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← Collationes (Conferences / Collations)/Book 2 · Collationes — Liber II
Chapter 31OdoC.2.31

Caput XXX

The Changed Color of Religious Appearance

Odo laments those who alter their outward religious dress while remaining inwardly separated from Christ by serious sins, invoking Jeremiah's cry that the finest color has changed.

But why do we say this about outward things, since many are so careless about themselves that they change their outward appearance in dress, while on the inside they are separated from the body of Christ by any number of serious sins? And yet they do not stop celebrating the sacrifice. For while certain people wear garments that are lay in part or in whole, they are rightly to be compared to those who in the book *The City of God* are called cynics — and not to holy Joseph, who is said to have received from his father a tunic reaching to the ankles.✦ These are the very ones Jeremiah laments, saying: 'How the finest color has changed!'✦ (Lament. IV, 1.) The finest color is a bearing that displays a religious life lovely to all. That color is changed when certain garments, sought out of a spirit of ostentation, make the wearer's reputation cheap in the eyes of laypeople.

Joined to a Prostitute, Separated from Christ

Drawing on Paul and Paschasius, Odo warns that one who joins himself to sin becomes a member of the Antichrist and is forbidden to touch the Body of Christ, for only one who first remains in Christ may worthily receive him.

But whoever clings to a prostitute becomes one body with her (1 Cor.✦ 6:16), and is now no longer a member of Christ, but of the Antichrist.✦ Of whom it is said through Daniel that he will be in the lusts of women (Dan.✦ 11:37). As Paschasius says in his book on the Body of the Lord: 'Whoever becomes a member or the limbs of a prostitute has surely fallen away from the body of Christ, and therefore it is not permitted to him to touch the body of Christ.'1 For Christ himself shows who ought to do so, saying: 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him' (John✦ 6:57). And as if he were to say: 'Unless he first remains in me, he cannot eat my flesh, nor drink my blood.'✦

Eating Judgment: The Unworthy Communicant

Odo asks what the sinner truly eats at the altar and answers: not life but judgment, because he fails to discern the Body of the Lord, joining Judas in guilty association rather than the apostles in faithful communion.

So what does the sinner eat, and what does he drink? Surely not the flesh and blood to his own benefit, but judgment — even though he appears, along with everyone else, to receive the Sacraments of the altar.2 And why? Because it first tests us — whether or not we are in the Body of Christ.3 And further, because he does not distinguish — that is, he does not discern the Body of the Lord: what it is, how great it is, because it is a Sacrament, and what the power of the Sacrament is, because it is divine and spiritual.4 So from the very beginning of this observance, Christ threatened judgment on those who receive it unworthily — for immediately after the morsel was received from his hand, the devil entered Judas. This showed at once the judgment that would come in the Church.56 If anyone, therefore, having fallen away from the Body of Christ and become a member of a harlot or of the devil, presumes to touch this most holy Body, there is no doubt that on this account he receives judgment and is joined with Judas in guilty association — as much because he fell as because, condemned by his own conscience, he dared, without penance and without the pardon of correction, to profane the holy mysteries.789 Likewise, from the same book we read that God gave the sons of Israel bread from heaven, containing every delight, but He was not pleased with many of them (Wis.10

Manna and the Two Kinds of Eaters

Just as the manna gave life to the spiritual Israelites but death to the carnal, so the Eucharist is life to some and punishment to others; therefore one must receive it spiritually, discerning that Christ himself consecrates and bestows it.

(Wisdom 16:20), as the Apostle testifies. That carnal people despised the manna because they looked for nothing in it but carnal things.✦ And so those in whom God was not pleased are dead.✦ But those among them who were spiritual could not die, because they ate spiritually; for that heavenly food offered them the taste and delight of immortality. So it is now in the Church as well: this food is life to some, but punishment to others.✦ So learn, O man, that God is spirit, and understand that this food is to be received and contemplated not carnally but spiritually, because it is consecrated by no one other than Christ himself and offered by no one other than himself.✦ And indeed the visible priest stands at the altar, by whose hands the food is seen to be consecrated and bestowed; but it is Christ — who both consecrates and bestows it, and to whom it is divinely discerned what remedy is to be given to each one as a remedy. For the one who, like Judas, is held guilty in contempt and vice is certainly condemned with Judas; and the one who partakes faithfully with Peter and the other apostles is certainly consecrated with Peter and the other apostles in body and soul.✦

The Shadow and the Truth: Levitical Purity Applied

Odo applies Leviticus 22:3 to the Eucharist, arguing a fortiori that if the unclean could not approach the Old Testament shadow, how much less may they approach the Truth itself, since God searches hearts and discerns who draws near.

This judgment, then, follows immediately upon the birthday of the cup, so that we may be taught what threatens those who despise it — if the condemned have not withdrawn their foot from the table of the Lord because of conscience. Hence God spoke through Moses: Say, he tells them, to the sons of Aaron and to their descendants: Anyone of your lineage who approaches the consecrated things while in a state of uncleanness will perish before God.✦ I am the Lord (Lev.✦ XXII, 3). And certainly those things were nothing other than a shadow of these. If, then, the unclean were not permitted to approach the shadow, how much less to the Truth itself? From this prohibition he drew his conclusion, saying: I am the Lord.✦ As though he should say:

The Priest Must Wash His Garments

Odo exhorts priests and Levites to purify themselves before approaching the altar, invoking Ambrose on preparatory purification and 1 Samuel 2:25 to warn that one who sins against God has no intercessor.

I search hearts—I myself, the priest, and I discern what sort of person each one is who approaches. Hence Ambrose, in the first book of his *Officiorum*: "The people were purified," he says, "for two days or three days, and they washed their garments, and they were not otherwise permitted to approach the sacrifice." But if in the figure so great an observance was commanded to the people, how much greater care must be exercised by the priests in the truth itself? Learn therefore, O priest and Levite, what it means to wash your garments, lest with a defiled body in which the soul is clothed, you presume to profane the majesty of so great a mystery. Hence in the book of Kings it is said: "If a man has sinned against a man, God can be appeased for him; but if he has sinned against God, who will pray for him?" (1 Kings✦ 2:25)? For then, concerning the negligence of sacrifices, Eli, though only lukewarmly, rebuked his sons. Which is as much as to say: He who, despising God the Creator of all creation, presumes unworthily to partake to His injury—whom will he have as intercessor?

Neither Revering God Nor Fearing the Angels

The chapter closes with a stark portrait of the unworthy communicant who neither reveres God's presence nor fears the angels standing by.

Such a person neither reveres God's presence nor fears the presence of the angels standing by.

Read the original Latin

Sed quid hoc de exterioribus dicimus, cum plerique sic in semetipsis negligentes existant, ut foris in habitu immutentur, et intus per nonnulla gravia peccata a Christi corpore separentur? Et tamen sacrificare non cessant. Dum enim quibusdam indumentis vel ex parte, vel ex toto laicalibus utuntur, illis merito comparandi sunt, qui in libro de Civitate Dei appellantur cynici: et non sancto Joseph, qui talarem tunicam legitur a patre percepisse. Quos et Jeremias deplorat, dicens: Quomodo mutatus est color optimus? (Thren. IV, 1.) Color optimus est habitus praetendens religionem cunctis amabilem. Qui color tunc immutatur, cum quaedam indumenta studio jactantiae quaesita opinionem utentis apud laicos vilescere faciunt.

Qui autem adhaeret meretrici, unum corpus efficitur (I Cor. VI, 16), et jam non membrum Christi, sed Antichristi est. De quo per Danielem dicitur, quia erit in concupiscentiis feminarum (Dan. XI, 37). Ut enim Paschasius in libro de corpore Domini dicit: Quisquis vel membra meretricis fit, hic utique elapsus de corpore Christi est, et idcirco non licet ei corpus Christi contingere. Nam qui debeant ipse Christus ostendit, dicens: Qui manducat carnem meam et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in eo (Joan. VI, 57). Ac si diceret: Nisi prius in me maneat, carnem meam manducare non potest, neque sanguinem meum bibere.

Quid ergo manducat peccator, et quid bibit? Non utique utiliter sibi carnem et sanguinem, sed judicium, licet videatur cum caeteris altaris sacramenta percipere. Et quare? Quia nos se probat prius utrum in corpore Christi sit, an non. Deinde quia non dijudicat, videlicet ut discernat corpus Domini: quid est quantum, quia sacramentum, qualisque virtus sacramenti, quia divinum ac spiritale est. Unde in primordio hujus celebritatis Christus judicium male accipientibus comminatur, dum continuo post buccellam de manu ejus perceptam diabolus Judam pervasit: ubi mox ostenditur futurum in Ecclesia judicium. Si quis ergo lapsus de corpore Christi, factus membrum meretricis vel diaboli, praesumpserit hoc sacrosanctum corpus contingere, nec dubium quin ob id judicium excipiat, et cum Juda culpae societur obnoxius, tam quia corruit, quam quia ex conscientia damnatus, ausus est sine poenitentia et correctionis venia sancta mysteria temerare. Item ex eodem libro legimus, quia Deus dedit filiis Israel panem de coelo, habentem omne delectamentum, sed non in pluribus eorum beneplacitum fuit Deo (Sap.

XVI, 20), ut testatur Apostolus. Nam populus ille carnalis manna fastidivit, quia inibi non nisi carnalia quaesivit. Illi itaque mortui sunt, in quibus non beneplacitum fuit Deo. Quicunque vero inter eos spirituales fuerunt, mori non potuerunt, quia spiritaliter comederunt; quia eis esca illa coelestis saporem et delectamentum immortalitatis praebuit. Itaque similiter nunc in Ecclesia cibus iste quibusdam vita est, quibusdam vero supplicium. Unde, o homo, disce quia Deus spiritus est, et ideo intellige quia cibus iste non carnaliter, sed spiritaliter, et cogitandus et sumendus est, quia neque ab alio quam ab ipso Christo consecratur, neque ab alio quam ab ipso porrigitur. Et quidem sacerdos visibilis astat, per cujus manus consecrari et tribui videtur, sed Christus qui illum et consecrat et tribuit, cui et remedium cuique ad remedium tribuatur, divinitus discernit. Nam is qui cum Juda contemptu et vitio reus tenetur, cum Juda utique condemnatur: et qui cum Petro ac caeteris fideliter participatur, cum ipso utique et caeteris apostolis in corpore et anima consecratur.

Hoc ergo judicium in natale calicis mox excipitur, ut doceatur quid contemptoribus immineat, si damnati a conscientia pedem a mensa Domini non retraxerint. Hinc Deus per Moysem: Dic, inquit, ad filios Aaron, et ad posteros eorum: Omnis qui accesserit de stirpe vestra ad ea quae consecrata sunt, in qua est immunditia, peribit coram Deo. Ego sum Dominus (Lev. XXII, 3). Et certe illa nihil aliud erant quam umbra istorum. Si ergo ad umbram non licebat immundum accedere, quantominus ad ipsam Veritatem? Ex qua in finem prohibitionis conclusit, dicens: Ego Dominus. Ac si dicat.

Ego scrutans corda, ego ipse sacerdos, qui discerno qualis unusquisque accedat. Hinc Ambrosius in primo Officiorum: Castificabatur, inquit, populus per biduum, aut triduum, et lavabant vestimenta sua, et non aliter ad hostiam accedere permittebatur. Sed si in figura tanta populo observantia jubebatur, quanta in ipsa veritate sacerdotibus tenenda est? Disce igitur, o sacerdos et levita, quid sit lavare vestimenta, ne inquinato corpore quo anima vestitur, majestatem tanti mysterii temerare praesumas. Hinc in Regum volumine dicitur: Si peccaverit vir in virum, placari ei potest Deus: si autem in Deum peccaverit, quis orabit pro eo (I Reg. II, 25)? Tunc enim de negligentia sacrificiorum licet tepide Heli filios suos corripiebat. Quod tale est ac si diceret: Qui Deum totius creaturae conditorem contemnens indignus ad ejus injuriam communicare praesumit, quem intercessorem habebit?

Talis profecto nec Dei reveretur praesentiam, nec praesentiam formidat astantium angelorum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.37.3 — Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves.
  2. ↩Lam.4.1 — How the gold has grown dim, the fine gold has changed! The sacred stones are poured out at the head of every street.
  3. ↩1Cor.6.16 — Or do you not know that the one who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, 'The two shall become one flesh.'
  4. ↩1Cor.6.15-1Cor.6.16 — Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 1Cor.6.16 — Or do you not know that the one who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, 'The two shall become one flesh.'
  5. ↩Dan.11.37 — He will have no regard for the God of his fathers, nor for the desire of women, nor for any god at all; for he will magnify himself above all.
  6. ↩John.6.56 — The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
  7. ↩John.6.56-John.6.57 — The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. John.6.57 — Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
  8. ↩Num.21.5;Ps.78.18-Ps.78.20 — And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water, and our soul is weary of this worthless bread." Ps.78.18 — They tested God in their hearts, asking food for their souls. Ps.78.19 — They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" Ps.78.20 — Look, he struck the rock and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?
  9. ↩1Cor.10.5 — But God was not pleased with most of them; for they were scattered in the wilderness.
  10. ↩1Cor.11.29-1Cor.11.30 — For the one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1Cor.11.30 — Because of this, many among you are weak and sick, and a considerable number have died.
  11. ↩John.4.24 — God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
  12. ↩John.13.26-John.13.30;1Cor.11.27-1Cor.11.29 — 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.' John.13.28 — But none of those reclining at the table knew for what reason he said this to him. John.13.29 — Some thought that because Judas held the money box, Jesus was telling him, 'Buy what we need for the feast,' or that he should give something to the poor. John.13.30 — So after receiving the piece of bread, he went out immediately. And it was night. 1Cor.11.27 — So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 1Cor.11.28 — But let a person examine himself, and in this way let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 1Cor.11.29 — For the one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
  13. ↩Lev.22.3 — Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man of your offspring who approaches the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate to the LORD while his uncleanness is upon him—that person shall be cut off from before Me. I am the LORD.
  14. ↩Lev.22.3 — Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man of your offspring who approaches the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate to the LORD while his uncleanness is upon him—that person shall be cut off from before Me. I am the LORD.
  15. ↩Lev.22.3 — Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man of your offspring who approaches the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate to the LORD while his uncleanness is upon him—that person shall be cut off from before Me. I am the LORD.
  16. ↩1Sam.2.25 — If one person sins against another, God will arbitrate for him; but if a person sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him? Yet they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to put them to death.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini — the quotation reinforces the argument that those in mortal sin must not approach the Eucharist
  2. 2 ↩ceteris taken as a prepositional phrase ('along with the rest') rather than a concessive conjunction; the sense is that the sinner outwardly appears indistinguishable from the other communicants.
  3. 3 ↩The subject of probat is ambiguous in the Latin (likely 'the Sacrament' or 'this'); rendered impersonally as 'it' to preserve the ambiguity of the source.
  4. 4 ↩dijudicat is a rare verb; rendered as 'does not distinguish' to convey the sense of failing to make a judgment or discernment. The series of indirect questions (quid est, quantum, qualisque virtus) is compressed in the Latin and expanded slightly for readability.
  5. 5 ↩celebritatis rendered as 'observance' (referring to the Eucharistic celebration/institution); the rare noun could also mean 'festival' or 'solemnity.'
  6. 6 ↩The reference to Judas receiving the morsel and the devil entering him echoes John 13:27; the connection between this event and future judgment in the Church is the author's theological inference.
  7. 7 ↩lapsus rendered as 'having fallen away' (from the Body of Christ, i.e., through sin); the participle could also mean 'having slipped' but the theological sense of apostasy is clear from context.
  8. 8 ↩culpae societur: 'is joined with Judas in guilty association' — the dative of association conveys shared culpability.
  9. 9 ↩sancta mysteria: rendered as 'holy mysteries' to preserve the sacramental gravity of the Eucharist without flattening the language.
  10. 10 ↩The reference is to Wisdom (Sapientiae), a deuterocanonical book. The allusion is to the manna narrative (Exodus 16 / Wisdom 16:20–21), where God gave heavenly bread but was not pleased with many of the people.

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