SR
← Collationes (Conferences / Collations)/Book 3 · Collationes — Liber III
Chapter 28OdoC.3.28

Caput XXVII

The Invisible Seizure of the Violent

Drawing on Isaiah and Job, Odo warns that plunderers who seize others visibly will themselves be seized invisibly at death, and that God’s patient gaze sees every path even when punishment is delayed.

So let them not rejoice and divide the spoils — let them be gnawed by the memory of that word in which it is said: Woe to you who plunder, will you not yourself be plundered?✦ (Isa.✦ XXXIII, 1.)✦ And what is testified in Job — the violent one is carried off without a hand (Job 34:26).✦ For the plunderer sees those he seizes, but he does not see those who are about to seize him in death. And so he is carried off without a hand — he who was violent by hand — because with a sudden departure pressing upon him, he who was seizing others visibly is himself seized invisibly; and he does not see his own plunderers, and yet he is driven toward his departure.✦ For now, while each violent person oppresses whomever he wishes, while he is permitted to exercise every wicked desire, it often happens that he leaps forth in even greater blindness of heart — and because he is not struck immediately, because his punishment is postponed to the future, he either thinks his wickedness is not seen by God, or, what is worse, believes it does not displease him. And so he neglects to correct that same wickedness, because of which he does not immediately incur vengeance. But to the previous word about God is added: His eyes are upon the ways of men, and He observes all their paths (Job 34:21).✦

When Patience Is Mistaken for Negligence

Odo describes how the wicked misread God’s patience as approval, rush headlong into violence, and only open their eyes to the true Judge when sudden death and the parable of the rich fool confront them.

For at the time when this violent man was committing every evil he could without punishment, it was believed that God paid no attention to his wickedness, and his great patience was treated as a kind of negligence. But let him go now, and let him rush into whatever violence he dares; let him fill himself with the wickedness of his own desires, let him seize what belongs to others, let him gorge himself on the oppression of the innocent, and because he is not yet struck down, let him think that his ways are not seen by the Lord — or, what is worse, that they are approved. He will come indeed — the eternal and sudden blow will come — and then he will realize that all things are watched over by God, when he sees himself caught by an unexpected end and condemned as payment for all his deeds. Then in his punishment he opens the eyes he long kept closed in guilt. Then he perceives the true judge of all things, when he can no longer escape by any feeling the desert of his own evils. Yet, as it says in the Exameron, that fish called the silurus aptly represents any predator: while it constantly devours other fish, it too is nevertheless caught and devoured. But would that plunderers might learn what punishments await them, or at least come to their senses somehow. That is the man to whom it was said: Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you — and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?✦

Christians Who Rob and Kill by Oppression

Odo applies the parables of the rich fool and Dives to show that ruin comes not merely from plunder but from boasting in wealth and withholding alms, and he asks what judgment awaits Christians who oppress their brothers instead of laying down their lives for them.

(Luke✦ 12:20) He wasn't condemned because he had plundered what belonged to others, but because he had boasted in the abundance of his own riches.✦ But neither did that man in purple perish because of his plunder, but because he gave no alms.✦ What sort of robbers, then, are Christians — or what do they deserve who kill their own brothers, for whom they are commanded to lay down their lives?✦ They kill, I say, when they oppress — because not only the one who plunders, but the one who defrauds a hired worker is considered equal to a murderer.✦

Read the original Latin

Non ergo laetentur, et dividant spolia, remordeantur illius verbi memoria, quo dicitur: Vae qui praedaris, nonne et ipse praedaberis? (Isa. XXXIII, 1.) et quod in Job perhibetur, aufertur violentus absque manu (Job XXXIV, 26). Videt enim raptor quos rapit, sed eos qui in morte illum rapturi sunt non videt, aufertur itaque absque manu qui violentus manu fuit, quia subito exitu urgente, invisibiliter rapitur, qui visibiliter rapiebat, et raptores suos non videt, et tamen ad exitum impellitur. Nunc enim dum quisque violentus quos voluerit opprimit, dum omne quod nequiter concupiscit, exercere permittitur, fit saepe ut in majore cordis caecitate prosiliat, et quia non statim percutitur, quia poena ejus in posterum differtur, nequitiam suam aut a Deo videri non putet, aut hanc et non displicere credat. Unde et eamdem nequitiam corrigere negligit, pro qua non statim ultionem incurrit. Sed superiori verbo de Deo subjungitur: Oculi ejus super vias hominum, et omnes vias eorum considerat (Job XXXIV, 21).

Tunc enim Deus non considerare nequitiam credebatur, quando violentus iste omne malum quod poterat inulte perpetrabat, et magna ejus patientia quasi quaedam negligentia putabatur. Sed eat nunc, et ad quamlibet violentiam praesumendo prorumpat, voluntatum suarum nequitias impleat, aliena rapiat, innocentum oppressione satietur, et quia necdum percutitur, vias suas a Domino aut non videri existimet, aut, quod pejus est, approbari. Veniet profecto, veniet aeterna et repentina percussio, et tunc cognoscet cuncta a Deo prospici, quando se improviso exitu viderit pro cunctorum retributione damnari. Tunc in poena sua oculos aperit quos diu tenuit clausos in culpa. Tunc considerare omnia verum judicem sentit, quando malorum suorum meritum jam evadere sentiendo non possit. Tamen quemlibet raptorem, ut in Exameron dicitur, bene silurus ille piscis significat, qui cum jugiter alios pisces devoret, ipse tamen capitur et voratur. Sed raptores utinam quae eos supplicia maneant, vel utcunque addiscerent. Homo ille cui dictum est: Stulte, nocte repetent animam tuam abs te: quae praeparasti cujus erunt?

(Luc. XII, 20) non condemnatus quod aliena rapuerit, sed quod in multitudine divitiarum suarum gloriatus sit. Sed neque ille purpuratus propter rapinam interiit, sed quia eleemosynam non fecit. Quales ergo sunt Christiani raptores, vel quid merentur qui fratres suos occidunt, pro quibus animas ponere jubentur? Occidunt, inquam, dum affligunt, quoniam non solum qui rapit, sed qui mercenarium defraudat, par homicidae perhibetur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.33.1 — Woe to you who devastate, yet you have not been devastated; who deal treacherously, yet no one has dealt treacherously with you. When you have finished devastating, you will be devastated; when you have finished dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
  2. ↩Isa.33.1 — Woe to you who devastate, yet you have not been devastated; who deal treacherously, yet no one has dealt treacherously with you. When you have finished devastating, you will be devastated; when you have finished dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
  3. ↩Isa.33.1 — Woe to you who devastate, yet you have not been devastated; who deal treacherously, yet no one has dealt treacherously with you. When you have finished devastating, you will be devastated; when you have finished dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
  4. ↩Job.34.26 — He strikes them down like the wicked, in the place of those who watch—
  5. ↩Job.34.26 — He strikes them down like the wicked, in the place of those who watch—
  6. ↩Job.34.21 — For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
  7. ↩Luke.12.20 — But God said to him, 'Fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and the things you have prepared — whose will they be?'
  8. ↩Luke.12.20 — But God said to him, 'Fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and the things you have prepared — whose will they be?'
  9. ↩Luke.12.20 — But God said to him, 'Fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and the things you have prepared — whose will they be?'
  10. ↩Luke.16.19-Luke.16.31 — Now there was a certain rich man, and he used to dress in purple and fine linen, celebrating every day in splendor. Luke.16.20 — And a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores. Luke.16.21 — and longing to be fed from what fell from the rich man's table; but even the dogs came and kept licking his sores. Luke.16.22 — And it happened that the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. Luke.16.23 — And in Hades, while he was in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus at his side. Luke.16.24 — And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' Luke.16.25 — But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you received your good things during your life, and Lazarus likewise received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.' Luke.16.26 — And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to cross from here to you are not able, nor can any cross over from there to us. Luke.16.27 — Then he said, 'I ask you, therefore, father, to send him to my father's house— Luke.16.28 — For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Luke.16.29 — But Abraham says, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to those.' Luke.16.30 — And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' Luke.16.31 — But Abraham said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'
  11. ↩John.15.13 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.
  12. ↩Jas.5.4 — Look! The wages of the workers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

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
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →