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Chapter 34OdoC.2.34

Caput XXXIII

The Gravity of Discord and Impurity Before the Altar

Odo teaches that discord and sexual immorality are the gravest sins because they render the Eucharistic gift itself unacceptable, citing Christ's command to reconcile before offering, Gregory's witness, and Zechariah's vision of chastity as the fruit of the mystery.

Yet of all sins, discord and sexual immorality weigh most heavily. For the Lord himself says this about discord: 'If you offer your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go — first be reconciled to your brother' (Matt.✦ 5:23, 24).✦ As Saint Gregory confesses about this, we must carefully consider how great a fault discord is — for the very gift by which every other guilt is accustomed to be loosed is rejected on its account. As for sexual immorality, this is clear from the fact that no one comes to this mystery more dangerously than the lustful. This is shown by the discernment of virtues — in which chastity, by which those who share in this mystery ought to be strong, is placed first. 'Gird your loins' — God is the one who searches them — and that is where Satan's power lies.✦ In view of this, Zechariah, marveling at the chastity of those who share in the mystery and describing its very forms, says: 'What good is there in God, and what is beautiful in Him, except the grain of the chosen and the wine that produces virgins' (Zach.✦

The Unclean Who Trample the Holy Things

Odo warns that many approach the Eucharist like unclean swine, fearing human shame more than divine judgment, and that God stores up punishment for the impenitent even when it is delayed.

IX, 17)? It is clear, moreover, that very many approach these things like unclean swine, without any prior judgment against their own guilt — and then trample them underfoot.✦ For they fear, in the presence of human gazes, to carry their own shame, more than they fear to incur the offense of rashness in the presence of the divine majesty and of all the saints. For these people, truly, the hardening of heart — since they neither correct themselves nor are visited by the scourge of God's loving correction — is already the punishment of sin and the contempt born of pride. For if, in the case of the Bethsamites, seventy elders and fifty thousand of the common people were struck down because they looked upon the ark of God, how much more must these people — unless they repent — be punished for all eternity, just as God himself bears witness through Moses: 'Everyone who approaches what has been made holy, while there is uncleanness in that person, shall perish before the Lord' (Levit.✦✦ XXII, 3). What, then, if the punishment is delayed? Are these things not already marked and stored up in the treasuries of God?✦ For he considers their final outcomes, and he will render vengeance to his enemies.✦

The Devil's Lie That Sin Is Cleansed by Receiving

Odo exposes the diabolical delusion that receiving the Eucharist while persisting in sin purifies the sinner, citing Jeremiah and Malachi, and calls the unclean to penitence before approaching so great a grace.

And it should not be overlooked that certain people are so deceived by diabolical illusions that they believe, even while they lie in their sins, they are nonetheless cleansed by receiving that most sacred food and drink—against whom it is said through the prophet: My beloved has dealt wickedly in my house (Jer.✦ 11:15). Will holy flesh cleanse that person? And likewise another, concerning those who indeed weep but stain their tears with defilement, says: You used to cover my altar with tears, but I will not look at your sacrifice, and I will not accept anything pleasing from your hand (Malac.✦ 2:13). Whoever is in filth, therefore, should give honor to God and not presume, with that conception of his, to approach his Sacrament shamelessly, until, as it has been said, he washes away the stains of his uncleanness through penitence, if somehow he may at last be able to be reconciled to so great a grace, despite the offense.

Read the original Latin

Inter omnia tamen peccata maxime discordia et luxuria gravant. Nam de discordia Dominus ipse ait: Si offers munus tuum ad altare, et recordatus fueris quia frater tuus habet aliquid adversum te, relinque ibi munus tuum ante altare, et vade prius reconciliari fratri tuo (Matth. V, 23, 24). De quo sicut S. Gregorius fatetur, pensandum est, quanta culpa sit discordia, propter quod illud munus respuitur, quo omnis alia culpa solvi consuevit. De luxuria vero per hoc apparet, quia nulli tam periculose hoc mysterium contingunt quam luxuriosi. Quod in discretione virtutum quibus participes ejus mysterii pollere debent, primo loco ponitur. Renes vestros accingetis, quorum scrutator est Deus, et ubi virtus Satanae est. Quo contra Zacharias castitatem participantium admirans, atque ipsas hujus mysterii species designans, ait: Et quid bonum est Dei, et quid pulchrum ejus nisi frumentum electorum, et vinum germinans virgines (Zach.

IX, 17)? Liquet autem plerosque veluti sues immundas ad hoc sine praejudicio reatus sui accedere, ista pedibus calcare. Verentur enim humanis coram obtutibus magis suam verecundiam portare, quam coram majestate divina et omnium sanctorum praesentia temeritatis offensam incurrere. Quibus profecto cordis induratio cum nec se corrigunt, nec Dei visitantur pietatis verbere, jam poena peccati est et contemptus superbiae. Si enim de Bethsamitis septuaginta seniores, et quinquaginta millia plebis percussi sunt, eo quod viderent arcam Dei, multo magis isti, nisi resipuerint, aeternaliter plectendi sunt, sicut ipse testatur per Moysem: Omnis qui accesserit ad ea quae sanctificata sunt, in quo est immunditia, peribit coram Domino (Levit. XXII, 3). Quid ergo si poena differtur, nonne haec designata sunt in thesauris Dei? Considerat enim novissima eorum, et reddet ultionem hostibus suis.

Nec praetereundum quod quidam ita diabolicis illusionibus falluntur, ut credant quod quamvis in peccatis suis jaceant, illius tamen sacrosancti cibi ac potus perceptione purgentur: contra quos per prophetam dicitur: Dilectus meus in domo mea operatus est male (Jer. XI, 15). Nunquid carnes sanctae mundabunt illum? Et item alius de his qui plorant quidem, sed lacrymas suas pollutione maculant, ait: Operiebatis lacrymis altare meum, sed non respiciam ad sacrificium, non accipiam placabile quid de manu vestra (Malac. II, 13). Quisquis ergo in sordibus est, det honorem Deo, et non praesumat eo concepto ad ejus sacramentum impudenter accedere, donec, ut dictum est, lavet per poenitentiam maculas immunditiae, si quoquo modo demum valeat tantae reconciliari gratiae licet offensae.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.5.23-Matt.5.24 — So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, Matt.5.24 — leave your gift there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
  2. ↩Matt.5.23-Matt.5.24 — So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, Matt.5.24 — leave your gift there before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
  3. ↩1Pet.1.13 — Therefore, preparing your minds for action, be sober-minded and set your hope fully on the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
  4. ↩Zech.9.17 — For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens.
  5. ↩Matt.7.6 — Do not give what is holy to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.
  6. ↩1Sam.6.19 — And he struck among the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, and he struck the people—seventy men, fifty thousand men. And the people mourned, because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow.
  7. ↩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.
  8. ↩Rom.2.5 — But because of your hard and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of God's righteous judgment.
  9. ↩Deut.32.35;Ps.94.1 — Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slips; for the day of their calamity is near, and what is appointed for them hastens. Ps.94.1 — O God of vengeance, LORD, O God of vengeance, shine forth.
  10. ↩Jer.11.15 — What is my beloved doing in my house, performing the schemes of the many? And shall holy flesh be removed from you? For when you do evil, then you rejoice.
  11. ↩Mal.2.13 — And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it favorably from your hand.

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