Hildegard to the Abbot Adelbert
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen About these matters, and others, which our messengers will inform you of, holy mother, consult the divine oracle [cf. II Sam 21.1], and write back to inform us what we may expect from the mercy of God.
91r Hildegard to the Abbot Adelbert Before 1170 Whatever specifics the messenger may have supplied, Hildegard nevertheless answers the general letter in very general terms, admonishing Adelbert that he is too weak and indulgent in correcting the vices of his subordinates.
He Who sees and is subject to no change says: You do not yet have wings to fly, O human being, wings to bear up under storms or even to glide in serene weather.
But you are like a pillar without a pedestal standing in the street, and so you are splattered by all the mud. You are too indulgent, for you do not have the keen and critical eye necessary to condemn the black and wicked ways of mankind.
All the same, God in His grace is mindful of you, for you are not afflicted with hardness of the heart, but are merely asleep in undisciplined listlessness so that you do not attend God zealously.
Do not regard your Lord as your servant, but look to Him faithfully like an honorable knight who, armed with helmet and breastplate, fights bravely in the battle. These times are the times that cast God into oblivion, times weary of waging Christ's battle. Through the vain love of novelty and change, lies fly abroad, as if the people see God—and yet they know Him not.1 a Where, therefore, are the people who walk in the straight path [cf. Prov 14.2]?
They are few indeed. But He Who Is [cf. Ex 3.14; Apoc 1.4] says: No man, for all his babbling, can draw the sword of my vengeance from the sheath before the appointed time of my vengeance. Therefore, O human being, rise up and bring light to your spirit through me, so that you may vigilantly search me out. Then you will have life.
Note 1. This characterization of her own age as a degenerate time, a time of a falling away from God—which she frequently denominates as a womanish age—is a recurrent theme in Hildegard's work.