Caput V
The Four Modes of Affliction
Odo introduces the four patterns of affliction, illustrating the first three with scriptural examples: punishment for past sin, prevention of future sin, and deepening love of God through deliverance.
The kinds of affliction are as varied as the kinds of sin that the heavenly physician sees at work in us — yet they all fall into four patterns. Sometimes a sinner is afflicted for past sins, like the man who is told, 'See, you are made well; sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you' (John 5:14).✦ John 5:14). This command teaches that the force of suffering is incurred on account of past faults. Sometimes it is to guard against future sin, as happened to Paul, who, so that he would not become exalted, received a thorn in the flesh.✦ Some ancient teachers say it was a pain in the head. Sometimes a person is struck so that, when an unexpected deliverance follows close upon danger, the saving power of God may be loved all the more fiercely. In such a blow, the grace of merit grows, since through patience fortitude advances.
Job and the Convergence of Afflictions
Blessed Job exemplifies how all three salutary modes of affliction can converge in a single person, punishing past sin, preventing future sin, and kindling praise of God.
This was fulfilled in blessed Job, who was first praised in this way and afterward rewarded in like manner. Sometimes, in fact, all three of these kinds come together at once in a single person, so that through affliction past sins are punished, future ones are prevented, and praise of God the Liberator is kindled by the danger that has been removed.
The Fourth Mode: Affliction That Hardens
The fourth and most terrible mode of affliction befalls those whose hearts tribulation fails to turn back, as illustrated by the lament of Jeremiah and the fates of Antiochus and Herod.
The fourth kind is when someone is struck in the present life in such a way as to be punished in the life to come as well. This happens only to those whose hearts tribulation fails to turn back — of whom that lamenting voice of God speaks: "In vain have I struck your sons; they did not accept discipline" (Jer.✦1 II, 30). This is the kind that wretched Antiochus and Herod fell into.
The Origin of Diverse Worship in the Fall
The diversity of human worship and its corresponding punishments stems not from nature but from the fault of the first transgression.
That we are subject to diverse forms of worship — for which a diversity of punishments is certainly owed — whether through ignorance, or through weakness, or at times through presumption, does not happen to us from the condition of our nature, but from the fault of the first transgression.
Read the original Latin
Afflictionum vero species tam diversae sunt, quam diversos culparum modos coelestis ille medicus nobis inesse videt; quatuor tamen modis comprehenduntur. Aliquando namque peccator affligitur pro peccatis praeteritis, sicut ille cui dicitur: Ecce sanus factus es, jam noli peccare, ne deterius tibi aliquid contingat (Joan. V, 14). Quae jussio docet quod pro culpis praeteritis vim doloris incurrerit. Aliquando pro cavendis futuris, quod Paulo contigit, qui, ne extolleretur, stimulum carnis accepit. Quidam doctores antiqui dolorem capitis aiunt fuisse. Aliquando quisque percutitur, ut dum inopinata liberatio periculum subsequitur, ardentius salvantis Dei virtus ametur. In qua percussione meritorum gratia succrescit, cum per patientiam fortitudo proficit.
Quod in beato Job completum est, qui prius ita laudatus, et postea sic remuneratus est. Nonnunquam vero in una qualibet persona tria haec genera simul concurrunt, ut in eo per afflictionem et praeterita puniantur, et futura prohibeantur, et laudes liberatoris Dei ex adempto periculo succendantur. Quartum genus est, quando quisque sic in praesenti percutitur, ut etiam in futuro puniatur. Quod illis solummodo accedit, quorum mentes tribulatio non convertit: de qualibus illa vox conquerentis Dei est: Frustra percussi filios tuos, disciplinam non receperunt (Jer. II, 30). Quod genus miser Antiochus et Herodes incurrit. Nam quod diversis cultibus, quibus utique diversitas poenarum debetur, aut per ignorantiam, aut per fragilitatem, aut interdum per audaciam subjacemus, non de conditione naturae nobis accidit, sed de vitio primae transgressionis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.5.14 — After these things, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have become well. Sin no longer, so that nothing worse happens to you."
- ↩2Cor.12.7 — And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, so that I would not be exalted beyond measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, so that I would not be exalted beyond measure.
- ↩Jer.2.30 — In vain I struck your children; they accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Notes
- 1 ↩Quotation from Jeremiah 2:30 (Vulgate). The Latin 'conquerentis' (of the one complaining/lamenting) renders God's voice as grieving over Israel's refusal to be corrected.
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