Caput XXVIII
The Lament over Profaning the Lord's Body
Odo grieves that through unnamed vices people fall away from Christ, but far worse is their profanation of the Eucharist—the greatest divine gift and the whole salvation of the world—and recalls how the early Church celebrated this mystery rarely but with profound devoutness, entrusting it to those of natural simplicity.
And about this — that through these three vices, or through the others that it shames us to name, people seem to fall away from Christ — it is indeed greatly to be lamented; but much more so about this: that they dare to profane that most sacred mystery, namely the mystery of the Lord's Body. For this is the greatest benefit among all the goods that have been granted to human beings, and it is the one that God has bestowed on mortals with the greatest love, because in this mystery the whole salvation of the world consists. And certainly, while it is treated unworthily, through this the divine majesty is especially injured daily. About this, therefore, there is reason to grieve; about this there is every reason to groan deeply — so that if we cannot correct it, we may at least show by our protest that the feeling of grief is present within us, lest perhaps the voice of Christ accuse us, saying: 'I waited for someone to be grieved, and there was none' (Ps. 68, 21). This mystery, in the early days of the Church, was not celebrated as frequently as it is now; yet the more rarely it was celebrated, the more devoutly it was performed. For in the time of the earlier fathers, the office of celebrating the sacrifice was entrusted to those who shone with natural simplicity, according to the word: 'God's conversation is with the simple' (Prov.✦ 3, 32).
The Growing Coldness of Charity and the Devil's Strategy
The early Church approached the Eucharist with bare feet and holy fear, as Pachomius demanded of his bakers; but now the mystery is celebrated far more often and far more carelessly, revealed by the neglected state of churches and vessels, since charity has grown cold and the devil permits frequent sacrifice only to increase the burden of unworthy reception.
Those who were to share in this mystery approached with bare feet, because of what was commanded to Moses and Joshua.✦✦ Saint Pachomius also commanded the bakers that when they were baking the offerings, they should meditate on things that bring salvation, speaking nothing vain. So when this practice was violated on a certain occasion in the monastery of Tabennese, it was immediately revealed to Pachomius by God, and he, sending Theodore at once, had this negligence corrected as though it were a transgression of a divine command. But now it is celebrated very often indeed, very much more frequently — but, and this is far more to be lamented, much more carelessly. This negligence is clearly shown by the very appearance of the church itself, by the very vessels of the altar, and also by the linens, or by whatever other things pertain to the service of the Lord's ministry. It isn't necessary to set out each detail one by one: it's clear enough which things priests tend to more zealously — the things that are their own, or the things that belong to the altar. But surely, since charity — which is the fullness of the law — has now entirely grown cold, how does such great persistence in the practice of sacrifice continue, unless it is because the evil enemy opposes those who sacrifice in this very matter, knowing that it is in this that they are more heavily burdened?✦ For he did not forbid Judas from receiving the Eucharist.✦
Priests Who Pollute the Altar
The devil did not bar Judas from the Eucharist because unworthy reception frees deceit to rage; through Malachi, God reproaches priests who despise His name and offer polluted bread, making the Lord's table contemptible to the laity by their lack of outward reverence, and the contempt felt toward holy places is chiefly the ministers' own fault.
For he knew that just as deceit is held in check by the devout through their receiving of that mystery, so among those who receive it unworthily it rages all the more freely. For against those who neglect the outward worship of the church the Lord complains through Malachi, saying: O you priests who despise my name, you offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: The table of the Lord is polluted (Malach. 1:6–7). Priests pollute the bread—that is, the Body of Christ, as Jerome explains—when they approach the altar unworthily. Indeed, the table may be despised; they may not say so in words, yet when they do not adorn it with outward reverence, they make it contemptible to the laity, since their carnal senses conclude that the holiness of divine power is lacking where they see the adornment of ambition lacking. And so it is fitting that the same is said to them: You have departed from the way, and have caused many to stumble; and because of this I have made you contemptible (Malach. 2:8). Finally, the fact that holy places or the ministers of the Church are now held in contempt is chiefly the fault of the ministers themselves.
The Sacrifice God Requires First
Those who venerate truly devout religious show that contempt for the Church stems from unworthy ministers; priests must first become a sacrifice to God through mortification of vices, for God reproaches worshippers through Jeremiah and Isaiah, demanding obedience and cleansing before any burnt offering, and David teaches that only a broken spirit is the sacrifice God delights in before the altar sacrifice.
This is clear from the fact that even laypeople who look down on religious, if they happen to find someone they believe to be truly devout, are accustomed to venerate that person deeply. Those who wish to offer sacrifice to God at the altar ought first, through the mortification of their vices, to be a sacrifice of God themselves; otherwise they are regarded as more reckless than true worshippers of the same mystery. This is shown through Jeremiah, through whom God reproaches such people, saying: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh (Jer.✦ VII, 21). Yours, he says, not mine, because I did not speak with your fathers, nor did I command them concerning the matter of burnt offerings and sacrifices; but this I commanded them, saying: Hear my voice, and walk in every way that I have commanded you (Jer.✦ VII, 23). And Isaiah: Who has required these things from your hands, that you should bring sacrifice in vain? (Isa.✦ I, 12)? And next: "Wash, and be clean" (Isa. 1:16). And so on. These words show that a person sacrifices to his own ruin when he does not first walk in the way of God's commandments and remove the evil of his own thinking from God's sight. David says in the psalm of penitence: "If you had wished, I would have given a sacrifice" (Ps. 50:18). What sacrifice we ought to offer first, so that we may then celebrate the sacrifice of the altar in proper order, he makes clear, saying: "A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God" (Ps. 51:19), as if to say: "You do not delight in the sacrifice of the altar unless you have first been reconciled by the sacrifice of a broken heart."
The Saint's Relics Removed from the Altar
In the church of Saint Gualburgis, miracles ceased when her relics were placed upon the Lord's altar; the virgin herself appeared to a sick person, declaring that her relics had no place where the divine mystery alone ought to be celebrated, and once the reliquary was removed, miracles resumed—teaching that if even a saint's relics must yield to the altar's holiness, how much more must unclean things be kept away.
There's a church of blessed Gualburgis in this region near us, where miracles are taking place. It happened, just as Lord Abbot Berno relates, that the relics of that same Saint Gualburgis were to remain on the altar for several days. But soon the miracles stopped. At last the virgin herself appeared to one of the sick and said, 'This is why you aren't healed — because my relics are on the Lord's altar, where the majesty of the divine mystery ought to be celebrated alone.' When he reported this to the guardians, they carried away the reliquary, and immediately miracles began to happen. If, then, out of reverence for that mystery, the saint's own relics don't wish to be placed any closer, what is to be thought about unclean things?
Read the original Latin
Et de hoc quidem quod vel per haec tria vitia, vel per caetera quae enumerare pudet, a Christo apostatare videntur, valde dolendum est: sed multo plus de hoc quod illud sacrosanctum mysterium Dominici videlicet corporis temerare praesumunt. Hoc enim beneficium majus est inter omnia bona, quae hominibus concessa sunt, et hoc est quod Deus majori charitate mortalibus indulsit, quia in hoc mysterio salus mundi tota consistit. Et certe dum indigne tractatur, per hoc maxime divina quotidie majestas injuriatur. De hoc ergo dolendum est, de hoc omnimodis ingemiscendum, ut si emendare non possumus, vel dolendi affectum nobis inesse reclamando monstremus ne forte vox Christi nos arguat, dicens: Sustinui qui semel contristaretur, et non fuit (Psal. LXVIII, 21). Quod denique mysterium primordiis Ecclesiae non tam frequenter ut nunc celebrabatur: tamen quanto rarius, tanto religiosius agebatur. Tempore namque priorum patrum illis injungebatur, ut Eusebii refert historia, sacrificandi officium, qui naturali simplicitate fulgebant, juxta illud: Cum simplicibus sermocinatio Dei (Prov. III, 32).
Quod mysterium qui participare debebant, discalceatis pedibus accedebant; propter illud quod Moysi et Josue praeceptum est. Sanctus quoque Pachomius pistoribus praecepit, ut cum oblationes coquerent, salutaria meditarentur, nihil vane loquentes. Cum ergo hoc in monasterio Tabennense quadam vice violaretur, statim Pachomio divinitus revelatum est, qui protinus Theodorum mittens negligentiam hanc velut divini praecepti transgressionem emendari fecit. At nunc valde quidem, valde frequentius, sed quod nimis dolendum est, negligentius frequentatur. Quam scilicet negligentiam et ipsa ecclesiae facies, et ipsa vasa altaris, sed et linteamina, seu quaelibet caetera, quae ad usum Dominicae servitutis pertinent, manifeste demonstrant. Non necesse est singula singulatim prodere: satis patet quae studiosius sacerdotes colunt quae sua sunt, an quae altaris. Sed nimirum cum charitas quae est plenitudo legis penitus tota jam refrigescit, quomodo in sacrificando continuatio tanta perseverat, nisi quia malignus hostis in hoc sacrificantibus contradicit, in quo magis eos gravari novit? Neque enim Judam vetuit Eucharistiam sumere.
Scivit enim quia sicut a devotis per illius mysterii perceptionem ejus fraus compescitur, sic in his qui eam indigni percipiunt licentius grassatur. Contra eos etenim qui exteriorem ecclesiae cultum negligunt, Dominus per Malachiam queritur, dicens: O vos sacerdotes, qui despicitis nomen meum, offertis super altare meum panem pollutum, et dicitis: Mensa Domini polluta est (Malac. I, 6, 7). Polluunt sacerdotes panem, id est corpus Christi, ut Hieronymus exponit, qui indigni accedunt ad altare. Mensam vero despectam licet verbis non dicant, tamen cum exteriorem ei cultum non ornant, eam etiam laicis despectabilem faciunt quoniam carnalium sensus deesse putant sanctimoniam divinae virtutis, ubi deesse vident ornatum ambitionis. Unde et congruit eis quod item dicitur: Vos recessitis de via, et scandalizastis plurimos: propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles esse (Malac. II, 8). Denique quod loca sancta vel ministri Ecclesiae nunc in contemptu sunt, maxime ipsorum ministrorum culpa est.
Quod ex his apparet, quoniam ipsi laici qui eos despiciunt, si quem forte repererint quem religiosum credant, non mediocriter venerari solent. Qui enim ad altare sacrificare Deo volunt, ipsi prius per mortificationem vitiorum Dei sacrificium esse debent: alioquin magis temerarii, quam cultores ejusdem mysterii deputantur. Quod per Jeremiam ostenditur, per quem talibus exprobrat Deus dicens: Holocotaumata vestra addite victimis vestris, et comedite carnes (Jer. VII, 21). Vestra, inquit, non mea, quia non sum locutus cum patribus vestris, et non praecepi eis de verbo holocautomatum et victimarum, sed hoc praecepi eis dicens: Audite vocem meam, et ambulate in via omni quam mandavi vobis (Jer. VII, 23). Et Isaias: Quis quaesivit haec de manibus vestris, ne afferatis sacrificium frustra (Isa. I, 12)?
Et deinde: Lavamini, mundi estote (Isa. I, 16). Et caetera. Quibus verbis ostenditur, quod ille ad sui perniciem sacrificat, qui prius in via mandatorum Dei non ambulat, et qui suae cogitationis malum ab ejus oculis non aufert. Hinc David in psalmo poenitentiae dicit: Si voluisses, sacrificium dedissem (Psal. L, 18). Quale vero sacrificium prius offerre debeamus, ut deinceps altaris sacrificium recto ordine celebrare possimus, manifestat dicens: Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus (Psal. L, 19), ac si diceret: Altaris sacrificio non delectaris, nisi prius sacrificio contriti cordis placatus fueris.
Est ecclesia beatae Gualburgis in hac vicina nobis regione, in qua miracula fiunt. Contigit autem, sicut domnus abbas Berno refert, ut ejusdem sanctae Gualburgis reliquiae super altare per aliquot dies manerent. Sed mox miracula cessaverunt. Tandem vero ipsa virgo cuidam ex infirmis apparens: Idcirco, inquit, non sanamini, quia reliquiae meae sunt super altare Domini, ubi majestas divini myterii debet solummodo celebrari. Quod cum ille custodibus referret tulerunt capsam, et protinus miracula fieri coeperunt. Si ergo ob illius mysterii reverentiam, nec ipsa sua pignora sancti volunt proprius vicinari, quid censendum est de immunditiis?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.3.32 — For the devious are an abomination to the LORD, but the upright enjoy his intimate counsel.
- ↩Exod.3.5 — Then He said, "Do not come closer. Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
- ↩Josh.5.15 — And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.
- ↩Rom.13.10 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
- ↩John.13.26-John.13.27 — Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it.' So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. John.13.27 — And after the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus said to him, 'What you are doing, do quickly.'
- ↩Jer.7.21 — Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat.
- ↩Jer.7.22-Jer.7.23 — For I did not speak with your fathers, nor did I command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice. Jer.7.23 — But this is the command I gave them: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in every way that I command you, so that it may go well with you.
- ↩Isa.1.12 — When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand—trampling my courts?
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