SR
← Collationes (Conferences / Collations)/Book 2 · Collationes — Liber II
Chapter 11OdoC.2.11

Caput X

The Wretchedness of Choosing the World

Before Christ's coming, worldly allurements were understandable, but now that the Son of God Himself calls us to heavenly delights, it is madness to prefer fleeting pleasures over everlasting glory with the saints.

Before the faith of Christ had shone forth, before the world knew of another life — where the eternal kingdom is received — it was not very surprising if mortals laid themselves open to worldly allurements. But now, when not only all the saints set before us from the beginning of the world, but the Son of God himself, born of a virgin, both restrains us from those same allurements and persuades us to desire heavenly delights so greatly, it is astonishing — or rather, this madness of ours is wretched — that we choose to rejoice for a brief moment in beggarly and needy itchings rather than to be joined with the saints in everlasting glory.1 But what will happen? Surely what the Judge himself threatens, saying: "Those who despise me will be without honor" (1 Sam. 2:30).✦2 1 Sam. 2:30). And likewise: "You have despised all my counsel, and I called, and you refused."✦3 "I also will laugh at your destruction."✦4 "When sudden calamity rushes upon you, when tribulation and distress come over you."✦5

Too Late to Understand

When calamity finally strikes, those who despised God's counsel will cry out in vain, for affliction alone gives understanding to what was once heard and rejected.

Then they will call upon me, and I will not hear them, because they have held discipline in contempt (Prov.✦ 1:25–29). But, as it is also written, affliction alone will give understanding to what is heard — because, clearly, they despise everything they now hear in the Scriptures, as though they do not understand it, until they begin to be punished through torments. Then they will call it back to mind. Then their mind will boil over. Then they will set themselves ablaze with the fires of a fruitless repentance.✦67 As it is written: Would that, while there is still time, they would understand, and foresee the end (Deut.✦8 32:29).

The Two Roads

A vivid parable of two paths — a rocky road leading to the royal banquet or a flowery meadow ending in death — illustrates how sinners choose pleasant destruction over hard-won glory.

Otherwise, it is as if someone were given the choice: would he wish to walk a short distance — yes, but over a rocky road — and so be admitted among the royal children to the royal banquet?9 Or would he rather, along with buffoons and condemned criminals, make his way through a flowery meadow, playing as he goes, and at the meadow's edge meet his death?10 That person, considering not the destination but the nature of the journey, would choose the more pleasant road — the one by which he would arrive more quickly at a terrible destruction.11

Virtues Without the Cross

Those who desire virtues but refuse the hard work and humiliation they demand are like sinners walking two paths at once — entangled, inconsistent, and ultimately unfulfilled.

These people certainly do some good things, and sometimes they propose to live according to discipline, but they always fall back into their usual sins. They want to be humble, of course, but without being looked down on; to be content in prosperity, but without hardship; to be chaste, but without bodily mortification; to be patient, but without insults. They seek to attain virtues, but they cannot reach them, because they run from the hard work those virtues demand.12 Hence it is well written: "Entangled are the paths of their steps" (Job 6:18), because they either don't pursue the pursuits of the virtues at all, or if they did pursue them, they broke down under the effort and never attained them.✦13 Hence likewise: "Woe to the sinner who enters by two paths!"14 (Eccli. II, 14.)

Read the original Latin

Antequam fides Christi claresceret, antequam mundus alteram vitam sciret, ubi vel aeternum regnum recipitur, non valde mirum erat si se mortales mundialibus illecebris substernebant. At nunc cum non solum per omnes sanctos ab origine mundi praelatos, sed etiam per se ipsum Dei Filius de virgine natus ab eisdem illecebris nos compescat, et ad coelestes delicias tantopere appetendas persuadeat, mira est, vel potius misera haec nostra dementia, ut eligamus emendicatis et egenis pruritibus ad modicum laetari momentum, magis quam in omnimoda gloria sociari sanctis in aeternum. Sed quid fiet? utique quod Judex ipse comminatur dicens: Qui contemnunt me, erunt ignobiles (I Reg. II, 30). Et item: Despexistis omne consilium meum, et vocavi, et renuistis. Ego quoque in interitu vestro ridebo. Cum irruerit repentina calamitas, quando venerit super vos tribulatio et angustia.

Tunc invocabunt me, et non exaudiam, eo quod exosam habuerint disciplinam (Prov. I, 25-29). Sed, ut item scriptum est, sola vexatio intellectum dabit auditui, quia videlicet cuncta quae nunc in Scripturis audiunt, quae quasi non intelligant, contemnunt, donec per tormenta puniri incipiant, tunc ad memoriam reducent, tunc mens eorum exaestuat, tunc infructuosae poenitentiae ignibus se inflammat. Qui, ut scriptum est, utinam, dum licet, intelligerent, ac novissima providerent (Deut. XXXII, 29). Alioquin tale est ac si alicui proponatur utrum velit, per brevem quidem, sed petrosam viam paululum incedere, et ita inter regios pueros ad regale prandium intromitti? an magis velit cum scurris et damnatitiis per floridum pratum ludendo pergere, et ad finem prati mortem subire? Ille vero non finem, sed qualitatem itineris cogitans eligat magis suavem viam, per quam citius veniat ad horrendum exitium.

Isti sane nonnulla bona faciunt, ac interdum vivere secundum disciplinam proponunt, sed semper ad consueta mala replicantur. Esse quippe humiles volunt, sed sine despectu; esse contenti prosperis, sed sine necessitate; esse casti, sed sine maceratione corporis; esse patientes, sed sine contumeliis; adipisci virtutes quaerunt, sed consequi non possunt, quia labores earum refugiunt. Unde bene scriptum est: Involutae sunt semitae gressuum eorum (Job VI, 18); quia virtutum studia aut non appetunt, aut si appetierunt, fracti in suo conamine, non ea consequuntur. Hinc item: Vae peccatori ingredienti duabus viis! (Eccli. II, 14.)

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Sam.2.30 — Therefore, declares the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I promised that your house and your father's house would walk before me forever. But now, declares the LORD, far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be held in contempt.'
  2. ↩Prov.1.25 — and you disregarded all my counsel and refused my rebuke,
  3. ↩Prov.1.26 — I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes,
  4. ↩Prov.1.27 — when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
  5. ↩Prov.1.25-Prov.1.29 — and you disregarded all my counsel and refused my rebuke, Prov.1.26 — I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, Prov.1.27 — when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Prov.1.28 — Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Prov.1.29 — For they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD.
  6. ↩Prov.1.24-Prov.1.28;Prov.24.30-Prov.24.34 — Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; Prov.1.25 — and you disregarded all my counsel and refused my rebuke, Prov.1.26 — I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, Prov.1.27 — when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Prov.1.28 — Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Prov.24.30 — I passed by the field of a sluggard, and by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, Prov.24.31 — And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; its face was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Prov.24.32 — Then I saw, I gave my heart attention; I looked, I took correction to heart. Prov.24.33 — A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down. Prov.24.34 — and so your poverty comes like a prowler, and your want like an armed man
  7. ↩Deut.32.29 — If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their end.
  8. ↩Job.6.18 — The paths of their way are twisted; they go up into the wasteland and perish.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩emendicatis et egenis pruritibus: rare and vivid metaphor; rendered as 'beggarly and needy itchings' to capture the contemptuous tone of the Latin.
  2. 2 ↩Citation marked as I Reg. II, 30 in the source, corresponding to 1 Samuel 2:30. Moses resolution pending.
  3. 3 ↩Quotation from Proverbs 1:25 (Vulg.). Moses resolution pending.
  4. 4 ↩Quotation from Proverbs 1:26 (Vulg.). Moses resolution pending.
  5. 5 ↩Quotation from Proverbs 1:27 (Vulg.). Moses resolution pending.
  6. 6 ↩The phrase 'sola vexatio intellectum dabit auditui' echoes Proverbs 24:30–34 (Vulgate) or possibly a related proverbial tradition; the idea is that suffering alone opens the ears to understanding.
  7. 7 ↩'infructuosae poenitentiae' rendered as 'fruitless repentance' — the Latin implies repentance that bears no salvific fruit, not merely delayed repentance.
  8. 8 ↩'utinam' carries an optative force — a wish or lament — rendered here as 'Would that.' The subjunctives 'intelligerent' and 'providerent' express this wish.
  9. 9 ↩The rhetorical question sets up a comparison between two paths: a brief rocky road leading to glory versus a pleasant meadow leading to death. The 'royal banquet' evokes the heavenly feast.
  10. 10 ↩The 'flowery meadow' (floridum pratum) represents the pleasant but deadly path of worldly indulgence. 'Scurris et damnatitiis' — buffoons and condemned persons — underscores the company one keeps on that path.
  11. 11 ↩The sentence is a pointed conclusion to the two rhetorical questions: the foolish person chooses comfort over salvation. 'Non finem, sed qualitatem itineris cogitans' — not the end but the quality of the road — is the core irony.
  12. 12 ↩maceratio corporis rendered 'bodily mortification' to preserve the ascetical sense of disciplined self-denial, not mere discomfort.
  13. 13 ↩Quotation from Job 6:18 (Vulgate numbering). Moses resolution pending.
  14. 14 ↩Quotation from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 2:14. Moses resolution pending.

Collationes (Conferences / Collations) companion

Day 11 and onward, delivered every morning

All 140 conferences — and the rest of the Sub Rosa library — in daily portions in the free Chosen Portion iOS app

Odo urged a daily return to sacred reading as the cure for the soul's slow decline; Chosen Portion makes that daily return a scheduled habit on your phone.

  • Continue through all three books of the Conferences at 5 minutes a day
  • Daily examination-style readings drawn from 78+ historic works
  • One morning notification to keep the practice going past day 10
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →