Caput XXXIV
The Peril of Unworthy Celebration
Odo warns that those conscious of unworthiness should refrain from the Eucharist, illustrating with two priests whose presumption in sacred office led to divine punishment and, in one case, eventual conversion.
Nor should it be passed over that certain people, badly conscious of themselves while they neglect to restrain themselves, prefer to cease from the holy mystery — and indeed it is better that they cease, but they do not live, because unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, you will not have life (John✦ 6:54). That it is advantageous for the unworthy to refrain from this duty is shown not only by the authority of divine teaching but also by examples in general. Let us mention one of these. Bego, a canon of Saint Martin, told me about a certain priest who, having returned from hunting on the Lord's day and presumed to celebrate Mass, as soon as the hour of consecration arrived, began to shout over the holy altar the same cries he was accustomed to let out when following his dogs. There was also another man, named Leo, who had a habit of hunting; he was driven insane and taken through many shrines of the saints, and at last, having recovered his senses, he became one of our monks. And as I myself witnessed, he lived so devoutly right up to the end that frequently, when he prayed alone, he would tear out his own hair. That same man, having been healed by holy Benedict, also demonstrated this by his own death. For although he had set aside that one's prohibition and presumed to undertake this sacred office, he was immediately handed over to a demon and tormented even to the point of death.
Vessels of Wicker and Glass: True Adornment at the Altar
Odo rebukes those who lavish gold and precious vessels on the liturgy while neglecting interior purity, citing Jerome and holy bishops who stripped their churches to ransom captives, and condemning monks who hoard private sacramental apparatus against their rule.
Some people, however, are so devoted to vanity that they delight in gold-embroidered and elaborate vestments and vessels of precious metal for celebrating this holy Sacrament. They would do well indeed if they adorned their hearts equally in the eyes of God, as one of the Fathers says, because in this holy work it is not garments but hearts that must be changed. For, as blessed Jerome declares in his letter to Rusticus, nothing is richer than the one who carries the body of the Lord in a wicker basket, but the blood in a glass vessel — just as the holy bishops Caesarius of Arles, Eusebius of Toulouse, and Ambrose of Milan, who for the redemption of captives stripped their own churches so thoroughly that they broke up the very consecrated vessels and sold them for the captives' ransom. They judged it entirely fitting that the bodies of those whose souls are saved from eternal captivity through the mystery that takes place in the chalice should, if necessary, be redeemed from temporal captivity by the sale of that same chalice. These, then, are the ones who sacrifice well — those who drive greed out of the temple.✦ But those who are eager for the beauty of vessels or vestments should do so solely for the praise of God alone. Nevertheless, one should remember that the prophet was more concerned with the purity of the ministers, for he did not say, 'Cleanse the vessels of the Lord,' but, 'Be cleansed, you who carry the vessels of the Lord' (Isa.✦ 52:11). Some indeed — to speak of our own order, to whom it is permitted to have not a foot's breadth of their own will or authority in their own power — produce from their own small chests a sumptuous apparatus for carrying out the Sacraments, which they acquire from unjust mammon against the custom and decree of the holy Fathers, and they hold it as though intending to leave it as an adornment for the church.✦
Fire at Vézelay: Greed Consumed
Odo recounts the burning of Vézelay monastery as divine judgment on a monk's private hoard, applying scriptural warnings against excess and the prophetic image of leavened sacrifice to expose the malice hidden in selfish devotion.
One of these people, on whose account — The monastery of Vézelay was recently reduced to ashes, since — as we have heard — a candle he had carried to open his own small chest crept into the roof and started a fire. Against this foolish devotion — or rather, this greed — John says: Do nothing more than what has been established for you (Luke✦ 3:13). And certainly no rule commands this; rather, it proclaims that the bare cross is to be followed by the bare one. To these people that prophetic word applies well: Come to Bethel, and act wickedly, and sacrifice with leaven (Amos✦ 4:4). Cain had offered a sacrifice to God, but because it had been sprinkled with the leaven of malice, for that reason it was not pleasing.✦
Leavened Offerings and Lost Souls
Odo presses the question of leaving private hoards as supposed church adornment, arguing that God scorns leavened sacrifice, citing Saul's rejection and the prophet's hatred of robbery in worship, and warning that those who cling to their coffers lose their souls.
Given all this, how can it be acceptable to set aside — as if for the church's adornment — what one is not permitted to have or possess? But the one who sacrifices from what is leavened offers something — and yet it is something God scorns. God himself bears witness to this through the prophet: he hates robbery offered as a burnt offering. This is why king Saul was rejected: under the guise of sacrificing, he held back from the Amalekites the things he had been ordered to destroy. But these people — as one of the Fathers says — would rather hold on to their own little coffers, wretched souls that they are, never stopping to consider that they are losing their own souls.
Read the original Latin
Nec praetereundum quod quidam sibi male conscii, dum continere se negligunt, a sancto mysterio cessare malunt, et melius quidem est ut cessent, sed non vivunt, quia nisi manducaveritis carnem filii hominis, non habebitis vitam (Joan. VI, 54). Quid enim indignis officio cessare expediat non solum ratione auctoritatis divinae, sed etiam exemplis plerumque monstratur. Ex quibus aliquid commemoremus. Testatus est mihi Bego canonicus sancti Martini de quodam sacerdote, qui cum die Dominico de venatu redierit, et missam celebrare praesumpserit, mox ut ad horam consecrationis ventum est, illas voces quas post canes emittere solebat, inclamare super sanctum altare coepit. Sed et alius Leo nomine venandi consuetudinem habebat: qui tamem amens factus est, et per multa loca sanctorum deductus, tandem reperto sensu noster monachus factus est: et ut ipse vidi, in tantum usque ad finem religiose conversatus est, ut frequenter cum solus oraret capillos sibi detrahere soleret. Quod etiam ille a sancto Benedicto curatus suo demonstrat interitu. Qui cum postposita ejus prohibitione sacrum hoc officium suscipere praesumpsisset, mox daemoni traditus est et usque ad mortem vexatus.
Nonnulli vero vanitatis studio dediti, auratis et accuratis vestibus et vasis pretiosi metalli ad hoc sanctum mysterium celebrandum delectantur. Qui bene quidem facerent, si corda sua pariter in divinis oculis ornarent, ut quidam Patrum ait, quia in hoc sancto opere, non vestimenta, sed corda mutanda sunt. Nam, ut beatus Hieronymus in epistola ad Rusticum protestatur, nihil illo ditius qui corpus Domini canistro vimineo, sanguinem autem vase vitreo portat, sicut sancti episcopi Caesarius Arelalensis, et Eusebius Tolosanus, sed et Ambrosius Mediolanensis, qui pro redemptione captivorum suas ecclesias ita nudaverunt, ut ipsa initiata vasa, fracta videlicet pro eis venundarent: valde congruum aestimantes, ut quorum animae per illud mysterium, quod in calice fit, ab aeterna captivitate salvantur, eorum corpora, si necesse, sit a temporali captivitate distracto calice redimantur. Hi ergo bene immolant, qui avaritiam de templo ejiciunt. Qui autem pulchritudine vasorum vel vestium studet, ad solius Dei laudem id faciat. Meminisse tamen debet, quod propheta de ministrorum munditia magis sollicitus erat, qui non dixit: Mundate vasa Domini, sed, mundamini qui fertis vasa Domini (Isa. LII, 11). Nonnulli vero, ut de nostro ordine dicamus, quibus nec passum pedis, nec ipsam suam voluntatem in potestate sua habere permittitur, de propriis cistellis sumptuosum ad myteria peragenda producunt apparatum, quem contra consuetudinem sanctionemque sanctorum Patrum de iniquo mammona acquirunt, et quasi ad ornatum ecclesiae relicturi possident.
Quorum unus ille per cujus occasionem. Vizeliacum nuper monasterium est in cineres redactum, cum, sicut audivimus, de candela quam ad cistellam suam aperiendam deportarat, ignis tecto irrepsit. Contra hanc stultam devotionem, imo avaritiam, Joannes dicit: Nihil amplius quam quod vobis constitutum est, faciatis (Luc. III, 13). Et certe nulla hoc regula jubet, sed magis nudam crucem esse clamat a nudo sequendam. Quibus bene congruit illud propheticum: Venite in Bethel, et impie agite, et immolate de fermentato (Amos. IV, 4). Cain sacrificium obtulerat Deo, sed quia fermento malitiae respersum fuerat, idcirco non est gratum.
His itaque quo pacto licet quasi ad ornatum ecclesiae relinquere, quod non licet habere vel possidere? Immolat autem, sed de fermentato, qui aliquid offert quod Deus dedignatur. Hinc ipse per prophetam testatur quod odio habet rapinam in holocaustum. Hinc rex Saul reprobatus, eo quod sub immolandi specie reservavit de Amalech ea quae jussus fuerat trucidare. Sed isti, ut quidam Patrum dicit, magis volunt habere suas cistellas, non recogitantes miseri quia perdunt suas animas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.6.54 — The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
- ↩John.2.15-John.2.16;Matt.21.12-Matt.21.13 — And having made a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple—the sheep and the oxen—and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. John.2.16 — And to those who were selling the doves he said, "Take these things out of here. Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise." Matt.21.12 — And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. Matt.21.13 — And he said to them, "It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers."
- ↩Isa.52.11 — Turn away, turn away, go out from there! Touch nothing unclean! Go out from her midst! Purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- ↩Matt.6.24;Luke.16.9 — No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
- ↩Luke.3.13 — And he said to them, 'Collect no more than what is appointed for you.'
- ↩Amos.4.4 — Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal, multiply transgression! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.
- ↩Gen.4.3-Gen.4.5 — And it came about at the end of days that Cain brought, from the fruit of the ground, an offering to the LORD. Gen.4.4 — And Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering. Gen.4.5 — but to Cain and to his offering he had no regard; and Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
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