divine glory was hidden from those who saw only a man; many doubted and hardened their hearts, yet God shelters a great multitude until His wonders pass by and His saving work is revealed.
The sun too and the moon and all the stars were darkened to the human eye, so that no one could see their bare brightness; and every breath of wind was hidden from sight for the one who would look, and so it was spoken as if in shadow, as was foretold: “Tell us if you are the one who is to reign over the people of Israel.”✦ For the Holy Spirit, prophesying among his people, declared through the first calling by which Adam was called that a liberator of humanity was yet to come.✦ Then the Son of God came clothed in humanity, whose divine glory people could not behold when they looked on him as merely another human being; yet he showed himself to them walking by a path other than the one people live by, namely without any taste of sin, eating and drinking, sleeping and clothing himself, bearing no stain of wrongdoing.✦ But the Jews and many others who saw him doubted that he was the Son of God, and in this they clouded their own understanding, nor did they grasp his wonders in faith; instead they were turned into the hardness of rock, just as a serpent hides in a crevice of stone.✦ Yet with his own right hand he will secure a great multitude of Jews and pagans, together with a countless host of those to be saved, until all his wonders have passed by, and then he will raise the hand of his great work and show his back to all his friends, so that everyone may know how he fought against the devil.✦
The Lament of Israel and the Promise of Psalm 92
Israel will at last trust the One whose wonders it once fled, tasting His sweetness like honey and milk, and crying out in compunction over its long deception, as the words of David's psalm about the Lord's wonderful upheavals are fulfilled.
And then, O Israel, you will trust confidently in him whose wonders you fled, just as Adam fled the glory of eternal life by not believing in him; and he will then be under your tongue like a honeycomb, and like the food of milk in the display of his works, which you will gather to yourself, and you will lay hold of them with your arm, saying with a plaintive voice: “Ah, ah, how long have we been deceived!”✦✦ And so what was written through my inspiration will be fulfilled: Likewise, the words of David from Psalm 92, where it says, “Wonderful are the upheavals of the sea, wonderful on high is the Lord,” and how this ought to be understood.✦
Read the original Latin
« Ostendam omne bonum tibi, et vocabor in nomine Domini coram te, et miserebor cui voluero, et clemens ero in quem mihi placuerit. » Rursumque ait: « Non poteris videre faciem meam, non enim videbit me homo et vivet. » Et iterum: « Ecce, inquit, est locus apud me, stabis super petram. Cumque transibit gloria mea ponam te in foramine petrae, et protegam te dextera mea donec transeam, tollamque manum meam, et videbis posteriora mea . » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est: Ego qui Dominus cunctorum sum, quoniam per memetipsum sum, tibi qui puro corde me colis, aeternae vitae beatitudinem quae omne bonum est ostendam. Vocaborque Dominus coram te, qui creator omnium creaturarum sum, cum tu Israel tunicam Filii mei videris, quam Adae promisi, quando eum nomine suo vocavi, et quando tenebrosam vestem illi dedi, quia tenebrosus erat. Ob hoc etiam nullus hominum peccatis hominum gravatus vultum meum videre potest, quandiu mortalis existit, quoniam per suggestionem diaboli de nigredine aquilonis niger est, et sicut quaeque lucida ab aquilone aversa sunt, sic claritas verae lucis ab Adam secessit, cum per consilium antiqui serpentis ad aquilonem respexit. Proinde quia mortalium nemo gloriam meam perfecte intueri potuit, per prophetas meos loquendo miracula mea ostendi, qui in umbra loquebantur, quae de luce formabatur, quae etiam obscurior luce sua erat, sicut omnis umbra obscurior substantia sua est de qua procedit.
Sol quoque et luna atque omnia sidera homini obnubilata erant, ita ut nudam claritatem illorum videre non posset; atque omnia ventorum spiramina illi ad videndum obtecta erant, et ideo quasi in umbra dicebatur, ut praedictum est: « Nuntia nobis si tu es ipse qui regnaturus es in populo Israel. » Nam Spiritus sanctus in populo suo prophetando protulit, quod per primam vocationem qua Adam vocatus est praefiguratum erat, quod liberator hominum venturus esset. Tunc Filius Dei humanitate indutus venit, cujus claritatem divinitatis homines videre non poterant, cum eum quasi alium hominem inspicerent; sed tamen ipse in alia via quam homines viverent, scilicet sine gustu peccati, eis se ostendebat, sic autem ut comederet, biberet, dormiret et se vestiret, nullam maculam delictorum habens. Judaei vero aliique multi ipsum videntes, Filium Dei esse dubitabant, atque in hoc scientiam suam obnubilabant, nec mirabilia ipsius in fide capiebant; sed in duritatem saxorum conversi sunt, quemadmodum coluber in caverna petrae latet. Sed tamen ipse dextra sua quamplurimos Judaeorum et paganorum cum innumerabili exercitu salvandorum obtinebit, donec omnia mirabilia ipsius pertranseant, et tunc manum magni operis sui levabit, omnibusque amicis suis posteriora sua demonstrabit, quatenus omnes cognoscant qualiter cum diabolo dimicaverit. Et tunc, o Israel, in illo fiducialiter confides, cujus miracula, ut Adam claritatem aeternae vitae fugisti in ipsum non credendo; ipseque tunc tibi erit sub lingua tua, ut favus mellis; et ut cibus lactis in ostensione operum suorum, quae ad te colliges, et brachio tuo apprehendes querula voce dicendo: « Ach, ach, quandiu decepti sumus! » et sic adimplebitur quod me inspirante scriptum est:
Item verba David ex psalmo XCII, ubi loquitur: « Mirabiles elationes maris, mirabilis in altis Dominus » , et quomodo intelligi debeat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.33.19 — And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.'
- ↩Exod.33.20 — And he said, 'You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.'
- ↩Exod.33.21 — And the LORD said, "See, there is a place beside me, and you shall stand upon the rock."
- ↩Exod.33.22-Exod.33.23 — And when my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Exod.33.23 — And I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.
- ↩John.6.15 — Jesus, knowing that they were about to come and seize him to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
- ↩Gen.3.15 — I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
- ↩Phil.2.7 — but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and appearing as a human being.
- ↩Ps.95.8 — Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness.
- ↩Exod.33.23 — And I will remove my hand, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.
- ↩Ps.19.10 — The fear of the LORD is pure, standing forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, righteous altogether.
- ↩1Pet.2.2 — Like newborn babies, long for the pure, unadulterated milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into salvation.
- ↩Ps.93.4 — Mightier than the voice of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea—mightier is the LORD on high.
Notes
- 1 ↩The 'north wind' (aquilo) traditionally symbolizes the devil or the realm of evil and darkness in medieval exegesis.
Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) companion
Don't stop at Day 30
All 317 chapters live in the free Chosen Portion app, paced for daily reading
Hildegard's practice of daily attention to God's work in creation becomes a paced daily devotional through all ten visions in the Chosen Portion app
- One vision passage a day, readable in under 10 minutes
- The complete Book of Divine Works plus Hildegard's other major works, free
- Progress tracking so a 317-chapter classic actually gets finished