The Soul

How do we know what the soul is like? The Bible doesn’t actually talk about the soul much, aside from saying that we need one, and that it will survive in the afterlife. Most of our ideas about souls come from the ancient Greeks, who believed the body carried the soul around until we died, when the soul was set free. Today’s reading comes from a German mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, who lived most of her life in convents in the 1100s. Since a young age, she had received waking visions from God - elaborate, often surreal visions of the cosmos. In her fourth vision, she saw a soul coming into a body while in the womb. She then explained how the soul makes life possible: 

“The soul rules the entire body by making it living. The body, however, supports life from the soul, since if the soul did not make the body living, the body might melt away into a liquid. When a person does something evil, this is as bitter to the soul as poison is to the body – especially when the body welcomes the evil knowingly. On the other hand, the soul rejoices in good, just as the body is delighted by pleasant food. 

For the soul passes through the body just as a sap passes through a tree. What does this mean? It is through the sap that a tree is green, produces flowers, and then fruit. And how does that fruit come to maturity? By the mildness of the air. The sun warms it, the rain waters it, and it is perfected by the mildness of the air. What is the significance of this? The mercy of the grace of God will make a person bright as the sun, the breath of the Holy Spirit will water the person just as the rain, and thus discretion will leave the person to the perfection of good fruits just like the mildness of the air does for the tree.

For Hildegard, the soul is the life force that turns the matter of our body into a living being. It runs throughout our entire body, animating us. It comes from God, so it delights when we do good, but is hurt when we sin. The soul is not something that only matters when we die. It is what drives us towards God in this life. And, like a tree, it needs external help. Hildegard sees God helping us grow spiritually like sunlight and rain helps a tree.

In our time, we still speak of people who seem to have no soul ( no sympathy) , or who are soulful ( full of life). We can sense that just being alive physically is not enough to be truly alive. There has to a verve, a drive for life, one that is different from a desire for self-serving pleasures. People speak of Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter being great souls. They had an inner drive, and it led them to help people all over the world. Soul is like sap, filling us and driving us towards bearing fruit for the many, not just ourselves.

Hildegard wasn’t sure what to do about her visions. She wrote to Bernard de Clairvaux for advice ( we read some of his wisdom earlier this week). He encouraged her to share her visions. She spent 10 years writing them down. She went on speaking tours, unheard of for a woman at that time. She also wrote haunting music, which is still performed. If you have never heard her music, please check her out on YouTube. Peace, may your soul flow unimpeded through you.  

-Rev. Stephen Milton, Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto

Source: ( Hildegard von Bingen, Scivias, Part 1, Vision Four:25)

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