Letter 42: Hildegard to Godfrey, Bishop of Utrecht
The Letters of Hildegard ofBingen will feel shame at your exaltation when you arise from the darkness where you lie now, scarcely alive because of your works. Your only redeeming quality is, as it were, your intent gaze toward the life to come, which shines in you like the dawn.
Your mind is sifted and shaken by great torments when your gross nature afflicts you with twisted desires. Rid yourself of this terrible attitude. Hear, O man: A certain man had a very fertile plot of land, which he plowed and planted very densely, and it brought forth an abundant harvest. Then the man decided to make that plot into an herb garden, so that aromatic plants would grow there to heal wounds and scars. Thus that land was made better than it was before.
Now, O man, choose which of these two things is more useful to you. For the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem was first set with stones, stones which were wounded by terrible falls and were defiled by the scars of their vices, but which, afterward, were cleansed of their sins through penitence. The Maker of the world laid that first foundation from unhewn, unpolished stones, and those stones bear up the whole of the city of God. Thus flee the wantonness of the foul shipwreck of this world, and be like the sard and the topaz [cf. Apoc
21.20; Ex 28.17], and be swift as the hart to lap up springs of pure water [cf.
Ps 41.2]. Then you will live forever.
Hildegard to Godfrey, Bishop of Utrecht About 1163 Hildegard warns Godfrey (bishop of Utrecht from 115 6 to 117 7) of the' 'darkness of schisms" and exhorts him to hold the rod of God's correction firmly in his hand.
The Serene Light says: Light1 gives life, but darkness brings forth schisms, and nighttime yields sadness. Thus one who wishes to have life must avoid schisms.
How does schism arise? It comes about when a person does not sigh to God, nor cling fast to Him, nor say to Him "You are my Creator"—all this, as if God did not exist. But whoever does this is caught up in a circle, seeking always the prosperity of this world. And who can give that to him? Nobody. For in its continuing cycle, prosperity arises sometimes, simply because God created man; and sometimes it fades away, because man's faith in God is weakened.
Night is a fitting time for sadness. Thus because of the misdirection of his desire and will, sinful man wraps himself, as it were, in black night," and, fre-