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St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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130 Pages
Page 87
LXIV. is a somewhat lengthy comment on Matt. xvii. 6. To "make to offend," or "to scandalize," is to induce another to break the law, as the serpent Eve, and Eve Adam.
LXXXIII. is pithy.
Q. "If a man is generally in the right, and falls into one sin, how are we to treat him?
A. "As the Lord treated Peter."
CXXVIII. is on fasting.
Q. "Ought any one to be allowed to exercise abstinence beyond his strength, so that he is hindered in the performance of his duty?"
A. "This question does not seem to me to be properly worded. Temperance [562] does not consist in abstinence from earthly food, [563] wherein lies the neglecting of the body' [564] condemned by the Apostles, but in complete departure from one's own wishes. And how great is the danger of our falling away from the Lord's commandment on account of our own wishes is clear from the words of the Apostle, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath.'" [565] The numbers in the Coenobium are not to fall below ten, the number of the eaters of the Paschal supper. [566] Nothing is to be considered individual and personal property. [567] Even a man's thoughts are not his own. [568] Private friendships are harmful to the general interests of the community. [569] At meals there is to be a reading, which is to be thought more of than mere material food. [570] The cultivation of the ground is the most suitable occupation for the ascetic life. [571] No fees are to be taken for the charge of children entrusted to the monks. [572] Such children are not to be pledged to join the community till they are old enough to understand what they are about. [573]
[562] enkrateia. Gal. v. 23.
[563] aloga bromata. Combefis translates "terreni cibi." Garnier "nihil ad rem pertinentium."
[564] Col. ii. 23.
[565] Eph. ii. 3.
[566] Sermo Asceticus, 3.
[567] Reg. brev. tract. lxxxv., but see note on p.
[568] Prooem. in Reg. fus. tract.
[569] Sermo Asceticus. 5. The sacrifice of Gregory of Nazianzus may have been due to the idea that all private interests must be subordinated to those of the Church.
[570] Reg. brev. tract. clxxx.
[571] Reg. fus. tract. xxxviii.
[572] Reg. brev. tract. ccciv.
[573] Reg. fus. tract. xv. After the Regulae are printed, in Garnier's Ed. 34, Constitutiones Monasticae, with the note that their genuineness is more suspicious than that of any of the ascetic writings. They treat of the details of monastic life, of the virtues to be cultivated in it and the vices to be avoided. Sozomen (H.E. iii. 14) has been supposed to refer to them. All later criticism has been unfavourable to them. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xliii. 7; Ceillier VI. viii. 3; Fessler, p. 524. It may be remarked generally that the asceticism of St. Basil is eminently practical. He has no notion of mortification for mortification's sake,--no praise for the self-advertising and vain-glorious rigour of the Stylites. Neglecting the body, or "not sparing the body" by exaggerated mortification, in is cclviii. condemned as Manichaeism. It is of course always an objection to exclusive exaltation of the ascetic life that it is a kind of moral docetism, and ignores the fact that Christianity has not repudiated all concern with the body, but is designed to elevate and to purify it. (cf. Boehringer vii. p. 150.) Basil may be not unjustly criticised from this point of view, and accused of the very Manichaeism which he distinctly condemns. But it will be remembered that he recognises the holiness of marriage and family life, and if he thinks virginity and coenobitism a higher life, has no mercy for the dilettante asceticism of a morbid or indolent "incivisme." Valens, from the point of view of a master of legions, might deplore monastic celibacy, and press Egyptian monks by thousands into the ranks of his army. (cf. Milman, Hist. Christ. iii. 47.) Basil from his point of view was equally positive that he was making useful citizens, and that his industrious associates, of clean and frugal lives, were doing good service. "En effet, le moine basilien, n'est pas, comme le cenobite d'Egypte, separe du monde par un mur infranchissable Les poissons meurent,' disait Saint Antoine, quand on les tire de l'eau, et les moines s'enervent dans les villes; rentrons vite dans les montagnes, comme les poissons dans leau.' (Montalembert, Moines d'Occident, i. 61.) Les moines basiliens vivent aussi dans la solitude pour gagner le ciel, mais ils ne veulent pas le gagner seuls....Les principaux, au moins, doivent se meler a la societe pour l'instruire. Cet homme a la chevelure negligee, a la demarche posie, dont l'oeil nes s'egare jamais, ouvre son monastere a ses sembables, ou va les trouver, du moment qu'il s'agit de leur edification. Son contact fortifie le clerge; il entre lui-meme dans les ordres, et devient collaborateur de l'eveque. Il va aux fetes des martyrs et preche dans les eglises. Il entre dans les maisons, prend part aux conversations, aux repas, et, tout en evitant les longs entretiens et les liaisons aux les femmes, et le directeur et le compagnon de piete des ames....Le moine ne doit pas seulement soulager les moeux de l'ame. Les maisons des pauvres, dont se couvrait une parlie de l'Asie Mineure, etatent des asiles ouverts toutes les souffrances physiques....Pour Basile, ces deux institutions, le monastere et la maisons des pauvres, quoique separees et distinctes, n'en formaient qu'une. A ses yeux, les secours corporels n'etaient qu'un moyen d'arriver a l'ame. Pendant que la main du moine servait les voyageurs, nourissait les pauvres, pausait les malades, ses levres leur distribuatent une aumone plus precieuse, celle de la parole de Dieu." Fialon, Et Historique, pp. 51-53. A high ideal! Perhaps never more nearly realized than in the Cappadocian coenobia of the fourth century.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=87
