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Chapter 52OdoC.3.52

Caput LI

The Cloud of Witnesses and the Call to Endure

Odo introduces the theme of endurance in suffering, grounding it in the prophetic and apostolic witness of Scripture, especially Isaiah, Hebrews, and James, to show that the whole company of the elect is led by humble Christ through adversity.

Much has already been said against murmuring and despair, and so, even as we repeat what is familiar and press it upon you, we fear we may be accused of pouring a drop into the river in vain — so let us set forth what remains. It must be understood, then, that we are instructed toward endurance not only by precept but also by many examples in manifold ways. The whole company of the elect — whom, as Isaiah prophesies, a little child, that is, humble Jesus, leads by scourging, as though by threats, by action, through the narrow way to the enclosures of the heavenly standing — endures adversity while living here.✦ Which ones, then, shall we especially bring forward, since the whole multitude of the elect is an example? Concerning these the Apostle, as we have already said: 'Having,' he says, 'so great a cloud of witnesses laid upon us, let us run through patience' (Heb.✦ 12, 1). Concerning this cloud James says: 'Receive the example, brothers, of suffering evil and of long-suffering, of labor and of patience, which things the prophets spoke in the name of the Lord' (Jas.✦ 5, 10).

Job and John: Two Saints Laid Low

Odo presents Job and John the Baptist as twin exemplars—one from the Old Testament and one from the New—whose extraordinary holiness and divine favor did not exempt them from the harshest sufferings, thereby teaching that the dearer one is to God, the more one may be struck down in this life.

And as if he were saying: so that you may endure more patiently whatever befalls you — see that those men who were so holy that God spoke through them met a harsh end. For whoever has been dearer to God has always suffered harsher things. It seems good, however, to bring forward two men, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New — namely Job and John — and when we reflect that they, though incomparably praised, yet suffered such cruel things, we rightly perceive what should be judged about the rest. Take Job, then, of whom it is said: "There is none like him on the earth" (Job 1:8). While he endured so many losses of property, while he grieved, struck by so many deaths of his children, while he bore so many wounds — he is described as having sat not on clean ground but on a dung heap.✦ This happens so that he would be warned by the stench of the place — because his body had luxuriated to the point that it had returned to stench.1 To scrape away the discharge, he used neither his fingers nor a garment, but a potsherd — by which act it was shown how he despised his own body when it was whole, and even when it was stricken he neglected it. But look — as I consider the wounds and torments of blessed Job, I suddenly turn the eyes of my mind to John, and not without the deepest admiration I weigh the fact that this man, filled with the spirit of prophecy within his mother's womb and, so to speak, reborn before he was born — that friend of the Bridegroom, that man than whom none born of women has risen greater, that man who was so much a prophet that he is even more than a prophet — was sent to prison by wicked men, and a man of such great severity died in exchange for shameful laughter.✦✦23 Why is it, then, that Job is preferred by the testimony of God, and yet is laid low by blows all the way to a dung heap?

The Paradox of Divine Abasement and Exaltation

Odo resolves the paradox of the saints' suffering by revealing God's hidden economy: He presses His chosen low in outward things precisely because He will reward them in the highest, casting them down outwardly while leading them inwardly to incomprehensible glory, and from this each believer may infer the far greater judgment awaiting the condemned.

How is it that John is praised by the voice of God, and yet for the words of drunkards he dies — the reward of a dance?✦ How is it that almighty God looks down so vehemently in this world on those whom he so gloriously chose before the ages?✦4 Isn't it clear to the devotion of the faithful that this is why he presses them so low in the lowest things — because he sees how he will reward them in the highest? And outwardly he casts them down even to despised things, because inwardly he leads them even to incomprehensible things?✦56 From this, then, let each one gather what those whom he rejects are about to suffer yonder, if here they suffer so whom he loves; or how they will be struck who are to be accused in judgment, if the life of those whom he praises with himself as judge bearing witness is pressed down so severely.✦78

Read the original Latin

Multa jam contra murmurationem vel desperationem prolata sunt, et idcirco dum nota replicantes vestra vobis ingerimus, timemus ne in flumen frustra jactare stillam arguamur, concite quod restat explicemus. Itaque sciendum quod non solum praecepto, sed et pluribus exemplis ad tolerantiam multipliciter informamur. Universitas quippe electorum, quam, ut Isaias vaticinatur, puer parvulus, id est humilis Jesus, ad supernae stationis caulas flagellando, quasi minis agendo, per arctam viam ducit, dum hic vivit adversa perpetitur. Quos ergo specialiter proferemus, cum omnis electorum multitudo exemplum sit? De quibus Apostolus, ut jam dixeramus: Habentes, inquit, tantam impositam nubem testium per patientiam curramus (Hebr. XII, 1). De qua nube Jacobus: Exemplum, ait, excipite, fratres, exitus mali et longanimitatis, laboris et patientiae, quae locuti sunt prophetae in nomine Domini (Jac. V, 10).

Ac si diceret: ut ea quae vobis contingunt patientius toleretis: Videte quod illi qui tam sancti erant, ut per eos Deus loqueretur, durum exitium habuerunt. Quicunque enim Deo chariores exstiterunt, semper duriora senserunt. Libet tamen duos, unum de Veteri Testamento, alium de Novo ad medium deferre: Job scilicet et Joannem, quos quidem cum incomparabiliter laudatos, et tamen tam crudelia passos fuisse revolverimus, quid de reliquis aestimandum sit aptum advertimus. Job itaque, de quo dictum est: Non est similis ei in terra (Job I, 8), cum tot rerum damna sustineret, cum tot funeribus pignorum percussus doleret, cum tot vulnera toleraret, non in terra munda, sed in sterquilinio sedisse describitur. Quod idcirco fit, ut ex fetore loci commoneretur quia festive corpus ejus ad fetorem rediret. Ad radendam quoque saniem non digitos, non vestem adhibuit, sed testam: quo facto monstraretur quomodo corpus suum sanum despexerit, quod etiam percussum neglexit. Sed ecce, dum beati Job vulnera cruciatusque considero, repente mentis oculos ad Joannem reduco, et non sine gravissima admiratione perpendo quod ille prophetiae spiritu intra matris uterum repletus, atque, ut ita dixerim, priusquam nasceretur renatus, ille amicus sponsi, ille quo inter natos mulierum major nemo surrexit, ille sic propheta, ut plus etiam sit quam propheta, ab iniquis in carcere mittitur, et vir tantae severitatis pro risu turpium moritur. Quid est ergo, quod Job Dei testimonio praefertur, et tamen plagis usque ad sterquilinium sternitur?

Quid est, quod Joannes Dei voce laudatur, et tamen pro temulentis verbis in saltationis praemium moritur? Quid est quod omnipotens Deus sic vehementer in hoc mundo despicit, quos sic sublimiter ante saecula elegit? nisi hoc quod pietati fidelium patet, quoniam idcirco sic eos premit in infimis, quia videt quomodo eos remuneret in summis; et foras usque ad despecta dejicit, quia intus usque ad incomprehensibilia perducit? Hinc ergo unusquisque colligat quid illic sint passuri quos reprobat, si hic patiuntur sic quos amat; aut quomodo ferientur, qui in judicio arguendi sunt, si sic eorum vita premitur, qui ipso judice teste laudantur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.9.6 — For the increase of his government and for peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
  2. ↩Heb.12.1 — Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us.
  3. ↩Jas.5.10 — Brothers and sisters, take as an example of suffering and patience the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
  4. ↩Job.1.8 — Then the LORD said to the Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil."
  5. ↩Matt.11.11 — Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
  6. ↩John.3.29 — The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine is now complete.
  7. ↩Luke.7.28;Matt.11.11;Mark.6.17-Mark.6.29 — I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Matt.11.11 — Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Mark.6.17 — For Herod himself had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. Mark.6.18 — For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Mark.6.19 — And Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not. Mark.6.20 — For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he listened to him gladly. Mark.6.21 — And when the right day came, Herod on his birthday made a feast for his courtiers and the military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. Mark.6.22 — And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those reclining at table with him. And the king said to the girl, \"Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.\ Mark.6.23 — And he swore to her, "Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." Mark.6.24 — She went out and said to her mother, 'What should I ask for?' And she said, 'The head of John the Baptist.' Mark.6.25 — And having entered immediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist." Mark.6.26 — And though the king was deeply distressed, because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to refuse her. Mark.6.27 — And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring his head. Mark.6.28 — and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. Mark.6.29 — When his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his body and laid it in a tomb.
  8. ↩Eph.1.4 — just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love
  9. ↩2Cor.4.16-2Cor.4.18 — Therefore we do not lose heart; even though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 2Cor.4.17 — For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 2Cor.4.18 — So we do not focus on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
  10. ↩1Cor.4.3-1Cor.4.5 — But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even examine myself. 1Cor.4.4 — I am conscious of nothing against myself, but I am not thereby justified; the one who examines me is the Lord. 1Cor.4.5 — Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the purposes of the hearts; and then each one's praise will come from God.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The verb commoneretur (variant reading uncertain between commoneo and commonefio) is rendered as 'warned' to capture the sense of being admonished or made aware.
  2. 2 ↩The phrase 'friend of the Bridegroom' (amicus sponsi) is a traditional title for John the Baptist drawn from John 3:29.
  3. 3 ↩The clause 'none born of women has risen greater' echoes Matthew 11:11 (Vulgate): maior inter natos mulierum non surrexit.
  4. 4 ↩despicit rendered 'looks down on' in the sense of 'regards with contempt / allows to be humiliated,' not 'disparages' — the paradox is that God's chosen ones are visibly abased in this life.
  5. 5 ↩The sentence is a rhetorical question (nisi…patet) expecting the affirmative answer 'yes, it is clear.' Rendered as a direct question to preserve the force.
  6. 6 ↩incomprehensibilia rendered 'incomprehensible things' — refers to the surpassing, ungraspable depths of divine glory, not mere intellectual difficulty.
  7. 7 ↩The sentence sets up a double conditional argument: (1) if the beloved suffer now, how much more will the rejected suffer later; (2) if even those whom God himself praises are pressed down in this life, how much more will the condemned be struck at judgment.
  8. 8 ↩ipso judice teste rendered 'with himself as judge bearing witness' — God is both the one who praises and the judge who testifies to their worth, a striking theological compression.

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