The Power of a Feather

"Listen, there was once a king sitting on his throne.  Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor.  Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly.  The feather flew, not because of anything in itself, but because the air bore it along.  Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God" (from the writings of Hildegard of Bingen--Sept. 17, 1179).

Hildegard has been called one of the most important figures in the Middle Ages and "the greatest woman of her time."  In addition to rebuking both Pope and Emperor at a time when the church greatly needed reform, she has today been recognized as the first gynecologist, as the "Dear Abby" of the 12th century, as a musical genius and an inventor of musical forms which only today are being recorded, as a recorder of medicinal observations which are, again, being studied today, as a noted writer of plays, poems, and books.

In the Old Testament Book of Judges, we find another remarkable woman raised up by God to do what the men of the time were afraid to do.  Deborah, a "judge in Israel," spoke prophecy -- which is not so much foretelling the future as interpreting what is happening in one's own time from God's perspective.  Just as Hildegard in the 12th century had the temerity to interpret her times to both Pope and Emperor, so Deborah spoke the Barak, the commander of Israel's army, telling him to go up against Sisera, the commander of the Caananite forces.  Barak replied that he would go only if Deborah went with him -- does this story remind us of Joan of Ark?

Deborah agreed, telling Barak that because of his reply, God would deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman, so that Barak himself would receive no glory for the victory. 

In every age, when men of power seem to be reluctant to be "driven by the force of the Spirit," we see "powerless" women who are borne along on the breath of God, like feathers, who reform the age.  In Hildegard's writings, she sees the "Living Light" of God shedding its rays on the relationship between human life and plant life, between the subtle workings of the mind and the functions of the body, between woman and man in the fullness of relationship, between all creatures and all creation."

Like Solomen, she writes that it is Wisdom/ Sapientia "...who gave me sure knowledge of what exists...the powers of spirits and human mental processes, the varieties of plants and the medical properties of roots" (Wisdom 7:17-20).  My own mother had this kind of "practical wisdom," using remedies 50 years ago that are only now being "discovered" and marketed.  She used red peppers, or Capsacin, to heal headaches; comfrey and onion juice for bronchitis; orange peel for mouth ulcers; bilberry for night vision  --- and she's the one who "cured" the arthritis in my feet by telling me to stay away from corn and the other nightshade vegetables.  All this wisdom was given to her by God, as I am convinced He willingly and freely gives to all who listen.

Maybe the "power" of women to reform the world and the church and families comes from their ability to listen to the still, small, voice of God whispering in their hearts and the breath of God blowing through their souls to bring about a "new creation."