Caput XXXIX
The Solitary Sinner Before God's Face and Hand
Drawing on Jeremiah, Odo explains that the penitent sit alone before God, knowing His face as knowledge and His hand as the experience of punishment, and so learn to fear the threats that fall only on the unrepentant.
Because of these things they suffer in the present, and because of those they fear in the future, but also because of the wholesome counsel — as it has been spoken — which they find fitting, Jeremiah well speaks in their person to the Lord: 'From the face of your hand alone I sat, because with threat you filled me' (Jer.✦ 15, 17). Through the face each person is known, through the hand the work is signified: alone sits the one who is not beset by the turmoil of carnal desires. The face of God, therefore, is called knowledge: the hand, the experience of punishment — because just as he had threatened, he punished humankind for original guilt, and also cast them into the hardships of this life. The threat, however, is the terror of the punishment still to come, which he holds out against sinners. Therefore, because of his threat, alone sits at the face of the hand of the Lord the one who, through the experience of that vengeance which is inflicted on mortals for original guilt, knows how much the punishment to come — which threatens not the repentant but the unrepentant — is to be feared, and for that reason does not now dare to be proud, nor to mingle himself with the crowds of carnal desires.
Present Suffering and Future Terror in Job and the Psalmist
Odo turns to Job and the Psalmist to show how the righteous experience both the arrows of present affliction and the terrors of divine wrath yet to come.
Job, because of the straits of his present suffering, says: 'The arrows of the Lord are in me'; but because of what follows, he adds: 'His terrors wage war against me' (Job 6:4).✦ Hence the Psalmist, because of both: 'In me,' he says, 'your wrath has passed, and your terrors have troubled me' (Ps.✦ LXXXVII, 17).
The Perfect Suffer Lightly Because They Seek What Does Not Pass
Odo teaches that the truly perfect neither flee affliction nor cling to prosperity, using temporal goods as a traveler uses a bed—resting the body while the mind presses toward the eternal homeland.
This is said because we now suffer something else concerning damnation — that is, indeed, angers, but ones that pass away, since these pains are quickly ended. But this becomes heavier because, among these pains, we fear the eternal punishments that threaten — whose terrors rightly disturb us. Therefore, the more any affliction strikes truly perfect men, the less they flee from it, because they believe it to be an expiation for their sins. And everything that passes by, even if it is prosperous, becomes worthless to their senses in proportion as it is both transitory and they themselves are striving toward something else — something that, once obtained, is never lost. Therefore, they neither accept the good things offered here as something great, nor greatly fear the evils inflicted upon them. Thus they use temporal relief as a traveler uses either shade or a bed: he rests his body, but with his mind pressing toward something else, he hurries to move on. So too these people refuse to fix the step of their heart in transitory things, lest by delight in the journey they be separated from the station of their eternal dwelling. For they desire to rejoice in their own things, and therefore they refuse to be happy in the place of their pilgrimage.
Enoch and Cain: Two Dedications, Two Heart-Plants
Odo contrasts the Enoch born seventh among the chosen—dedicated as a living stone in the heavenly Jerusalem—with Cain's Enoch, whose false dedication plants the heart's root in this passing world, and closes with Christ's wedding-banquet counsel to take the lowest place.
This is why, among the offspring of the chosen, Enoch — whose name means "dedication" — is born seventh, because plainly, after the six ages of this life, the chosen will be dedicated in the heavenly Jerusalem as living stones.✦✦ Cain, however — as was mentioned above — calls his firstborn Enoch, since the wicked dedicate themselves, as it were, at the very beginning, while in this life they plant the root of their heart.✦ When the Lord says, "When you are invited to a wedding, do not recline in the first place" (Luke✦ 14:8).✦
Read the original Latin
Propter haec autem quae in praesenti patiuntur, et propter illa quae in futuro metuunt, sed et propter salubre consilium, ut dictum est, quod reperiunt, bene ex eorum persona Jeremias Domino dicit: A facie manus tuae solus sedebam, quoniam comminatione replesti me (Jer. XV, 17). Per faciem unusquisque cognoscitur, per manum operatio designatur: solus sedet, qui tumultu carnalium desideriorum non frequentatur. Facies ergo Dei vocatur cognitio: manus experientia percussionis, quia sicut comminatus fuerat, hominem pro originali culpa multavit, et etiam in aerumnas hujus vitae projecit. Comminatio vero est terror sequenti adhuc supplicii, quod peccatoribus intentat. Itaque propter comminationem ejus solus a facie manus Domini sedet, qui per experimentum vindictae illius, quae pro originali culpa mortalibus infertur, quantum timenda sit sequens poena cognoscit, quae non resipiscentibus comminatur, et idcirco superbire jam non audet, nec turbis carnalium desideriorum sese miscere. Job propter praesentis augustiae punctiones dicit: Sagittae Domini in me sunt, propter sequentes vero subinfert: Terrores ejus militant contra me (Job VI, 4). Hinc Psalmista propter utrumque: In me, inquit, transierunt irae tuae, et terrores tui conturbaverunt me (Psal.
LXXXVII, 17). Quod idcirco dicitur, quia jam aliud de damnatione patimur, id est iras quidem, sed tamen transeuntes, quoniam isti dolores cito finiuntur. Sed hoc fit gravius, quod inter dolores istos aeterna supplicia quae comminatur, quorum terrores merito nos conturbant, formidamus. Omne igitur quod perfectos quoslibet viros affligit, tanto minus refugiunt, quanto id culparum suarum expiationem credunt. Et omne quod praeterit, licet prosperum sit, tanto sensibus eorum vilescit, quanto et transitorium est, et ipsi ad aliud tendunt, quod semel adeptum nunquam amittitur. Bona igitur hic oblata, nec pro magno suscipiunt, nec illata mala valde pertimescunt. Sic utuntur temporali subsidio, sicut viator utitur aut umbra, aut lecto; pausat corpore, sed mente ad aliud tendens recedere festinat: sic et hi gressum cordis figere in transitoriis refugiunt, ne delectatione itineris sequestrentur a statione aeternae mansionis. In propriis enim gaudere desiderant, et idcirco in loco peregrinationis suae felices esse recusant.
Hinc est quod in electorum prole Henoch, qui dedicatio interpretatur, septimus nascitur, quia videlicet electi post sex hujus vitae aetates, in supernam Hierusalem tanquam lapides vivi dedicabuntur. Cain vero, ut supradictum est, primogenitum Henoch appellat: quoniam iniqui se in primordiis quasi dedicant, dum in hac vita radicem cordis plantant. Cum Dominus dicat: Cum vocatus fueris ad nuptias, ne discumbas in primo loco (Luc. XIV, 8).
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jer.15.17 — I did not sit in the company of those who make merry, nor did I rejoice. Because of your hand upon me I sat in solitude, for you had filled me with indignation.
- ↩Job.6.4 — For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, their poison drinking my spirit; the terrors of God array themselves against me.
- ↩Ps.88.16 — I am afflicted and dying from my youth; I have borne your terrors — I am numb.
- ↩Gen.5.18-Gen.5.24 — When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Gen.5.19 — And Jared lived after he fathered Enoch eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters. Gen.5.20 — And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years, and he died. Gen.5.21 — When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. Gen.5.22 — And Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah three hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters. Gen.5.23 — And all the days of Enoch were sixty-five years and three hundred years. Gen.5.24 — Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him.
- ↩1Pet.2.5 — and you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- ↩Gen.4.17 — Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. He was building a city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
- ↩Luke.14.8 — When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline at the table in the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you has been invited by him;
- ↩Luke.14.8 — When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline at the table in the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you has been invited by him;
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