APPENDIX OF THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE WORKS OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT, CONTAINING CERTAIN WORKS WHICH, AS IT SEEMS TO US, HAVE BEEN FALSELY ASCRIBED TO HIM.
HOMILY ON THE HOLY SPIRIT OF OUR HOLY FATHER BASIL, Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia.
A He who is baptized is baptized into the Trinity, into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, not into principalities, nor into powers, nor into the rest of the created things. Therefore, let it be clear to him that the Trinity is above creation; and let no one attempt to bring down anything of the Trinity to creation. Let him also remember the Lord, who breathed the Holy Spirit, and showed by that insufflation that the Spirit is of the divine essence, and not of created nature. B Let him also consider the apostolic exposition concerning the Trinity, in which we see one operation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that neither the Son nor the Spirit is created or made according to nature. For God does not need His own creature to perform His own work. Now the Apostle says: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who works all in all." Therefore, whatever God works, the Spirit works. "All these," he says, "works one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as He wills." Let no one bring the Spirit into servitude, hearing that He performs all things of God as He wills. And again: C "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." For if He does not mean the Divinity dwelling in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit—as John says: "By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us"—he will take away all hope. For if God is not in us, we shall obtain neither life nor eternal blessings. Paul says again: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" And again: "Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God." And...
a creature, indeed, needs revelation to know the things of God; but the Spirit reveals these things. "To us," he says, "God has revealed them through His Spirit." And He searches according to our manner, because we make our search in Him; "The Spirit," he says, "searches even the deep things of God"; yet He knows according to Himself, just as our own spirit does: "For who," he says, "among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one has known the things of God except the Spirit of God." And God gives life; for Paul says: "I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things"; and Christ gives life, who says: "My sheep hear My voice, and I give them eternal life." But we are made alive through the Spirit, as Paul says: "He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies B through His Spirit who dwells in you." You are made alive, therefore, by God through Christ in the Spirit. And for this reason, since every operation of the Son is manifested through the Spirit, the Spirit is called Lord, by the name of Lord; and Christ, by the name of Christ, as we were just saying: "Now the Lord is the Spirit." It has also been said: "You are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Then he adds: "But if Christ is in you," when he ought logically to have said: "But if the Spirit is in you." Nor is there any divine voice that teaches that the Spirit is a created thing. For that saying, "All things were made through Him," refers to the multitude of created things. But the Spirit is not included in that multitude; C rather, with the duality, He completes the Trinity, and He is foreign to a creature, and far excels it, inasmuch as He sanctifies the creature, and gives it life, and exists as an anointing within us, nay, even in the very flesh of the Lord Himself. But our Lord Jesus Christ is not sanctified through a creature, as Peter says: "Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power." Nor is He powerful through a creature; for He says: "I cast out demons by the Spirit of God." Nor is He led by a creature; for it is written that "He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." The ancient prophets proclaimed the dignity and majesty of God: "Thus says the Lord." But the new D prophets say: "Thus says the Holy Spirit." And the apostles: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." Wherefore the Apostle also, showing that he speaks divine words, sometimes says: "Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me?" And at other times: "I think I also have the Spirit of God." And the old Scripture is full of the [testimony] of the Spirit.
A "By the word of the Lord," says the Psalmist, "the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their host." And in the book of Job it is written: "The divine Spirit is that which made me." Just as one cannot suppose another Word besides the Son, by whom the heavens were made (for they would no longer have been made through the Lord if they had been made through another word), so too one cannot suppose another Spirit, who along with the Word establishes the powers of the heavens. When we hear of the "Spirit of his mouth," we do not understand it in a human fashion, but as is fitting for God, just as the Word must also be understood. For the Word is not a transitory utterance, but as the Psalmist says: "For ever, O Lord, thy Word continues in heaven." Neither is the Spirit a dispersing breath, but a breath that endures and remains. "For where shall I go from thy Spirit?" says David, since he is present everywhere, fills all things, and exists in divine dignity. For what he said concerning the Spirit, he says also concerning the face of God, and concerning his right hand, when he adds: "And from thy face where shall I flee? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present; if I take up my wings in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall guide me, and thy right hand shall hold me." And the voice of God concerning himself and the Spirit says this: "I am among you, says the Lord, and my Spirit has stood in the midst of you." B Therefore, the Spirit is neither alien to the glory of God, proceeding as he does in an ineffable manner from the ineffable mouth, nor is God himself without the Spirit; but he is the Spirit of God, and is with God, sent by God, and supplied through the Son. Just as it is said from the person of the Father: "My Spirit, which is upon thee"; and it is said by the Lord: "I will send the Paraclete to you," whom he also calls "the Spirit of truth." We must therefore confess, according to the divine tradition, one Father, one Son, and one Spirit, and not two fathers or two sons; wherefore the Spirit is not, and is not called, a Son. For we do not receive anyone from the Spirit as we receive the Spirit from the Son; but we receive him as he comes to us and sanctifies us, [receiving] the communion of the divinity, the participation in sonship, the earnest of the eternal inheritance, and the firstfruits of the future blessings. Let no one C pry into these holy names beyond what has been said, nor let anyone be forced to bestow the appellation of Son upon the Spirit, nor [to speak of] generation; but let one be satisfied with the D confession [of the faith] according to the Spirit and resemblance.
A For by the grace of the good God, in the memory of the words of the only-begotten Son of the living God, and of his holy evangelists and apostles and prophets, who sufficiently clarified for us the doctrine concerning the baptism which is according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been instructed that the baptism which is in fire is just as [effective] for reproving wickedness as it is suitable for receiving the righteousness of Christ; so that it produces at once a hatred of wickedness and a desire for virtue. And again, through faith, we have been cleansed from every sin by the blood of Christ, and having been baptized in water into the death of the Lord, we have laid down, as it were, a written confession, by which we profess that we are dead to sin and the world, but made alive to righteousness. And thus, having been baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we were born again; and having been born again and baptized in the name of the Son, we have put on Christ; and having put on the new man, who is created according to God, we were baptized in the name of the Father and were called children of God. B There is need, therefore, for us to be nourished henceforth with the food of eternal life, which the same only-begotten Son of the living God gave to us again, saying: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And how this is done, He taught when He said: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, the Father." And again: "Amen, amen, I say to you." Proposing this again to confirm the things that follow and to convince the hearers, He says: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." C And a little later it is written: "Many therefore of his disciples hearing it said: This saying is hard. Who can hear it? But Jesus knowing in himself, that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you? If then you shall see the Son of man ascend where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would betray him. And he said: Therefore did I say to you, that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father." D And at the end: "Jesus therefore took bread, and gave thanks, and broke, and gave to his disciples, and said: Take and eat: this is my body, which"
A is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me." And taking the cup, after giving thanks, he gave it to them saying: "Drink all of you from it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." And the Apostle: "For as often as you eat this bread, and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord." What then are these words, and what is their benefit? That, as we eat and drink, we may always be mindful of Him who died and rose again for us, and thus be taught that we must necessarily keep that apostolic command given to us, which says: "For the love of Christ urges us on, having judged this, that if one died for all, then all have died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them." For he who eats and drinks, clearly does so for the sake of preserving an indelible memory of the obedience of the Lord and Creator, which was made even unto death, who for my sake became that which I was, a created being. Nor indeed are we commanded to eat simply, but we are also exhorted to discern such a body of the Lord; clearly, by putting aside the defilement of flesh and spirit, and by preparing ourselves as a vessel for the spiritual ointment, so at last we may approach the pure sacrifice, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
HOMILY DELIVERED AT LACIZIS
1. The enemy contends, endeavoring C to outshout our discourse with external clamor; but we, not being ignorant of his designs, let us turn our ears and minds to the things being said here, pitying those who are absent from this audience, not going away with them in mind who are outside; but where we are in body, let us be there also in heart. Call to mind, I beseech you, the spiritual oracles which were read to you this morning, teachings profitable to the soul, the healing of souls. Remember the teachings in the Psalms; gather for me the proverbial precepts; search out the beauty of the histories; join to these the apostolic admonitions. Above all, as a finishing touch, add the memory of the evangelical words, so that having received some profit from all, you may return home, each having obtained the utility from the Spirit for that to which he is well-disposed. D In every way, the situation is thus in the most crowded church: as many as are the differences of faces, so many are the differences of minds; as many as the ages, so many are the sins. For the devices of the devil are manifold and varied; he leads one man astray in one way and another in another; toward whatever he sees anyone more inclined, to that he applies his own enticements.