Caput XXXVIII

Two Classes of the Chosen

Odo distinguishes the chosen into the perfect and the imperfect, yet both share in heavenly rest and pass through life's trials with detachment and humility.

The generation of the chosen is also divided into two classes. One class is that of the perfect, of whom it is said: The meek add strength in the Lord (Isai.^✦ XXIX, 19). And likewise: The just one will hold his way with clean hands (Job XVII, 9).^✦¹ The other class, however, is not yet of the perfect, of whom the Church says to her Redeemer: My imperfect one your eyes have seen (Psal.² CXXXVIII, 16), as if she were saying: Even those who in my body cannot fully attain the ways of perfection, you do not repel from the regard of your mercy.³⁴ Observing that both classes belong to the heavenly rest, Job says: The small and the great are there (Job III, 19).^✦⁵ Therefore, all who are more perfect amid the troubles of this life by no means break out into murmuring, and if riches abound, they by no means set their heart on them, but they regard both as things soon to pass away.⁶⁷

The Imperfect Weigh Their Fall

Those not yet perfect reflect on their fallen condition, fear judgment, and embrace present hardships as merciful discipline fitting them for heavenly inheritance.

They weigh the trap they fell from — namely, the blessedness, and into what great misery they fell in the first parent.⁸ And so they despise the prosperity of this life as brief and meager; and though they grieve over present hardships, looking nevertheless at what the strict judge threatens sinners with concerning the future gehenna, they endure these hardships all the more patiently the more they fear that after this exile, if they have murmured, eternal death will follow.⁹ They do not exalt themselves over the good things they may have done, because they carefully consider what sort of persons they will stand before what sort of judge — and the same judge examines good things with however much subtlety, and punishes evil things with however much strictness.¹⁰ As is discussed in the eighth book of the Moralia, they foresee beyond any doubt that they will perish — if they are judged without mercy.¹¹ And because they know most certainly that in this life they neither ought to have rest nor can have it, they meanwhile adopt this wholesome counsel: abandoning earthly desires, they raise themselves toward heavenly things. Yet even as they do so, they still feel the Father's scourges — so that the more mercifully discipline strikes them, purging them daily from even the smallest things, the more fit they may come to the heavenly inheritance.¹²

Read the original Latin

Electorum quoque generatio in duobus generibus distinguitur. Unum genus est perfectorum de quibus dicitur: Mites addunt in Domino fortitudinem (Isai. XXIX, 19). Et item: Justus mundis manibus tenebit viam suam (Job XVII, 9). Aliud autem nondum perfectorum, de quibus Ecclesia redemptori suo dicit: Imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui (Psal. CXXXVIII, 16), quasi diceret: Eos etiam qui in meo corpore vias perfectionis pleniter assequi non possunt, a tuae misericordiae respectu non repellis. Utrumque genus ad supernam requiem Job pertinere conspiciens ait: Parvus et magnus ibi sunt (Job III, 19). Quotquot ergo perfectiores sunt inter hujus vitae molestias, nequaquam ad murmurationem prosiliunt, et divitiae si affluant, nullatenus cor apponunt, sed utraque tanquam citius transitura parvipendunt.

Pensant enim a quo laqueo lapsi sunt: a qua videlicet beatitudine, ad quantam miseriam in primo parente ceciderunt. Et idcirco vitae hujus prosperitatem sicut brevem et egenam despiciunt; et licet de praesentibus aerumnis doleant, intuentes tamen quid districtus judex de futura gehenna peccatoribus comminetur, has tanto patientius tolerant, quanto post hoc exsilium aeternam si murmuraverint subsequi mortem expavescunt. De bonis vero quae forte gesserint non se extollunt, quia sollicite pensant quales ante qualem judicem stabunt, et isdem judex bona quam subtiliter discutiat, mala vero quam districte puniat. Qui, sicut in libro VIII Moralium disseritur, perituros se absque ulla dubietate praesciunt: si remota pietate judicentur. Et quia certissime sciunt, quod in hac vita nec debent habere requiem nec possunt, hoc salubre consilium interim assumunt, ut terrena desideria deserentes ad coelestia se extollant: sed haec agentes, paterna tamen adhuc flagella sentiunt, ut tanto perfectiores ad coelestem haereditatem veniant, quanto eos pie feriens disciplina etiam quotidie de minimis purgat.

Scripture echoes

↩Isa.29.19 — The humble will again find joy in the LORD, and the poorest among humanity will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
↩Job.17.9 — Yet the righteous will hold fast to his way, and the one with clean hands will grow ever stronger.
↩Job.3.19 — The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

Notes

1 ↩mundis manibus — 'clean hands' rendered literally; the ablative of means conveys moral purity as the instrument by which the just person holds to the path.
2 ↩Imperfectum meum — the Church speaks collectively of those not yet perfected; 'my imperfect one' preserves the substantival neuter singular as a person-reference.
3 ↩in meo corpore — 'in my body' refers to the Church as the body of Christ; the sense is those within the Church who fall short of full perfection.
4 ↩a tuae misericordiae respectu — 'from the regard of your mercy' preserves the spatial metaphor of God's merciful gaze; an alternative 'from your merciful consideration' would flatten the image.
5 ↩ad supernam requiem — 'to the heavenly rest' renders the eschatological destiny; 'supernam' carries the sense of the divine/heavenly realm.
6 ↩cor apponunt — 'set their heart on' renders the idiom literally: to place the heart upon something, i.e., to fix one's desire or trust there.
7 ↩tanquam citius transitura — 'as things soon to pass away' captures the future participle used substantively; the sense is that both troubles and riches are treated as transient.
8 ↩The 'trap' (laqueus) is the original fall from blessedness into misery through the first parent (Adam). The two prepositional phrases a quo / a qua map the movement from the snare to the state of blessedness lost.
9 ↩The tanto ... quanto construction links patience in suffering to fear of post-exile death — the logic is that awareness of future judgment intensifies present endurance. 'If they have murmured' (si murmuraverint) introduces a conditional fear: they dread the death that follows for those who grumble.
10 ↩The double quam ... quam construction (subtiliter ... districte) is comparative in force: the judge examines good things with as much subtlety as he punishes evil with strictness. The 'same judge' (isdem judex) is both examiner and punisher.
11 ↩The reference is to Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job, Book VIII. 'Without mercy' (remota pietate) is an ablative absolute: if mercy is removed from the judgment, the outcome is certain destruction.
12 ↩The ut ... tanto ... quanto construction links the Father's merciful discipline to growth in perfection and readiness for the heavenly inheritance. 'Discipline strikes them' (pie feriens disciplina) presents suffering as a purgative, paternal act. 'From even the smallest things' (de minimis) suggests that no fault is too small for purging in this life.

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