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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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80 Pages (Homilies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Page 18
5. Do not then go beyond yourself to seek for evil, and imagine that there is an original nature of wickedness. Each of us, let us acknowledge it, is the first author of his own vice. Among the ordinary events of life, some come naturally, like old age and sickness, others by chance like unforeseen occurrences, of which the origin is beyond ourselves, often sad, sometimes fortunate, as for instance the discovery of a treasure when digging a well, or the meeting of a mad dog when going to the market place. Others depend upon ourselves, such as ruling one's passions, or not putting a bridle on one's pleasures, to be master of our anger, or to raise the hand against him who irritates us, to tell the truth, or to lie, to have a sweet and well-regulated disposition, or to be fierce and swollen and exalted with pride. [1427] Here you are the master of your actions. Do not look for the guiding cause beyond yourself, but recognise that evil, rightly so called, has no other origin than our voluntary falls. If it were involuntary, and did not depend upon ourselves, the laws would not have so much terror for the guilty, and the tribunals would not be so without pity when they condemn wretches according to the measure of their crimes. But enough concerning evil rightly so called. Sickness, poverty, obscurity, death, finally all human afflictions, ought not to be ranked as evils; since we do not count among the greatest boons things which are their opposites. [1428] Among these afflictions, some are the effect of nature, others have obviously been for many a source of advantage. Let us then be silent for the moment about these metaphors and allegories, and, simply following without vain curiosity the words of Holy Scripture, let us take from darkness the idea which it gives us.
But reason asks, was darkness created with the world? Is it older than light? Why in spite of its inferiority has it preceded it? Darkness, we reply, did not exist in essence; it is a condition produced in the air by the withdrawal of light. What then is that light which disappeared suddenly from the world, so that darkness should cover the face of the deep? If anything had existed before the formation of this sensible and perishable world, no doubt we conclude it would have been in light. The orders of angels, the heavenly hosts, all intellectual natures named or unnamed, all the ministering spirits, [1429] did not live in darkness, but enjoyed a condition fitted for them in light and spiritual joy. [1430]
No one will contradict this; least of all he who looks for celestial light as one of the rewards promised to virtue, the light which, as Solomon says, is always a light to the righteous, [1431] the light which made the Apostle say "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." [1432] Finally, if the condemned are sent into outer darkness [1433] evidently those who are made worthy of God's approval, are at rest in heavenly light. When then, according to the order of God, the heaven appeared, enveloping all that its circumference included, a vast and unbroken body separating outer things from those which it enclosed, it necessarily kept the space inside in darkness for want of communication with the outer light. Three things are, indeed, needed to form a shadow, light, a body, a dark place. The shadow of heaven forms the darkness of the world. Understand, I pray you, what I mean, by a simple example; by raising for yourself at mid-day a tent of some compact and impenetrable material, and shutting yourself up in it in sudden darkness. Suppose that original darkness was like this, not subsisting directly by itself, but resulting from some external causes. If it is said that it rested upon the deep, it is because the extremity of air naturally touches the surface of bodies; and as at that time the water covered everything, we are obliged to say that darkness was upon the face of the deep.
[1427] cf. Epictetus, Ench. i. eph' hemin men hupolepsis, horme, orexis, ekklisis, kai heni logo hosa hemetera erga.
[1428] cf. M. Aurelius II. xi. ho gar cheiro me poiei anthropon, pos de touto bion anthropou cheiro poieseien;...thanatos de ge kai zoe doxa kai adoxia, ponos kai hedone, ploutos kai penia, panta tauta epises sumbainei anthropon tois te agathois kai tois kakois, oute kala onta oute aischra; out' ar' agatha oute kaka esti. Also Greg. Nyss. Orat. Cat. and Aug., De Civ. Dei. i. 8. Ista vero temporalia bona et mala utrisque voluit esse communia, ut nec bona cupidius appetantur, quae mali quoque habere cernuntur, nec mala turpiter evitentur, quibus et boni plerumque afficiuntur.
[1429] cf. Heb. i. 14.
[1430] cf. Theod. (Quaest. in Gen. vi.) who is ready to accept the creation of angels before the creation of the world. Origen, Hom. i. in Gen. Hom. iv. in Is. taught the existence of angels "before the aeons." Greg. Naz., Orat. xxxviii. The lxx. Trans. of Job xxxviii. 7, enesan me pantes angeloi mou may have aided in the formation of the general opinion of the Greek Fathers. The systematization of the hierarchies is due to the pseudo, Dionysius, and was transmitted to the west through John Erigena. cf. Milman, Lat. Christ. ix. 59.
[1431] Prov. xiii. 9, lxx.
[1432] Col. i. 12.
[1433] cf. Matt. xxii. 13.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/hexaemeron.asp?pg=18
