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Chapter 36OdoC.3.36

Caput XXXV

The Hidden Judgment Behind Prosperity and Adversity

Odo explains that the alternating fortunes of the good and the wicked in this life stem from God's hidden judgment, and that holy men rightly fear prosperity more than adversity.

By a hidden judgment it happens that both among the good and among the bad, prosperity and adversity alternate in various ways, as was said above. More commonly, however, things go badly for the good here, and well for the wicked. This, namely, perhaps happens by a hidden judgment, because the good receive here the things they have sinned, so that they may be more fully freed from eternal damnation, and the wicked find here the good things they do for this life, so that they may be drawn to torments alone in the age to come.1 Hence, to the rich man burning in hell it is said: Remember, son, that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise received evil things (Luke.✦ 16, 25). But when things go badly for the wicked here and well for the good, it is very uncertain whether the good receive good things in order that, spurred on, they may grow toward something better, or whether by a just and hidden judgment they may receive here the reward of their works, so that they may be emptied of the rewards of the life to come.2 And whether the wicked are struck by adversity in order that a corrective defense may shield them from eternal punishments, or whether their punishment begins here, so that, once completed, it may lead them at last to the final torments of Gehenna.3 Holy men, therefore, fear prosperity in this world more than adversity.

Why the Holy Fear Prosperity and the Worldly Love Exile

Drawing on James and Paul, Odo shows that adversity drives the mind toward heaven, while prosperity secretly draws it outward and away from God.

For they know that hardships, while they press upon us, drive the mind toward the heavenly things that are to be desired — the things in which true rest is found. But if prosperity is at hand, they are troubled by a fearful suspicion, afraid that having been rewarded with outward things, they may be driven away from the inward ones. And for that very reason they shun prosperity with all the greater disdain, the more fully they know that its sweetness flatters them into contempt of the heavenly sweetness, and that by its very nature it tends to draw the mind outward and diminish it — so that they don't even notice how they're being changed. But on the other hand there are some who neglect their own lives, chase after passing things, don't understand eternal things — or having understood them, despise them — and neither feel grief for the things they've done wrong, nor take any thought for recovering what they've lost. And since they don't consider heavenly things, they by no means lift up the eyes of the mind toward the light of truth, for which they were created; they by no means direct the keenness of their desire toward the contemplation of the eternal homeland — but abandoning themselves in the things to which they've been cast down, they come to love the exile they endure as though it were their homeland. And this is why they pursue the wretched prosperity of this life to such a degree that they would rather gain it at the cost of any offense against God or harm to their neighbors than be cast out of God's house.

Counting Trials as Joy and the Danger of Affliction

Odo exhorts believers to receive adversity with joy as discipline, while warning that the spiritually unskilled may grow worse through affliction by falling into despair or murmuring.

Now whether it's so that the good may not be rewarded here in unbroken prosperity, or so that the wicked may be corrected here, or whether for any other hidden reason of judgment adversity comes to us — one thing remains: that, just as James exhorts, we should count it all joy when we fall into various trials.✦4 For as Paul says: 'All discipline, at the time, does not seem to be a matter of joy' (Heb.✦5 Hebrews 12:11 — but it is grief.✦ And so it often happens that things turn out the opposite way: those who are unskilled become worse precisely through the affliction by which they should have been improved. For they fall into either despair, thinking themselves abandoned by God, or murmuring, since they do not reflect that they are afflicted by a just judgment.

Read the original Latin

Occulto igitur judicio fit, ut tam apud bonos quam apud malos et prospera et adversa varie, sicut supra dictum est, alternent. Usitatius tamen hic et bonis male est, et malis bene. Quod videlicet idcirco forte occulto judicio fit, quia et boni quae deliquerunt hic recipiunt, ut ab aeterna damnatione plenius liberentur, et mali bona, quae pro hac vita faciunt, hic inveniunt, ut ad sola in posterum tormenta pertrahantur. Unde et ardenti in inferno diviti dicitur: Memento, fili, quia recepisti bona in vita tua, et Lazarus similiter mala (Luc. XVI, 25). At cum malis hic male est, et bonis bene, incertum valde est utrum boni idcirco bona accipiant, ut provocati ad aliquid melius crescant: an justo latentique judicio hic suorum operum remunerationem percipiant, ut a praemiis vitae sequentis inanescant. Et utrum malos idcirco adversa feriant, ut ab aeternis suppliciis corrigentia defendant: an hic eorum poena incipiat, ut quandoque complenda eos ad ultima gehennae tormenta perducat. Sancti ergo viri magis in hoc mundo prospera quam adversa formidant.

Sciunt enim, quod adversa dum premunt, ad coelestia concupiscenda, quo plena requies est, mente eos impellunt. Si vero prospera suppetunt, pavida suspicione turbantur, timentes ne exterioribus remunerati ab intimis repellantur. Et idcirco eadem prospera tanto majori aspernatione refugiunt, quanto plenius sciunt quod eorum dulcedo in despectum supernae dulcedinis blandiatur, et quod sic sua soleant occupatione mentem ad exteriora diminuere, ut quomodo permutetur ignorent. At contra sunt nonnulli, qui vitam suam negligunt, transitoria appetunt, aeterna non intelligunt, vel intellecta contemnunt nec dolorem pro his, quae admiserunt, sentiunt, nec habere consilium recuperandi curant. Cumque superna non considerent, nequaquam ad veritatis lumen, cui conditi fuerant, mentis oculos erigunt, nequaquam ad contemplationem aeternae patriae desiderii aciem tendunt, sed semetipsos in his, ad quae projecti sunt, deserentes, vice patriae diligunt exsilium, quod patiuntur. Et inde est quod miseram hujus vitae felicitatem intantum affectent, ut cum qualibet Dei offensione vel proximorum laesione hanc adipisci malint, quam abjecti esse in domo Dei. Si vero propter bonos ne hic in continua prosperitate positi remunerentur, sive propter malos ut hic emendentur, seu certe qualibet alia secreti judicii causa nobis adversitas veniat, unum superest, ut juxta quod Jacobum hortatur, omne gaudium existimemus, cum varias in tentationes inciderimus. Sed enim, ut Paulus dicit: Omnis disciplina in praesenti quidem non videtur esse gaudii (Hebr.

XII, 11), sed moeroris. Et idcirco frequenter ita res in contrarium vertitur, ut imperiti quilibet pro afflictione, qua meliorari debuerant, pejores fiant. Nam et in desperationem cadunt, putantes se a Deo derelictos, aut murmurationem dum non recogitant, quia justo judicio tribulantur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩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.'
  2. ↩Jas.1.2 — Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
  3. ↩Heb.12.11 — Now all discipline for the present does not seem to be joyful but grievous, yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
  4. ↩Heb.12.11 — Now all discipline for the present does not seem to be joyful but grievous, yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The phrase 'quae deliquerunt hic recipiunt' is rendered as 'receive here the things they have sinned,' preserving the ambiguity of whether the good receive punishment for their sins or receive back the fruits of their sins. The Latin is deliberately compressed.
  2. 2 ↩The phrase 'ut a praemiis vitae sequentis inanescant' — 'so that they may be emptied of the rewards of the life to come' — is theologically dense. It suggests that receiving earthly rewards for good works may diminish or exhaust the heavenly rewards owed to them. The translation preserves this tension without resolving it.
  3. 3 ↩The word 'corrigentia' is rare and its precise sense here is debated — rendered as 'a corrective defense' to capture the idea of a remedial intervention that wards off worse punishment.
  4. 4 ↩Allusion to James 1:2 (Vulgate): 'Omne gaudium existimate, fratres mei, cum in temptationes varias incideritis.' Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
  5. 5 ↩Quotation from Hebrews 12:11 (Vulgate): 'Omnis autem disciplina in praesenti quidem videtur non esse gaudii sed moeroris.' Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.

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