Reflection:

St. Hildegard says it is not enough to know God “is the mountain of salvation.” We have to be with God by surrendering our hearts. We must take the knowledge God has given us, and commit ourselves to acts of love.

What is the virtue of desiring the salvation of souls? We must start with the opposite vice, so that we understand how God wants us to desire the salvation of souls by cooperating with the daily working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we truly live for Christ and submit to his will our lives become an adventure full of invitations to help others when we least expect it.

Are you able to hear the voice of the Spirit through your daily life activities and are you able to respond to the Lord immediately when called? We will return to this again in a bit, but first let’s look at ways we can get in the way of God and thwart grace through the vice of destruction of souls, or shiftlessness.

St. Hildegard says the shiftless man “knows he merits fire”, and even though he does not want this consequence, he still refuses to follow the will of God and the teachings of the Church. He remains shiftless, without purpose, and focused on himself rather than the works of God, especially the tasks that God has set out for him to do for the Kingdom. Ask yourself, am I concerned about my well-being, my finances, my career, my need to be loved and cared for? Is my focus on myself, my wants and needs, or do I live to serve others for the sake of Christ? Have I surrendered my ego to Christ?

Am I Opposing Christ and Living for Myself?

According to St. Hildegard, if you are not living for the salvation of souls, then you are opposing Christ and his Church; there is no middle ground. St. Hildegard simply states that when a man isn’t desiring the salvation of souls, he is actually living for the “destruction of souls.” This is because by his shiftlessness, he finds himself doing the work of the one who plunders souls. You are either in or you are out; you are either on or you are off. As long as you live in limbo, you are out. It’s that simple.

How is this so? It is because the shiftless man has denied Christ his place as the ruler of his own soul, and by doing so, the shiftless man has made himself his own “god.” He lives to worship himself even if he appears to worship God. He manipulates circumstances for his own wants and needs, even when they are contrary to the will of God. This includes bending the truth to suit his needs. 

The shiftless man commits sins against others rather than working toward the salvation of their souls. He does this because he has a need to control outcomes and manipulate them. When he lives like this he cannot be in union with Christ because he cannot see with the light of the Holy Spirit. He does not recognize souls as belonging to God because he is looking at them as useful for his own purposes and selfish needs. This is how he loses sight of God and works toward the destruction of souls. He cannot hear the Holy Spirit nor does he want to obey his conscience when it convicts him. He knows what he needs to do but he can’t bring himself to do it.

In short, the shiftless man worships God by his own terms; he never surrenders himself to God as a suffering servant who assents to a higher power. By refusing to work for the salvation of souls through the Holy Spirit, he essentially sets himself up to live for the destruction of souls, his own included. Jesus invites us to carry our crosses, to drink the cup as in Matthew 20:22. We are to imitate him, through the death of our own egos, for the sake of the Kingdom. 

St. Hildegard describes the virtue of salvation of souls as opposing the vice of shiftlessness. The shiftless soul lacks initiative to do good works for the Kingdom of God. He is without ambition, and this lack of charity in his spirituality leads him away from God. If you want to obtain things for yourself and if you need consolation, then you must surrender these desires of your heart to God, because they will cause you to commit sins and work toward the destruction of souls. You will be deceived.

How do I live for the Salvation of Souls?

Jesus should be the lover of your soul, and you ought to be willing to go where he leads you with obedience and humility. When you are willing to live for Christ, all doors begin to open and divine grace begins to flow freely.  In so much as you are willing to deny yourself for Christ’s sake, you will be given more talents because the Lord knows you will use them to multiply his Kingdom. If you are not seeing good fruit, then you need to contemplate all the ways you deny the power of Christ in your life. You cannot obtain the virtue of salvation of souls unless you are willing to humbly give yourself to Christ in service of his Kingdom. Pray for these things and patiently work with the talent you have been given.

Am I Desiring the Salvation of Souls?

St. Hildegard describes the words of the destruction of souls in Liber Vitae Meritorum: “I do not even want to be embellished with bright things since I am the one who plunders souls. This is my joy since the one I came from wants me to do these things. And I speak evil things.”

This should hit you hard if you are struggling to hear the Holy Spirit. If you are not living in the light of truth and obedience to the will of God, you will find it difficult to recognize the Holy Spirit. You may even be deceived. If you are not living for the salvation of souls and able to respond to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, then you are under the authority of the evil one. Shiftlessness causes apathy and opposition to the Church leads to the destruction of souls.

St. Hildegard describes it perfectly. She says, “You are like an arrow from the devil, flying through the dark as a snare and wounding the blessed with martyrdom since they do not agree with you. Since they do what you reject, you want to destroy them, but you are not able to. For the blessed rise up with the flag of faith among the multitude of the angels. They rush against you and, like a great thirst, want to overcome you, just like a stag wants to drink water from a fountain. For they baptize you and bring you the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit who appeared in the humanity of the Savior as if in a flood of water. These things will destroy you since you are against God.“

The virtue of salvation of souls will raise us up. When we repent and follow Christ, surrendering all for the sake of his Kingdom, St. Hildegard says this virtue will “hold simple ones firmly through the faith of baptism and the innocent ones through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”  We are restored to salvation and become a companion of God. We are flooded with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

Fulfilling God’s Plan for Your Life

The virtue of desiring the salvation of souls will help you fulfill your Christian vocation, given to you by God; he alone can help you know it and fulfill it. The Christian experience is found in community. We are a Kingdom. This community needs workers willing to join God in opposing all the forces that work toward the destruction of souls. This includes our own selfish wants and needs that lead us to hurt others and disobey the will of God in our lives.  Ask the Lord to direct your path toward service in his Kingdom (Matthew 6:33).

Going Further:

Take a moment to read the following passage, then spend time this week in prayer. Use your journal to write your own prayer for overcoming shiftlessness and for living in the good works that God has prepared for you in advance. How will you assent to be his handiwork?  Tell the Lord all the ways you have worked toward the destruction of souls in your life and ask him for the virtue of desiring the salvation of souls. 

Ephesians 2:1-10 “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” 

Let us Pray:

Now that we understand the virtue of desiring the salvation of souls, let’s begin with a prayer of petition for it.