Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print

Icon of the Christ and New Testament Reader

130 Pages

Page 90

Homily III. on Deut. xv. 9, [574] is one of the eight translated by Rufinus. Section 2 begins:

"Take heed,' it is written, to thyself.' Every living creature possesses within himself, by the gift of God, the Ordainer of all things, certain resources for self protection. Investigate nature with attention, and you will find that the majority of brutes have an instinctive aversion from what is injurious; while, on the other hand, by a kind of natural attraction, they are impelled to the enjoyment of what is beneficial to them. Wherefore also God our Teacher has given us this grand injunction, in order that what brutes possess by nature may accrue to us by the aid of reason, and that what is performed by brutes unwittingly may be done by us through careful attention and constant exercise of our reasoning faculty. We are to be diligent guardians of the resources given to us by God, ever shunning sin as brutes shun poisons, and ever hunting after righteousness, as they seek for the herbage that is good for food. Take heed to thyself, that thou mayest be able to discern between the noxious and the wholesome. This taking heed is to be understood in a twofold sense. Gaze with the eyes of the body at visible objects. Contemplate incorporeal objects with the intellectual faculty of the soul. If we say that obedience to the charge of the text lies in the action of our eyes, we shall see at once that this is impossible. How can there be apprehension of the whole self through the eye? The eye cannot turn its sight upon itself; the head is beyond it; it is ignorant of the back, the countenance, the disposition of the intestines. Yet it were impious to argue that the charge of the Spirit cannot be obeyed. It follows then that it must be understood of intellectual action. Take heed to thyself.' Look at thyself round about from every point of view. Keep thy soul's eye sleepless [575] in ceaseless watch over thyself. Thou goest in the midst of snares.' [576] Hidden nets are set for thee in all directions by the enemy. Look well around thee, that thou mayest be delivered as a gazelle from the net and a bird from the snare.' [577] It is because of her keen sight that the gazelle cannot be caught in the net. It is her keen sight that gives her her name. [578] And the bird, if only she take heed, mounts on her light wing far above the wiles of the hunter.

"Beware lest in self protection thou prove inferior to brutes, lest haply thou be caught in the gins and be made the devil's prey, and be taken alive by him to do with thee as he will."

[574] LXX, proseche seauto.

[575] akoimeton. On the later existence of an order of sleepless monks, known as the Acoemetae. cf. Theodoret, Ep. cxli. p. 309, in this series, and note.

[576] Ecclus. ix. 13.

[577] Prov. v. 5, LXX.

[578] dorkas, from derkomai,=seer. So Tabitha (Syr.)=keen-sighted.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of St Basil - Life and Works

St Basil the Great Home Page St Basil the Great in Print

Learned Freeware