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Chapter 33OdoC.3.33

Caput XXXII

The Terror of the Coming Judgment

Odo urges his listeners to contemplate the dread reality of the Last Judgment—the Judge's severity, the public shame, the host of angels, and the torments of hell—so that they may see themselves truly before God.

This, then, must be impressed on them: let them look carefully at what a man is, and before what kind of judge he will stand. Let them look at his power, weigh their own weakness, count up the evils of their own doing, and set against these the good things of his bounty. Let them consider how strictly he examines evil, how subtly he weighs what is good, and how stern he will be when he comes to judge both. Let the mind dwell on how great will be the coming of that judgment, what a throng of men and angels will then be there, how great the shame in the sight of the whole human race, and how all the angels and archangels will be confounded; with what force the blazing elements will fight against the reprobate, and the Judge himself—whom the heavenly powers obey—with what force he will illuminate the secrets of every heart, and bring back all faults before the eyes of all.1 Finally, how terrible will that sentence be by which the reprobate are condemned—let them weigh the punishments of hell with their heavy darkness of bitterness; let them consider what torments remain after that shame, when guilt has the soul dying an immortal death and hell has consumed the flesh that never fails even as it fails.2

Turning to Mercy Through Repentance

Having weighed justice against guilt, the sinner is called to repentance—finding in God's mercy a rescue from eternal punishment through wholesome tears of compunction.

Amid all this, let the mind look back at itself, and from one side set the strictness of justice, from the other the desert of guilt, and let a man see beyond any doubt that he is lost, if he is judged with mercy set aside. Let him turn to repentance, so that mercy will be present to him for his certain faults—the mercy that through present lamentations has been accustomed to rescue from eternal punishment, and that judges our life once it has turned back to itself in such a way that it still pleads our faults before the merciful one.3 Let him be glad to weep with wholesome tears for what was committed in the pleasure that ought to be wept over.

Scripture on God's Merciful Judgment

Odo draws on Psalm 96, Exodus 34, and Job 37 to show that God judges the 'ends of the earth'—the final state of a sinner—by the standard of heavenly mercy, and that even the unclean can be exchanged for the clean by divine light.

For although conscience has long since been defiled, it is nevertheless renewed when washed with tears in baptism. Hence it is written: The Lord will judge the ends of the earth (Ps.✦ IX, 9), because surely the Lord does not judge a past life when He illuminates the later works of a sinner by the standard of heavenly mercy. Hence Moses: You shall exchange the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep (Exod.✦ XXXIV, 20), that is, convert the beginnings of an unclean life into the simplicity of innocence. Hence again it is said: And His light is over the ends of the earth (Job XXXVII, 3), because clearly the sinner — who is rightly called 'earth' — if after wicked works he is converted to what is righteous, is separated from the darkness of his own actions by the divine light.✦ Hence the Lord to afflicted Job: Have you walked in the deepest parts of the abyss?✦ (Job XXXVIII, 16.)

The Abyss of the Human Mind and the Reach of Mercy

The human mind is a dark abyss hidden from itself, yet God's mercy reaches even the most wicked—as shown in the falls of David and Peter and Peter's exhortation of Simon Magus to repentance.

The human mind is an abyss, dark with the waves of its vices — and because it cannot comprehend itself, it lies hidden from itself like a dark abyss. To walk in the deepest parts of the abyss is to turn, by wondrous mercy, the minds of the most wicked men to the very edge — to visit those crushed by their crimes, to change those who have already despaired.✦ For this very reason, David and Peter are recalled as having fallen — so that by their words we are kept from sinning, and by their examples, if we have sinned, we may breathe again with hope of pardon. For who should now despair of pardon if they repent, when Peter himself exhorts Simon Magus to repentance?✦

Read the original Latin

Insinuandum igitur eis est ut caute considerent quid sit homo, et ante qualem judicem stabit. Intueantur illius potentiam, pensent suam infirmitatem, enumerent mala proprii operis, et contra hoc exaggerent bona illius largitatis. Considerent quam districte mala, quam subtiliter bona discutiat, quam districtus contra haec utraque veniet. Versetur in mente quantus ille sit tanti judicii adventus, quae tunc illa sit hominum angelorumque frequentia, quanta illa sit verecundia in conspectu totius humani generis, omniumque angelorum et archangelorum confundi; quanta vi contra reprobos ardentia pugnent elementa, et ipse judex, cui supernae virtutes obsequuntur, quanta vi universae magnitudinis cordium secreta illuminet, et omnes culpas ante omnium oculos reduxerit. Postremo quam terribilis illa sententia prodeat, qua reprobi damnabuntur, et quae sint gehennae poenae cum gravi amaritudinis obscuritate pensent, qui post confusionem cruciatus maneat, cum reatus animum immortaliter morientem et gehenna carnem indeficientem consummaverit deficientem. Inter haec mens ad se respiciat, et illinc districtionem justitiae, hinc meritum ponat culpae, et periturum se homo absque aliqua ambiguitate pernoscat, si remota pietate judicetur. Convertatur ad poenitentiam, ut pro certis culpis pietas ei adsit, quae per lamenta praesentia eruere ab aeterna poena consuevit, et quae vitam nostram sic ad se conversam judicat, ut tamen culpas apud misericordem excuset. Libeat flere salubriter quod deflenda jucunditate commissum est.

Licet enim conscientia dudum sit polluta, lacrymis tamen baptizata renovatur. Hinc scriptum est: Dominus judicabit fines terrae (Psal. IX, 9), quia nimirum anteactam vitam Dominus non judicat, quando posteriora peccatoris opera respectu supernae pietatis illustrat. Hinc Moyses: Primogenita asini mutabis ove (Exod. XXXIV, 20), id est, immundae vitae primordia in innocentiae simplicitatem converte. Hinc rursus dicitur: Et lumen ejus super terminos terrae (Job XXXVII, 3), quia videlicet peccator, qui merito terra appellatur, si post prava opera ad justa convertitur, ab actionum suarum tenebris divino lumine separatur. Hinc Dominus ad afflictum Job: Nunquid in novissimis abyssi deambulasti? (Job XXXVIII, 16.)

Abyssus est humana mens fluctibus vitiorum tenebrosa, quae dum semetipsam comprehendere non valet, sese velut obscura abyssus latet. In novissimis abyssi deambulare, est nequissimorum hominum mentes mira misericordia juxta terminum convertere, pressos sceleribus visitare, jam desperatos permutare. Ad hanc namque David atque Petrus lapsi referuntur, ut quorum dictis peccare prohibemur, eorum exemplis si peccaverimus ad spem veniae respiremus. Nam quis de venia jam si poeniteat desperet, quando Petrus ipsum Simonem Magum ad poenitentiam hortatur?

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.96.9 — Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
  2. ↩Exod.34.20 — The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; but if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And no one shall appear before me empty-handed.
  3. ↩Job.37.3 — Under the whole sky he sends it down, and his light reaches to the edges of the earth.
  4. ↩Job.38.16 — Have you come to the springs of the sea, and in the depths of the abyss have you walked?
  5. ↩Job.38.16 — Have you come to the springs of the sea, and in the depths of the abyss have you walked?
  6. ↩Acts.8.22 — Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that perhaps the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩ardentia elementa rendered as 'blazing elements'—the image of the elements burning against the damned is traditional eschatological language.
  2. 2 ↩The paradox of the soul 'dying an immortal death' (immortaliter morientem) and hell consuming flesh 'that never fails even as it fails' (indeficientem … deficientem) preserves the Latin's deliberate oxymoron—the damned body is perpetually consumed yet never extinguished.
  3. 3 ↩pietas rendered as 'mercy' here carries the sense of divine compassion/mercy (not 'piety' in the modern English sense). The clause ut tamen culpas apud misericordem excuset is rendered to capture the paradox: God judges the turned-yet-sinful life in a way that still intercedes for its faults.

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