ST HILDEGARD OF BINGEN AND THE CATHOLIC IMAGINATION

Fr Billy Swan

For every generation of Christians, it is the saints who invite us to think differently and creatively about God, the universe, the person of Christ, human beings and how they all relate, one to the other. In the words of Bishop Robert Barron: “Each of the Saints in his or her own utterly unique manner, shows forth some aspect of God's beauty and perfection. God makes Saints the way he makes plants and animals and stars: exuberantly, effervescently and with a preference for wild diversity” (Letter to a Suffering Church). St Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is one of those saints whose insights expand our imaginations in a way that helps us grasp what is real and how all of reality is grounded in the mystery of God. We celebrate her feast day on 17^th September.

Hildegard was born in Alzey, Germany, into a noble family, on the eve of the twelfth century. At the age of eight she was received as an oblate in the Benedictine Abbey where she made her religious profession in 1115. She founded a new monastery in 1150 near Bingen where she moved with about twenty sisters. The basis of her spirituality was the Benedictine Rule which views spiritual balance and ascetical moderation as paths to holiness. Through her copious writings, many of which were produced at times of crisis, she reveals herself to be a woman theologian who was not content to use tired formulae to teach and judicate, but who presented the faith in a fresh and compelling way.

For Hildegard, faith is like a door through which we can pass to knowledge of God. Rather than a static or dogmatic interpretation of God, she spoke of divine love as a flowing like a river whose water irrigated creation and gave it life: “The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.” For Hildegard, it is the Spirit of God that makes all things and sustains everything in being. She describes this beautifully and poetically as follows: “I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life.” In addition to writings on theology and spirituality, she authored works on medicine and natural sciences.

She was also a composer of music and used the metaphor of music to describe creation as a symphony of the Holy Spirit which is Himself joy and jubilation. Like notes that make up a piece of music, so each element of creation contributes to the overall harmony of God’s handiwork. She also described human lives as voices that produce songs. This can happen in two ways: in the celebration of the liturgy and in the living of a virtuous life.

For Hildegard, the mystery of the Incarnation and the Trinity are the two “primary sacraments” and the well-spring from which all seven sacraments flow. Our experience of God is not just via the spirit but also through the body and is communicated through the five sense we possess. Hence the material world is sacred.

In this sense, Hildegard of Bingen can be described as a contemporary prophet of the Catholic imagination whose faith exploded in her visionary presentation of the Christian faith that was always proclaimed within the communion of the Church.

In James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (1916), Stephen Dedalus defines the artist as “the priest of the eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of ever-living life.” The language is undeniably sacramental just like the language of Hildegard of Bingen.

What Hildegard does explicitly and Joyce does implicitly, is to remind all the baptized that we are priests of the eternal imagination who understand faith as an encounter and a revelation that takes us out of ourselves and into the beauty of God’s love. She helps the whole Church to imagine a future of hope that is born of love for God and a love for all that God has made. A heart that does not love, cannot imagine and cannot see beyond its own borders. Only with the gift of love can our imaginations expand to take in all that is real, good and true. In the words of the late Pedro Aruppe SJ: “What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will effect everything…Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything”.

James Joyce, writing to his companion Nora Barnacle, said: “I too have felt at moments the burning in my soul, of that pure and sacred fire which burns forever on the altar of my love’s heart”.

At this critical time for Irish Catholicism, may Hildegard of Bingen, woman theologian and Doctor of the Church, inspire us not to be afraid of the sacred fire that burns on the altar of our love’s heart. May she help us cherish it as a fire that was lit by God Himself, given to help us imagine a new time and a new hope.