Gilbert of
Hoyland
From Two
Letters
Thinking about
mass and energy
Wisdom herself says:
'Whoever eats me will hunger for more, for my spirit is
sweeter than honey."
You, dear friend,
have ample containers for that honey: a sharp and well-trained
intellect and a wide knowledge of matters of great complexity. But
these, in my opinion, are like the cells of a honeycomb: capacious
but still empty. Draw near, therefore, and receive an inpouring;
let your containers be filled! Their spate will come brimming over
and pour itself out again on us, who will rightly praise you in the
words of the Canticle: 'Your lips distil nectar.
' Ah! to hear you
one day holding forth in the Lord's house, expounding the veiled
and mystic meanings, attaining to and distilling for us with fine
discernment something of the essence of God's majesty, of his
eternity, immensity, simplicity - simplicity in which is nothing
small, immensity that is not manifold, an essence wholly infinite,
but not by being dragged out in time nor by extension of its mass
in space, but of its own intrinsic energy and power. This essence
is in its entirety both everywhere and in itself contained, there
being nothing in which the whole of its might, truth or will is
expended or expressed. There may be degrees we can discuss or
distinctions that we name, but it itself is one and indivisible.
All things are to be wondered at, worthy of reverence, delightful
to explore. But at the last, as Scripture says, our eyes are not
satisfied with seeing, nor our ears with hearing.
Gladly will I listen
to you prophesying in this manner. And when, in your diligent
search for truth, you have plunged into the vast depths of this
sea, I shall watch you sprinkle with the refreshing dew of
life-giving wisdom those inapt for a more generous
wetting.
