St Basil the Great LETTERS, Third Part

Translated by Bl. Jackson.

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This Part: 129 Pages

Page 40

7. Lastly as to your enquiry in what manner things neutral and indifferent are ordained for us, whether by some chance working by its own accord, or by the righteous providence of God, my answer is this: Health and sickness, riches and poverty, credit and discredit, inasmuch as they do not render their possessors good, are not in the category of things naturally good, but, in so far as in any way they make life's current flow more easily, in each case the former is to be preferred to its contrary, and has a certain kind of value. To some men these things are given by God for stewardship's sake, [3001] as for instance to Abraham, to Job and such like. To inferior characters they are a challenge to improvement. For the man who persists in unrighteousness, after so goodly a token of love from God, subjects himself to condemnation without defence. The good man, however, neither turns his heart to wealth when he has it, nor seeks after it if he has it not. He treats what is given him as given him not for his selfish enjoyment, but for wise administration. No one in his senses runs after the trouble of distributing other people's property, unless he is trying to get the praise of the world, which admires and envies anybody in authority.

Good men take sickness as athletes take their contest, waiting for the crowns that are to reward their endurance. To ascribe the dispensation of these things to any one else is as inconsistent with true religion as it is with common sense.

[3001] ex oikonomias. In Ep. xxxi. Basil begins a letter to Eusebius of Samosata: "The dearth has not yet left us, we are therefore compelled still to remain in the town, either for stewardship's sake or for sympathy with the afflicted." Here the Benedictines' note is Saepe apud Basilium oikonomia dicitur id quod pauperibus distribuitur. Vituperat in Comment. in Isa. praesules qui male partam pecuniam accipiunt vel ad suos usus, e epi logo tes ton ptocheuonton en te 'Ekklesi& 139; oikonomias, vel per causam distribuendi pauperibus Ecclesiae. In Epistola 92 Orientales inter mala Ecclesiae illud etiam deplorant quod ambitiosi praesules oikonom as ptochon, pecunias pauperibus destinatas in suos usus convertant.

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