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Chapter 39OdoC.3.39

Caput XXXVIII

The Snare of the Prosperous Wicked

Odo warns that the devil exploits the sight of the wicked prospering and the good suffering to plant murmuring, despair, and doubt in weak hearts.

The evil of murmuring or of despair creeps in especially through this — with the devil lying in wait — because the wicked prosper and the good are crushed. For from this it comes about that a weak spirit suspects either that God does not care about good deeds — just as the wife of blessed Tobias, who was afflicted, said to him plainly: 'Your hope has become empty' (Tob.1 II, 22), etc. And Gideon: 'If the Lord is with us, why have all these things overtaken us? Or is his judgment not just?'✦2 (Judg.✦ 6:13.)✦ And this is no small matter — why things go well for the wicked and badly for the good — since the holy prophets seem to voice a complaint about this in the person of the weak.3 Jeremiah says: 'Why does the way of the wicked prosper?'✦

The Prophets' Lament over Injustice

Scripture itself gives voice to holy complaint: Jeremiah, David, and Malachi all wrestle with the prosperity of evildoers and the weariness of serving God.

You are close to their mouth, and far from their loins (Jer.✦ 12, 1). And David: But my feet had nearly stumbled, because I was jealous of sinners, seeing the peace of sinners (Ps. 72, 23). And Malachi, resisting such people: You have wearied the Lord, he says, with your words.✦ And you said: In what?✦ In this, when you were saying: Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such people please him (Mal.✦ 2, 17).

The Devil's Craft and the Example of Job

Drawing on Job, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon, Odo explains that the devil deliberately afflicts the righteous in order to drive them to murmuring or despair, using outward calamities to wound the conscience within.

And Job: Why do the wicked live?✦ (Job 21) Many things of this kind follow. And Solomon hints at this: This, he says, is the worst of all things under heaven, because the same things happen to everyone — to the just and to the unjust (Eccl.✦ 9:3), etc. And so the hearts of men are filled with malice and contempt. For the devil knows this order of things: namely, that some people through afflictions are accustomed to arrive either at murmuring or at despair. And so when he had sought to tempt the aforesaid Job, he destroyed all his substance and afflicted his whole body — not because he desired to make him poor or sick, but so that through troubles brought upon him from without, he might wear down his conscience, and with the strength of his soul laid bare, Job might think something impious about God.4 For this purpose he craftily sent messengers, so that one might first say: The Sabeans formed three bands, carried off everything; and then fire from God fell from heaven and struck the sheep and consumed the servants (Job 1:15).✦5

Job's Double Fortress: Justice and a Clean Heart

Job stood firm against both murmuring — by submitting to God's inscrutable justice — and despair — by recalling his own integrity and the fleeting prosperity of the wicked.

As if he would say: Consider that you tried in vain to appease God with so many sacrifices—God whose wrath you endure, whom you hoped would comfort you in your human afflictions—so that, once he saw himself harmed outwardly by men and abandoned inwardly by God, he would have broken out all the more boldly, and all the more desperately, into open defiance. For the devil presumed so strongly that this could be done that he dared to say to God not merely about any ordinary person, but about Job himself—whose equal there was at that time: 'Touch all that he possesses, and then you'll see that he will curse you to your face' (Job 1:11).✦ But Job, fortified in this way against both assaults, stood firm. For against murmuring he calls to mind the justice of the Judge, saying: 'I know that if a man should wish to contend with God, he will not be able to answer one charge in a thousand' (Job 9:3); and likewise: 'I will not answer even if I should have any claim of justice, but I will beseech my Judge' (Job 9:15).✦✦ Job 9:15). Against despair, indeed, he recalled the holocausts of compassion, of chastity, and of humility, or of many such virtues, so that he could say: 'My heart does not reproach me in all my life' (1 John 3:21).✦ 1 John 3:21). As for the prosperity of the wicked, he was not moved by it, because he considered their end, saying: 'They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to the grave' (Job 21:13).✦

Venerating God's Judgments in Reverent Silence

Odo concludes that all suffering is just because it comes from God's ordinance, that divine judgments must be revered rather than scrutinized, and that the afflicted should look to their final end — where the proud are cast down and the lowly rise like the morning star.

Here's how it is: whenever those who are weak in mind see the wicked flourishing with joyful success, while the innocent are frequently oppressed by grief and poverty, they know — as was stated above — that nothing on earth happens without a cause. For even if God does not reveal the reasons behind the scourging by which the good are oppressed or the prosperity by which the wicked are propped up, he nonetheless shows that these things are just, since it is he himself — who is supremely just — who commands them to happen.✦ Nothing is pleasing to God except what is just; and we can suffer nothing except what has pleased God. Therefore everything we suffer is just, because it comes to us by the ordinance of him who can will nothing unjust. Therefore the divine judgments by which adversity comes to the good and prosperity to the wicked are not to be examined with bold speech, but venerated with reverent silence. So don't examine why something happens this way or that — look to the end of each. David labored in inquiry until he understood their end, and saw that those who are held by pride are cast out even as they are raised up, and will suddenly be in desolation. But those who make their hearts righteous and are scourged all day long have now become like a beast of burden; yet they will be with the Lord forever.✦ So even though you are afflicted in many ways, don't despair that your good works — if there are any — have displeased God. For as it is written: when you think you have been consumed, you will rise like the morning star, and the brightness of midday will dawn upon you in the evening.✦

Read the original Latin

Murmurationis malum sive desperationis per hoc insidiante diabolo maxime subrepit, quod mali prosperantur, et boni comprimuntur. Ex hoc enim fit, ut vel Deum non curare de bene gestis infirmus animus suspicetur, sicut uxor beati Tobiae afflicti quae ei dicit manifeste: Vana facta est spes tua (Tob. II, 22), etc. Et Gedeon: Si Dominus nobiscum, cur apprehenderunt nos omnia haec, vel judicium ejus non esse justum? (Judic. VI, 13.) Neque enim ista mediocris quaestio est, cur malis bene est, et bonis male: quando quidem sancti prophetae querimoniam de hoc ex persona infirmorum facere videntur. Dicit Jeremias: Quare via impiorum prosperatur?

prope es tu ori eorum, et longe a renibus eorum (Jer. XII, 1). Et David: Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, quia zelavi in peccatoribus pacem peccatorum videns (Psal. LXXII, 23). Et Malachias talibus resistens: Laborare, inquit, fecistis Dominum in sermonibus vestris. Et dixistis: In quo? in eo cum diceretis: Omnis qui facit malum bonus est in conspectu Domini, et tales ei placent (Malac. II, 17).

Et Job: Cur impii vivunt? (Job XXI) multa quae sequuntur hujusmodi. Quod et Salomon insinuans: Hoc est, ait, pessimum inter omnia quae sub coelo sunt, quia eadem cunctis eveniunt justo et impio (Eccl. IX, 3), etc. Unde et corda filiorum hominum replentur malitia et contemptu. Scit enim diabolus hunc ordinem rerum, quod videlicet quidam per afflictiones pervenire soleant, aut ad murmurationem, aut ad desperationem. Et ideo cum praedictum Job ad tentandum expetisset, omnem substantiam ejus pessumdedit, sed et omne corpus ejus afflixit: non quod eum pauperem aut aegrum facere desideraret, sed ut per molestias exterius illatas ejus conscientiam fatigare posset, animique virtute nudata ut impie aliquid de divinitate sentiret. Ad hoc enim et nuntios callide direxit, ut unus prius diceret: Sabaei fecerunt tres turmas, et tulerunt omnia, et tunc ignis Dei cecidit de coelo, et tactas oves puerosque consumptis (Job I, 15).

Quasi diceret: Pensa quia frustra tot Deum hostiis placare voluisti, cujus iram toleras, quem te in humanis adversitatibus consolaturum sperabas: quatenus dum se foris ab hominibus laedi, et intus a Deo destitui consideraret, in contumeliam tanto audacius, quanto et desperatius erupisset. Adeo namque diabolus id posse fieri praesumebat, ut non solum de quolibet aliquo, sed etiam de ipso Job, cujus similis tunc non erat, ad Deum diceret: Tange cuncta quae possidet, et tunc videbis quod in faciem benedicat tibi (Job I, 11). Verum sic isdem Job contra utraque munitus perstitit. Nam contra murmurationem aequitatem judicis ad memoriam reducit, dicens: Scio quia si voluerit homo contendere cum Deo, non poterit respondere unum pro mille (Job IX, 3); et item: Non respondebo si quidpiam justi habuero, sed meum judicem deprecabor (Ibid. IX, 15). Contra desperationem vero holocaustorum compassionis, castitatis, humilitatisque, vel multorum talium reminiscebatur, ita ut diceret: Non reprehendit me cor meum in omni vita mea (I Joan. III, 21). De malorum vero prosperitate non movebatur, quoniam finem eorum considerabat cum diceret: Ducunt in bonis dies suos, et in puncto ad infernum descendunt (Job XXI, 13).

Sic ero, et, nunc quilibet mente infirmi cum vident sceleratos quosque laetis successibus prosperari, innocentes vero frequenter luctu et penuria premi, sciunt quia, ut supradictum est, nihil in terra sine causa fit; quia etsi Deus causas flagelli, quo boni opprimuntur, et prosperitates, quibus mali fulciuntur, Deus non aperit, eo tamen justas esse indicat, quo eas ipse, qui summe justus est, fieri jubet. Nihil enim Deo placet nisi justum; pati autem nulla nisi quae Deo placuerint possumus. Justa sunt igitur cuncta, quae patimur, quia eo ordinante nobis eveniunt, qui injuste velle nihil potest. Ergo divina judicia, per quae bonis adversitas evenit, et malis prosperitas, non audaci sermone discutienda sunt, sed formidoloso silentio veneranda. Non igitur discutias, cur ita vel non ita fit: ad finem utriusque respice. David enim in disquirendo laborabat, quousque intellexit in novissimis eorum, et vidit quod illi qui superbia tenentur, ejiciuntur dum elevantur, et subito in desolatione erunt. Hi vero qui justificant cor suum et flagellantur, tota die facti sunt, nunc quidem ut jumentum, sed erunt semper cum Domino. Licet igitur multipliciter afficiaris, non desperes opera bona, si qua sunt, Deo displicuisse; quoniam, ut scriptum est, cum te consumptum putaveris, orieris ut Lucifer, et meridianus fulgor consurget tibi in vesperum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Judg.6.13 — And Gideon said to him, "My lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian."
  2. ↩Judg.6.13 — And Gideon said to him, "My lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian."
  3. ↩Judg.6.13 — And Gideon said to him, "My lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian."
  4. ↩Jer.12.1 — You are righteous, O LORD, yet I would plead my case before you. But I must speak of justice with you: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
  5. ↩Jer.12.1 — You are righteous, O LORD, yet I would plead my case before you. But I must speak of justice with you: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
  6. ↩Mal.2.17 — You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"
  7. ↩Mal.2.17 — You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"
  8. ↩Mal.2.17 — You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them," or, "Where is the God of justice?"
  9. ↩Job.21.7 — Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and grow mighty in power?
  10. ↩Eccl.9.3 — This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one fate comes to all. Moreover, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and madness is in their lives, and after that they go to the dead.
  11. ↩Job.1.15 — and Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and the young men they struck down with the edge of the sword—and I alone have escaped to tell you.
  12. ↩Job.1.11 — But stretch out your hand now and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.
  13. ↩Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand.
  14. ↩Job.9.15 — Even if I were in the right, I would not answer; I would plead for mercy from my Judge.
  15. ↩1John.3.21 — Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God.
  16. ↩Job.21.13 — They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol.
  17. ↩Job.2.10 — But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we receive good from God, and not also receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
  18. ↩Ps.72.9 — Before him the desert dwellers shall bow down, and his enemies shall lick the dust.
  19. ↩Ps.110.3;Isa.58.8 — Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy splendor; from the womb of the dawn the dew of your youth will be yours. Isa.58.8 — Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩gestis rendered as 'deeds' (noun gestum) rather than as a gerundive; the sense is 'well-done things' or 'good deeds.'
  2. 2 ↩judicium ejus rendered as 'his judgment' — the case of judicium is ambiguous (nom/acc); the sense is that Gideon questions whether God's governance is just.
  3. 3 ↩ex persona infirmorum: the prophets speak 'in the person of the weak,' that is, giving voice to the struggles of those who are spiritually frail.
  4. 4 ↩animique virtute nudata rendered as 'with the strength of his soul laid bare' — the phrase captures the stripping away of spiritual resilience, not merely physical weakness.
  5. 5 ↩The Latin text has 'puerosque consumptis' which appears to be a textual variant or corruption of the Vulgate's 'puerisque consumptis' (and the servants were consumed). The translation follows the intended sense of the passage.

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