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Chapter 17OdoC.3.17

Caput XVI

The Callousness of the Crooked

Odo opens by lamenting the extreme hardness of the wicked, citing Isaiah's image of an iron sinew in the neck to show how deeply obduracy has taken root.

The hardness of the crooked has truly grown callous beyond measure. Just as God says through the prophet to each one of such people: I know that you are hard, and that your neck is a sinew of iron (Isa.✦ 48, 4).

The Preacher's Burden and the Silence of the Willows

Odo confesses the weariness of preaching to the stubborn, drawing on Psalm 137's image of hanging up instruments among fruitless willows and Psalm 38's cry of humbled silence.

As you weigh this carefully, I fear it will become troublesome for you, because we heap up the duty of preaching only to goad you on — and for that reason I would wish that some other way out had opened in this necessity. For I know the prophet said: Among the willows, in the midst of it, we hang up our instruments (Psal.✦ 136, 2), that is, among the very obstinate — namely because, just as willows bear no fruit of good work, we keep silent from the words of preaching. Hence he himself says: I became silent and was silent from good things, and I was humbled (Psal.✦ 38, 3).

When Silence Gives Way to the Fire of Zeal

Odo traces the inner tension of prophets who first seek silence before the incorrigible, only to be compelled by the burning zeal of love to break forth into open rebuke.

And when Jeremiah saw that he was not being heard at all, he sought silence, saying: "I will remember him no more, nor will I speak any further in his name" (Jer.✦1 20:9). But true preachers, when they see that the crimes of the wicked grow precisely because they are not rebuked, endure a certain force in their heart until they burst forth into the voice of open correction.2 And so another of the same prophets, keeping silent on account of those who were incorrigible, said: "I have been silent from good things" (Psal.3 38:3); and immediately blazing up with the zeal of love, he added: "And my grief is renewed" (Ibid.).45 . "My heart has grown warm within me, and in my meditation a fire will blaze up."6 Another, however, when he said, "I will speak no more in his name" (Act.7

The Zeal That Breaks Forth and the Household That Serves

Odo shows how the zeal of holy men, though restrained, only intensifies until it erupts in reproof; he counsels preachers despised by the powerful to take courage in their household's fidelity and in the power of example joined to word.

Soon, kindled by that same fire, he added: "His word became in my heart like a burning fire in my bones, and I grew weak, unable to bear it" (Jer. 4:17).✦ (Jer. 20:9).✦ "For I have heard the insults of many."✦ So it is that the zeal of love in holy men, while it is held back, only grows stronger. They take comfort in this way: that even when they cannot fully correct what is wrong, they at least do not stop rebuking it — breaking out into open reproof. It remains, however, that — as Prosper says — those who despise the preacher's words should see the good works in the teacher and come to revere them. And if it happens that the preacher is despised by those in power or by outsiders, let him sing to himself or to his own, saying with Joshua: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15).✦ For it is certain that the faithful grow more through examples than through words, and the two are necessarily joined together, so that what someone preaches by speaking, he confirms by doing.

Read the original Latin

Pravorum sane duritia nimis obcalluit. Sicut unicuique talium Deus per prophetam dicit: Scio quia durus es tu, et nervus feriens cervix tua (Isa. XLVIII, 4). Quod dum vos perpenditis, timeo molestum vobis fieri, quia tantum ad incitandum praedicandi officium exaggeramus: et idcirco vellem ut alius aliquis exitus in hac necessitate patuisset. Nam scio prophetam dixisse: In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra (Psal. CXXXVI, 2), id est, inter valde obstinatos, videlicet quia sicut salices fructum boni operis non ferunt, verba praedicationis reticemus. Hinc ipse ait: Obmutui et silui a bonis, et humiliatus sum (Psal. XXXVIII, 3).

Et Jeremias cum se minime audiri conspiceret, silentium appetit dicens: Non recordabor ejus neque loquar ultra in nomine illius (Jer. XX, 9). Sed veri praedicatores dum conspiciunt quod ipsis non corripientibus iniquorum facinora crescunt, vim quamdam in corde sustinent, donec in apertae correptionis vocem erumpant. Unde et alter ex eisdem prophetis, cum propter incorrigibiles tacens diceret: Silui a bonis (Psal. XXXVIII, 3); zelo charitatis illico exardescens subdidit: Et dolor meus renovatus est (Ibid.) . Concaluit cor meum intra me, et in meditatione mea exardescet ignis. Alter vero cum diceret: Non loquar ultra nomine illius (Act.

IV, 17); mox eodem igne succensus adjunxit: Et factus est sermo ejus in corde meo quasi ignis aestuans in ossibus meis, et defeci ferre non sustinens (Jer. XX, 9). Audivi enim contumelias multorum. Sic ergo zelus charitatis in sanctis viris dum reprimitur augetur, qui nimirum ita sese consolantur, ut in voce erumpentes quod corrigere non valent saltem increpare non cessent. Superest tamen ut, sicut dicit Prosper, qui verba despiciunt, opera bona in doctore videant, quae venerentur; et si contigerit ut a potentioribus vel ab alienigenis contemnatur, sibi vel suis praedicator canat dicens, cum Josue: Ego autem et domus mea sequimur Dominum (Josue XXIV, 17). Nam et ipsos fideles plus per exempla quam per verba proficere certum est, et utraque sibi necessario conjungitur, ut quod loquendo quis praedicat faciendo confirmet.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.48.4 — For I knew that you are stubborn, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze.
  2. ↩Ps.137.2 — Upon the willows in our midst we hung up our harps.
  3. ↩Ps.38.3 — Because your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has pressed down on me.
  4. ↩Jer.20.9 — And I said, 'I will not mention him, nor will I speak in his name anymore.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.
  5. ↩Jer.4.17 — Like keepers of a field, they were all around her, for she has rebelled against me — declares the LORD.
  6. ↩Jer.20.9 — And I said, 'I will not mention him, nor will I speak in his name anymore.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.
  7. ↩Jer.20.8-Jer.20.9;Ps.31.12 — For as often as I speak, I cry out; I proclaim, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. Jer.20.9 — And I said, 'I will not mention him, nor will I speak in his name anymore.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not. Ps.31.12 — I have become a reproach to all my enemies, and to my neighbors exceedingly, and a terror to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
  8. ↩Josh.24.15 — And if it is evil in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amonites in whose land you are dwelling. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Quotation from Jeremiah 20:9 (Vulgate). The Moses reference resolution is pending.
  2. 2 ↩vim quamdam — 'a certain force/violence' — rendered as 'a certain force' to capture the restrained intensity building in the preacher's heart.
  3. 3 ↩Quotation from Psalm 38:3 (Vulgate 39:2). Moses reference resolution is pending.
  4. 4 ↩Quotation from Psalm 38:3b (Vulgate). Moses reference resolution is pending.
  5. 5 ↩zelo charitatis — 'with the zeal of love/charity' — rendered as 'with the zeal of love' per lexeme policy default for charitas.
  6. 6 ↩Quotation from Psalm 38:4 (Vulgate 39:3). Moses reference resolution is pending.
  7. 7 ↩Quotation from Acts — likely echoing the prophetic pattern of Jeremiah 20:9. Moses reference resolution is pending.

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