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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 33
Letter XXII. [1917]
Without address. On the Perfection of the Life of Solitaries.
1. Many things are set forth by inspired Scripture as binding upon all who are anxious to please God. But, for the present, I have only deemed it necessary to speak by way of brief reminder concerning the questions which have recently been stirred among you, so far as I have learnt from the study of inspired Scripture itself. I shall thus leave behind me detailed evidence, easy of apprehension, for the information of industrious students, who in their turn will be able to inform others. The Christian ought to be so minded as becomes his heavenly calling, [1918] and his life and conversation ought to be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. [1919] The Christian ought not to be of doubtful mind, [1920] nor by anything drawn away from the recollection of God and of His purposes and judgments. The Christian ought in all things to become superior to the righteousness existing under the law, and neither swear nor lie. [1921] He ought not to speak evil; [1922] to do violence; [1923] to fight; [1924] to avenge himself; [1925] to return evil for evil; [1926] to be angry. [1927] The Christian ought to be patient, [1928] whatever he have to suffer, and to convict the wrong-doer in season, [1929] not with the desire of his own vindication, but of his brother's reformation, [1930] according to the commandment of the Lord. The Christian ought not to say anything behind his brother's back with the object of calumniating him, for this is slander, even if what is said is true. [1931] He ought to turn away from the brother who speaks evil against him; [1932] he ought not to indulge in jesting; [1933] he ought not to laugh nor even to suffer laugh makers. [1934] He must not talk idly, saying things which are of no service to the hearers nor to such usage as is necessary and permitted us by God; [1935] so that workers may do their best as far as possible to work in silence; and that good words be suggested to them by those who are entrusted with the duty of carefully dispensing the word to the building up of the faith, lest God's Holy Spirit be grieved. Any one who comes in ought not to be able, of his own free will, to accost or speak to any of the brothers, before those to whom the responsibility of general discipline is committed have approved of it as pleasing to God, with a view to the common good. [1936] The Christian ought not to be enslaved by wine; [1937] nor to be eager for flesh meat, [1938] and as a general rule ought not to be a lover of pleasure in eating or drinking, [1939] "for every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." [1940] The Christian ought to regard all the things that are given him for his use, not as his to hold as his own or to lay up; [1941] and, giving careful heed to all things as the Lord's, not to overlook any of the things that are being thrown aside and disregarded, should this be the case. No Christian ought to think of himself as his own master, but each should rather so think and act as though given by God to be slave to his like minded brethren; [1942] but "every man in his own order." [1943]
[1917] Placed in 364.
[1918] cf. Heb. iii.
[1919] cf. Phil. i. 27.
[1920] cf. Luke xii. 29.
[1921] cf. Matt. v. 20.
[1922] Tit. iii. 2.
[1923] 1 Tim. ii. 13.
[1924] 2 Tim. ii. 24.
[1925] Rom. xii. 19.
[1926] Rom. xii. 17.
[1927] Matt. v. 22.
[1928] James v. 8.
[1929] Tit. ii. 15.
[1930] Matt. xv. 18.
[1931] cf. 2 Cor. xii. 20 and 1 Peter ii. 1.
[1932] cf. 1 Peter iii. 16, 17, and James iv. 11.
[1933] Eph. v. 4.
[1934] This charge is probably founded on Luke vi. 21 and 25, and James iv. 9. Yet our Lord's promise that they who hunger and weep "shall laugh," admits of fulfilment in the kingdom of God on earth. Cheerfulness is a note of the Church, whose members, "if sorrowful," are yet "alway rejoicing." (2 Cor. vi. 10.)
[1935] Eph. v. 4.
[1936] It is less easy to find explicit Scriptural sanction even for such a modified rule of silence as is here given by St. Basil. St. Paul can only be quoted for the "silence" of the woman. But even St. Basil's "silence" with a view to preserving his coenobium from vain conversation, is a long way off the "silence" of St. Bruno's Carthusians.
[1937] 1 Pet. iv. 3.
[1938] Rom. xiv. 21.
[1939] 2 Tim. iii. 4.
[1940] 1 Cor. ix. 25.
[1941] cf. Acts iv. 32.
[1942] cf. 1 Cor. ix. 19.
[1943] cf. 1 Cor. xv. 23.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/letters.asp?pg=33
