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Chapter 5OdoC.2.5

Caput IV

The Children of Light Conformed to This Age

Odo grieves that even the children of light are conformed to this age, choosing mammon over God's reconciled world, and warns that the fallen are seized by the princes of darkness and bound to the evil one's domain.

But would that only those had fallen who, like Phinehas calling down judgment on the accursed thing of Achan, have resolved to live according to the prince of mammon — and that the children of light had not also been conformed to this age, against the Apostle's warning. But — and this is cause for deep grief — they themselves, the daughters of Cain, having abandoned heavenly goods, eagerly embrace what Cain's line clings to: that is, riches, luxuries, pleasures, indulgent services, and lusts bent on revenge.✦✦✦ Would that they were either terrified by the threat of God, or moved by the fact that he then said: 'My spirit will not remain in these men' (Gen.✦ VI, 3), or because now he says: 'The sons of the kingdom will be sent into outer darkness' (Matt.✦ XXII, 13). And once we have heard: 'I chose you out of the world' (John✦ XV, 19), I will not at last subject myself to the prince of the world; because surely it is necessary for us to be either in the world which God through the Son reconciles to himself, or in the one who, according to the apostle John, 'is placed in the evil one' (John✦✦ V, 19). For as Jerome testifies in his letter to the Ephesians, as soon as the princes of darkness supplant someone, they attach him to their own world, over which they rule.✦

The Deceitful Glory of the World

Odo reflects on how the glory of this world deceives almost without pardon, drawing lovers toward destruction despite its manifest dangers, and concludes that those who knowingly choose evil over grace deserve the severest judgment.

Let anyone who is like this consider how much worse that person's final state is than the earlier one. For if we are to use the words of John from the book mentioned above, almost without pardon must be accounted all whom the glory of this world deceives. Since they see that all things in her are bloody, and she is full of dangers, deaths, and precipices, and even if they do set a bridle on their own desire, when they notice that she is hemmed in by the worst companions — I mean abuses, reproaches, envy, snares, accusations, and the most destructive cares, by unceasing fear and frequent dread, and a thousand other ill-omened associates of this kind, surrounded as if by a crown of blood — still they go mad for her loves; yet in all these they find no other fruit except destruction, ruin, and eternal punishment.1 And yet this same glory, in contempt of heavenly glory, is loved by many and becomes an object of desire. Therefore it is fitting that they be judged more severely, since they both scorn the grace of God that was offered to them and, knowing full well it is evil, choose it instead. So great indeed is the foolishness of those who deceive that not only does no reasoning recall them from this destruction, but not even the plain and unceasing examples of those who are perishing deter them. Rather, since they know that from the very beginning of the world this same glory deceives everyone who loves her shadowy beauty, still they yearn to embrace her with insatiable desire — she who entices them with empty boasting, like a foul harlot who hides her blackness with certain artificial colors to captivate wanton eyes. Since, therefore, the perfect and the good are mingled with evils, they learn, as the Psalmist says, from their works, so that what was said may be fulfilled: Woe to the world because of scandals (Matt.

Woe to the World Because of Scandals

Odo cites Psalm 18:7, declaring woe to the world on account of scandals, as the perfect and the good are mingled with evils.

Psalm 18:7.✦

Read the original Latin

Sed utinam sicut Phinees de anathemate Achar imprecatur, soli illi corruissent, qui secundum principem mammonae vivere decreverunt: et non etiam filii lucis huic saeculo conformarentur contra Apostolum; sed, quod nimis dolendum est, ipsi filias Cain, relictis bonis coelestibus, amplecti gestiunt, id est divitias, delicias, voluptates, obsequelas, atque libidines ulciscendi. Qui utinam vel ad Dei comminationem terrerentur, vel quia tunc dixit: Non permanebit spiritus meus in hominibus istis (Gen. VI, 3), vel quia nunc dicit: Filii regni mittentur in tenebras exteriores (Matth. XXII, 13). Et postquam semel audivimus: Ego elegi vos de mundo (Joan. XV, 19), non demum subjiciam principi mundi; quia nimirum necesse est nos esse, aut in mundo quem Deus per Filium reconciliat sibi, aut in eo qui, juxta apostolum Joannem: In maligno positus est (Joan. V, 19). Ut enim Hieronymus in epistola ad Ephesios perhibet, mox ut aliquem principes tenebrarum supplantant, suo mundo cui principantur adnectunt.

Viderit ergo qui talis est, quantum sint novissima illius pejora prioribus. Nam ut verbis Joannis ex supra dicto libro utamur, pene sine venia habendi sunt cuncti quos hujus mundi gloria decipit. Cum enim videant apud eam cruenta omnia, periculisque ac mortibus et praecipitiis plena, nec si tamen suae cupiditati frenum imponunt, cumque eam stipari cernant sodalibus pessimis, contumeliis dico, opprobriis, livore, insidiis, criminationibus et perniciosissimis curis, metu jugi, timore frequenti, et mille aliis hujusmodi infaustis consortibus, velut sanguinum corona circumdari; adhuc tamen amoribus ejus insaniunt; fructum autem in his nullum alium reperiunt, nisi interitum, et perniciem, poenamque perpetuam. Et tamen eadem gloria in contemptu gloriae coelestis a pluribus amatur, atque fit exspectabilis. idcirco dignum est, ut atrocius judicentur; quippe qui et oblatam Dei gratiam fastidiunt, et quod malum non ignorant eligere malunt. Tanta namque est eorum qui decipiunt stoliditas, ut non solum eos ratio nulla ab hoc interitu revocet, sed nec evidentia quidem indesinenter pereuntium exempla deterreant. Quin potius cum sciant quod omnes qui ejus umbraticam pulchritudinem diligunt, a mundi primordio eadem gloria fallat, tamen hanc amplexari inexplebili desiderio gestiunt; quae videlicet illos ita falso jactamine illicit, tanquam foeda meretrix, quae nigredinem suam fucatis quibusdam coloribus occultat, lascivorum oculos captat. Cum igitur perfecti boni malis admisti sunt: ita juxta Psalmistae vocem, discunt operam eorum, ut illud impleatur quod dictum est: Vae mundo a scandalis (Matth.

XVIII, 7).

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Num.25.7-Num.25.8 — When Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand. Num.25.8 — And he went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them — the man of Israel and the woman — through her belly. And the plague was stopped from the people of Israel.
  2. ↩Luke.16.9;Matt.6.24 — 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. Matt.6.24 — 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.
  3. ↩Rom.12.2 — And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
  4. ↩Gen.6.3 — Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred twenty years."
  5. ↩Matt.8.12;Matt.22.13 — But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matt.22.13 — Then the king said to his servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
  6. ↩John.15.19 — If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
  7. ↩John.17.15-John.17.16 — I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. John.17.16 — They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
  8. ↩1John.5.19 — We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one.
  9. ↩Eph.6.12 — For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
  10. ↩Ps.18.7;Ps.20.7 — In my distress I called upon the LORD, and to my God I cried for help. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry before him entered his ears. Ps.20.7 — Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heavens with the saving power of his right hand.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩metu jugi rendered 'unceasing fear' (the form jugi is uncertain; ablative of continuous fear is the most plausible sense)

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