Hildegard to the Priest
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen 164r Hildegard to the Priest Before 1173 Writing back to provide the requested advice, Hildegard gives a long allegorical and moral interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan.
In a true vision, with eyes fully awake, I heard these words in my spirit: My son, you who are the image of God, listen to this parable, which the Son of God spoke to those who decided among themselves what they had chosen for themselves:
"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho" [Luke 10.30]. This is what the Son of God said about the first man, who learned that he could sin through the report of the serpent which he heard from the woman [cf. Gen 3. Iff], And he himself made that choice for himself which he had heard through the report For the mind is, as it were, male, and the choice, as it were, female. For when a person chooses some matter for himself, and has drawn it to himself through his own choice, he loves that thing very much, just as Adam loved his choice which he heard from the woman, because the woman was an integral part of him, just as a choice is an integral part of the mind. And when Adam had done this, he went down from "the vision of peace,"1 and became like the moon which wanes. Yet although he was an outcast, he still knew his Creator, and in that knowledge he was like the moon which sometimes waxes.
"And he fell among robbers" [Luke 10.30], because his will deceived him, just as a robber deceives people with his crafty whispers until he captures them. "Who also stripped him" [Luke 10.30], that is, his will stripped him of all the glory he had in paradise, just as robbers strip people and divide up their property. Therefore, every person who wishes to be happy should avoid what his will chooses, for it is harmful to him (like Adam's listening to the woman), and it wounds him so deeply that with great sighs he must seek a physician if he wishes to be healed. For Adam's transgression made him an exile so that he was scarcely alive to the knowledge of good and evil, and he could be relieved neither by Abel's sacrifice [cf Gen
4.4], which Noah perfected in building the altar [cf. Gen 8.20], nor by Abraham's obedience [cf Gen 22.9ff], which Moses fulfilled through the law [cf Ex 24].
But the Samaritan raised him up. For the Samaritan is the Son of God, made incarnate in the shrine of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the immaculate Virgin, without any of the blindness of Adam, which human nature has as a result of sin. And He raised Adam and all his race from the pit of hell. He also poured oil and wine on his wounds [cf. Luke 10.34]: oil when, moved to pity for him [cf. Luke 10.33],
He revealed Himself in His incarnation; wine when he commanded penitence for his sins, as it is written, "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"
[Matt 3.2; 4.17].
"And setting him upon his own beast, he brought him to an inn" [Luke 10.34].
His body is like a beast, because it carried a man on its shoulders onto the wood
The Letters
of the cross. This also shows that when He made man, He created beasts along with him, just as He also saw His own incarnation when He formed man. And when He became incarnate as He willed, man, along with all creation, looked upon Him and recognized Him as both God and man. And He gave the whole world to man for a tabernacle, an inn, as it were, and He brought him into that inn when
He freed him through His Passion and cured him by mercy and penitence.
"And the next day he took out two pence, and gave them to the host" [Luke 10.35]. On the next day, after His resurrection, He left the man2 to his representatives, that is, to the apostles and all those who have followed their example, commanding them to do just as He had done [cf Luke 10.37]. And He gave them two covenants: one that the New Law had made and one that He Himself had created. For just as God created the beasts when He made man, so too men under the Old Law sacrificed creatures, that is, birds and beasts, to God, but afterward they made unseen sacrifice in the Holy Spirit through the sacrificial offering of Christ's incarnation, because we recognize His incarnation through our selves,3 but are unable to gaze on His divinity. Yet we embrace that divinity through faith, just as we know this world but look to eternal life through faith. We see our bodies but we can in no way see our spirits, save that we know that we cannot live without our spirits. So it is with all our works—some seen, some unseen—and so it is too that we regard the Creator of all things in His humanity and His divinity.
It was in such a way that God left the man to His representatives in the two covenants, so that they might do with him as He had shown them, that is, by anointing his wounds with mercy, and cleansing them by penitence, and to continue this until the last day. Then, when He returns, He will give a mansion of "eternal inheritance" [Heb 9.15] to all those who have done with goodwill what
He has shown them.4
Now, you, O steward of God, do likewise, and beware lest your mind become darkened—without sun or moon or stars. Take care, that is, not to choose one thing or another according to your own will and pleasure, saying that this is good and that is good, because, in that case, your mind becomes a dark cloud.
But look to the true Samaritan, and in the service to which you have been appointed by your superior, do as He did, because it pleases God that mercy is shown to the poor, and that sinners are brought to penitence. Do this to the best of your ability, giving aid to the one who gives alms for his sins, so that you may live forever.
Notes 1. That is, from Jerusalem. Visio pacis\s the usual medieval etymological/symbolical interpretation of the name ferusalem. Hildegard is engaged in working out her explication of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
2. That is, His humanity.
3. That is, through our humanity.
4. Hildegard's extended interpretation of the parable may seem uncommonly strained, atypical, even original. It is not. St. Caesarius—and others—explicated the parable in a similar fashion. AH such readings go back at least to Origen, who interpreted the Samaritan as Christ, the wounds as disobedience, the ass as the body of Christ, etc.