those who persecute them; for if they had not opened the stadium, the athletes would not have demonstrated their fortitude in public. But what indeed should one admire more concerning the praise of those who are set before us as our subject: their multitude, their fortitude, or their sincere and unfalsified concord? A Yet let us not pass over the first number ungratefully. For he who has such great intercessors will never depart empty from prayers and supplication, even if he be exceedingly burdened by sins. Of this concept and hope, God Himself is witness in the conversation with Abraham, when he was supplicating for the Sodomites, and not seeking forty, but ten righteous men for the preservation of a city about to perish.
We, however, according to the Apostle, having such a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, should proclaim ourselves blessed, rejoicing in hope, constant in prayer, and partaking in the memories of the saints. For the forty martyrs are strong champions against our B adversaries, and worthy intercessors for petitioning the common Lord. Protected by their support, let the Christian be confident, even if the devil weaves temptations, and wicked men rise up, and tyrants burn with fury, and the sea rages, and the earth refuses to bring forth what it is accustomed to bring forth for men, and finally the heavens threaten terrors. For their power and efficacy are sufficient for every necessity and circumstance, and they receive rich grace from Christ, to whom all glory is due unto the ages. Amen.
BY THE SAME FUNERAL ORATION FOR HIS OWN BROTHER, THE GREAT BASIL.
C God has imposed a good order upon these our anniversary festivals, which we have already celebrated and celebrate again through a certain ordered succession during these days. The order for us, however, of these spiritual solemnities and assemblies is that which the great Paul also taught, having received the knowledge of such things from above and from heaven. For he says first that the apostles and
A prophets were appointed, and after them pastors and teachers. The order of the solemn assemblies of the year corresponds, therefore, to this apostolic sequence. But I do not count the first one among the others. For the grace regarding the appearance of the only-begotten Son, which was displayed to the world through the birth from the Virgin, is not simply a holy assembly, but the holy of holies, and the assembly of assemblies. Let us, therefore, number those that follow it. First, the apostles and prophets have begun for us the spiritual chorus. For the two gifts—the apostolic spirit and that of prophecy—are indeed altogether centered in them. And these are: Stephen, Peter, James, John, Paul; then, after these, keeping his own order, the shepherd and teacher B initiates the assembly before us. Who is this? Shall I mention the name, or does the grace and the festival itself suffice to point out the man? For when you have heard of a teacher and shepherd after the apostles, you have surely understood him who follows the apostles as shepherd and teacher. I mean him who is the vessel of election, Basil, lofty in life and in speech, acceptable and pleasing to God from his birth, grey-haired in character from his youth, who was educated according to Moses in all the wisdom of the external sciences, but from infancy even to perfection and completion was nurtured in, grew with, and attained maturity in the sacred writings. Hence, in teaching every man in all wisdom, both divine and external, like some C mighty and doughty ambidextrous warrior, arming himself against his opponents through both forms of education, he surpasses those struggling against him on both sides, excelling in each of them those who thought they possessed some strength against the truth in the other; by overturning those who cite the Scriptures from the standpoint of heresy using the Scriptures themselves, and entangling the Greeks through their own learning. Yet his victory over his opponents did not bring ruin to the defeated, but resurrection. For those who were defeated by the truth became victors and winners of crowns against error and falsehood. We have now also this man who arranges for us the present assembly, the genuine mouthpiece of the Spirit, the brave soldier of Christ, D the loud-voiced herald of the saving proclamation, the struggler and champion of the boldness for Christ; to whom time gives only the secondary place after the apostles. For if Basil had shared in human life at the same time as Paul, he would certainly have been written of together with Paul, just like Silvanus and Timothy. And that I do not conjecture outside of the truth, let us contemplate the argument in this way: Let it be laid aside to be the first of the saints in time. For the nature of time in the past and in the future stands equally toward virtue and vice, being neither the one nor the other; for it is in the power of choice
and purpose of the will, and not in time, that the good consists. But let faith be compared with faith, and prayer with prayer. For if any just evaluator were to compare the miracles with one another, he would find in both the same grace, which from the same Spirit, according to the fitness and proportion of faith, subsisted in each. But if Paul precedes in time, and Basil was shown forth and appointed many ages later, you are speaking of the work of the divine administration undertaken for the sake of men, not offering a proof of a diminution regarding virtue. For indeed, Moses was many times later than Abraham; Samuel later than Moses, and Elijah later than him; and the great John later than that, and after John, Paul; and after him, Basil. Just as, therefore, in the preceding cases, the time that came later did not in the least disadvantage the saints regarding the glory which is joined with God, so now, in this discussion of virtue, let the advantage of B age be passed over in silence. For such a matter, as we said, contains a demonstration of God's providence, by which He provides for men. For He who, as the prophet says, knows all things before they come to be, and perceives that the malice of the devil is extended and transmitted along with the ages of men and proceeds toward an end, prepares a medicine suitable and adapted to the sickness of each age, so that He might not leave the disease of men without cure, which, if it lacks that by which it might be healed, is accustomed to subdue and bring the human race under its power.
For the sake of this, when the philosophy of the Chaldeans was once vigorous and prevailing—they who established that the causes of things depended upon a certain movement of the stars, and did not think that any power superior to the visible stars presided over and governed them, which was the creator of all things—God then brought forth Abraham, who, using such discipline as a ladder, sought out Him who is understood through the things that are seen, and became a guide to those who came after him for faith in the God who truly is, by his own act of abandoning his ancestral error and that affinity which is said to exist between the instruments of the senses and the creature that appears in the stars, and leading the way to that faith. Then, when the Egyptians had discovered a certain demonic and sorcerous wisdom—from the suggestion, I suppose, of him who leads men into the depths through various deceptions—He brought forth Moses, who by the excellence of his wisdom would dispel and abolish the Egyptian deception. But he who knows the Scripture altogether understands the event of which I speak: how, when those sorcerers provided a demonstration of their own deceptions in opposition to the divine signs, Moses was superior in every way and, with help sent from above, destroyed all the Egyptian power. And you understand this as much through other things as through the C enigma of the rods.
As time went on, and the affairs of the Israelites were in a confused state through anarchy, being improperly disposed in a democratic disorder, Samuel arises—who through himself restrains those who are subject and prevents their mingling with foreigners—and then, having changed the anarchy into the establishment of a kingdom, he gathered the foreign people around himself, having become the lawgiver of the royal dynasty. D
A Following these things, many generations later, when that Ahab, that slave to a woman, had himself departed from his ancestral laws, having become subject to a delicate and soft woman, and through her having drawn upon himself the error of idols, he led the Israelitish people into the same defection with himself. Then God reveals Elijah, who possessed a healing power equal to the magnitude of the human malady; a man who despised the curation and care of the body, with a squalid face, shaded by the multitude of his own hair, living in a peculiar manner, venerable to look upon, with a sad countenance devoid of laughter, with his gaze directed straight ahead in the same direction he had set his mind, covering only so much of his body with a goatskin as is most decent to hide, while enduring the air for the rest of his body, and heedless of any hardship from both heat and cold. Having appeared to the people, he brings Israel to a sound mind by the scourge of famine, rebuking the insolence and petulance of the people by such a blow and punishment, as if it were a leather lash; later, moreover, he cures the disease of idol-worship by the divine fire that was kindled at the sacrifice. B After him, another appears, many times later, who, having been brought forth through Zechariah and Elizabeth in the spirit and power of Elijah, and having lived in the world, summoned the whole nation to himself in the wilderness through his preaching, and washed away the filth contracted by the blood of the prophets, the manifold impurities, and the various knots of sin—which, like sandals, the entire people were bound in at that time. By the preaching of repentance he loosened all such evils, and by the sprinkling of water at the Jordan he washed them clean; he demonstrated in no way less than those who had advanced in virtue before him. And what of Paul after him? Was he prevented from attaining to the loftiest degree of divine progress because he was later in time? Did he not immediately become a lover of the divine beauty that flashed before his eyes, as soon as he cast off the scales from his eyes—scales that were a symbol of the covering of the heart, which, placed upon the perceptive faculty of the souls of the Jews, caused them to be blind to the truth? C Did he not, after he had laid aside in the mystic laver the filth he had contracted from ignorance and error, immediately have his nature transformed to a more august condition, and, as if having sloughed off this thick and fleshy garment, dwell in the secret holy places of the heavens? D And being hindered by no weight of bodily impediment, did he not even enter within the divine garden of paradise, and there was he not perfected in the ineffable mystical instruction by the Truth, and from thence, did he not receive the power of the Word for the obedience of faith among all the nations? Whence he becomes the father of almost the entire inhabited world, bringing into the light through spiritual birth-pangs those who were being formed through him in accordance with Christ into piety. If, therefore, in the case of the other saints, the order of time did not at all diminish the progress toward God,
A nor did the grace of the Spirit—the common provider of perfection for each—operate unequally, we do not hesitate to say that the man of God in our own generation, that great vessel of truth, Basil, is to be numbered among those renowned saints; for neither does the sequence of time hinder his lofty desire for God, nor does it hinder the divine grace in the perfecting of his soul. Thus, the purpose of the divine economy might not be frustrated, nor might some part of the assistance provided by it toward the mystery be diminished or held of less account than is proper due to the cause of time. For no one is entirely ignorant of the purpose for which our teacher was designated and brought forth at this time. B For since the madness of men regarding the worship of idols had been extinguished by the preaching of Christ, and all the objects of foolish men's worship lay already in ruins and oblivion, almost the entire inhabited world having been permeated by the preaching of piety, such that he who holds the principality and empire of human deception was everywhere driven out and expelled by the name of Christ; the author of evil—who is ingenious in wickedness—did not lack a crafty and vicious scheme to again make the human race subject to himself through deceit. Under the pretext and guise of Christianity, he secretly brought back the worship of idols, having persuaded those who looked toward him not to fall away from the creature, but to worship and venerate it C and to think that the creature is God, which is addressed by the name of the Son. For if the creation is out of things that are not, and is alienated from the divine essence according to its own nature, no one, he argued, should be concerned about that, but having placed the name of Christ upon the creature, they should worship it, serve it, have their hope of salvation fixed in it, and await judgment from it. And to summarize the matter, when the apostate had invaded men who were capable of all his malice—I speak of Arius and Aetius, Eunomius, Eudoxius, and besides these, many others—through them he brought back again the worship of idols which was already failing, as has been said, under the name of Christianity. The disease was growing strong against men who worshipped the creature more than the Creator, to such an extent that the fraud was confirmed by the help of the emperors of that time, and all the high magistrates and officials championed this disease. And when almost all men had been brought over to the evil that was prevailing and growing strong, D then the great Basil was brought forth by God, just as Elijah was in the time of Ahab; and taking hold of the priesthood, which had already in a certain way collapsed and was neglected, he made the word of faith, which had like a flickering lamp gone out, shine forth again through the grace that dwelt in him. And as a beacon appearing in the darkness to those wandering upon the sea, he turned the Church back toward the straight path, mingling with prefects, associating with generals, kings next page begins: παῤῥησιαζόμενος, ἐπ' ἐκκλησίαις βοῶν, τοὺς πόρρω- Α θεν ἀφεστηκότας, καθ' ὁμοιότ…
speaking freely before emperors, crying out in assemblies and churches, reconciling and attaching those who were far off by the example of Paul through his epistles, escaping and avoiding the grasp of those who sought to A bind him, having nothing in himself by which he might be held or conquered by his adversaries. For he was stronger and more firm than to be conquered or overcome by those who had confiscated his goods, since he had himself mulcted himself of his possessions for the hope of the future kingdom. He was free from the fear of exile, because he considered the paradise of men to be one sole fatherland, and looked upon the whole earth as the common place of exile for nature. But since he daily died, and through mortification was always willingly being consumed, when at last could he have feared the death that was threatened by his enemies? To him, indeed, it was a calamity that he could not frequently imitate the contests of the martyrs for the truth, since nature is subject to only one death. And when, on one occasion, a certain prefect threatened to tear his liver from his vitals in order to terrify him, he—smiling and mocking the foolish and insolent threat—said, “I will be grateful to you for this wish and intention. For it is truly not a little burdensome to have a liver pressing upon one’s vitals. If you B cast it out, therefore, as you threaten, you will liberate my body from a troublesome and hateful thing.”
Why, then, does the fact that he dwelt in this life after other saints diminish his splendor and brilliance in divine matters, such that for this reason the celebration held in his name seems to be of less account than the festivals which are celebrated for the honor and memory of other saints? If it seems good to you, consider and weigh the matter by comparing his life with some one of the saints of an earlier age. Paul loved God; for this is, in truth, the head of all good things—the boon of love, I say, from which proceeds all faith and all hope, and that good which is awaited through patience, and steadfastness and constancy in every good thing, and the possession C of excellence in every spiritual gift. But let us examine how great the measure of love toward God was in Paul. You will certainly say that he loved God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind. For the Law gives this as the highest limit of love toward God. Therefore, he who has consecrated his whole heart, and soul, and mind to God, and has no inclination toward anything else of those things which are sought after in this life, stands at the highest degree of love. If, therefore, anyone can demonstrate that our preceptor was in his life inclined or propense toward any of the things which are sought after in this world—such as wealth, or power, or the desire for empty glory (for it is not even appropriate to mention the more servile pleasures in relation to him)—if he is found to have pursued any of these things, it is fitting D to say that the measure of his love toward God was diminished, because his affect of desire had been diverted from God toward material things. But if he was an enemy and an adversary to all these and such things, first of all banishing from his own life every impassioned disposition regarding them, and then also the common
A life, both by the discourse of doctrine and by his own example, then it would be clear that he possessed within himself that measure of love toward God which nature could not exceed. For he who loves God with his whole heart, soul, and mind, how could he strive and strain toward a greater measure of love, which has no place? Therefore, if we have learned that there is one standard of perfect love—that which is dedicated to God with the whole heart—and if Paul and Basil loved, being dedicated to God with their whole heart, then anyone who dared to say that there was one measure and standard of love in both would not be deviating from the truth. But indeed, that love is greater than all blessings is asserted by the Apostle, and the sublime Gospel confirms and ratifies it. For the Apostle, while calling it more excellent than prophecy and knowledge, and more steadfast than faith, and more enduring than hope, and always remaining the same—without which everything pursued as a blessing is useless *—the Lord, meanwhile, by saying that every law and all the prophetic mysteries depend upon this gift, also posits that love holds the primacy among all blessings 7. If, therefore, he is not inferior to the great Paul in that which stands out and excels among outstanding and excellent things, and has the power to comprehend the rest, certainly he will not appear to be of lesser standing or inferior B in all other blessings, of which love holds the primacy, and which all depend upon and exist from it. For just as one who shares in human nature possesses all the characteristics of human nature, so too one who has perfected and attained perfect love within himself possesses all the forms of blessings which are contemplated along with it, along with that primary and chief blessing. For whether it is faith that saves, or whether we are saved by hope, or whether we await grace through patience, "love believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things," as the Apostle says. And all other things—that we may not waste time by speaking of each one individually—become shoots from the root of love, all that is pursued by the discourse of virtue; so that he who possesses this lacks none of the others. C This, then, the great Basil having, he was by it devoid of no blessing. And if he had all things, he was in no way inferior. But someone will surely say that that other man saw the third heaven, and was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not permitted for a man to speak. But not even he, it is clear, received such grace through this flesh; for he does not hide the ambiguity when he says: "Whether in the body, I do not know; or whether out of the body, I do not know; God knows." And regarding this, one might boldly say that he saw nothing of the sort in the body, but in incorporeal and intelligible contemplation, there is not anything D
A left unseen. The witness to these things is his own discourse, both that which he spoke in person and that which he left behind in writings. He went around in a circle from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and to all those dwelling in between he preached the Gospel word; and his word and his preaching encompassed almost the entire inhabited world, even being eagerly sought and approved by all, just as the words of Paul were. Let the remaining matters by which his life is compared to that one be passed over—for instance, he was crucified to the world, and the world to him. He mortified the body, and this one also perfected his power through infirmity. Christ was the life for both, and for each alike death was gain, and the resolution of the false life in preference to being with the Lord.
Or does it seem fit to compare John with the teacher? But for someone to bring forth another by way of comparison to such a life when the divine voice testifies that he—being among those born of women—holds the primacy and has something more excellent than a prophet, would be B both madness and impiety. Yet, to have followed even behind such a great and illustrious man contains a proof of supreme blessedness. Let us consider the matter in this way: "John was neither in soft garments, nor was he a reed shaken by the wind." He preferred the desert before the inhabited places, and yet he frequented the inhabited places. Might someone then fault the argument if the truth testifies to this regarding our teacher as well, that in these things he does not fall short of the great John? For who does not know how he judged a soft and delicate manner of life to be harmful and detrimental? In every matter, he pursued fortitude and the endurance of toils and hardships rather than pleasant things, toughened by the heat of the sun, exposing himself to the cold, subduing the body by means of fasts and temperance, dwelling in cities as if in deserts (being in no way harmed in his virtue by the social intercourse), and making deserts into cities. For neither did his life among the many turn him aside from a rigorous and secure conduct, nor, if he withdrew to the solitude, was he able to be stripped and deserted by those who, for the sake of utility, made use of his habit and presence; so that even in his time, just as in the life of the Baptist, the desert became a city, hemmed in by those flowing into it. C That he was not a "reed," easily swayed toward contrary opinions, is shown by the constancy and firmness he had in all things which he had judged and undertaken throughout his life. From the beginning, it had pleased him to possess nothing, and his judgment to be poor was like a rock, unmoved and unshaken. Because of purity, he desired to draw near to God; this desire was a mountain, not a reed. For he never bent D under the opposing blasts of temptations. And it was possible for the Apostle, through his own words, to demonstrate the steadfastness of love toward God, in that neither life, nor death, nor present things, nor future things, nor any other creature could push his heart away from the love of God. So also in all things which he judged for himself according to virtue, he was in no way "reed-like" or faint-hearted in his intellect, but throughout everything his life possessed an immutability in those things that are good. Boldly...
and freely John speaks before Herod; so too does this man before Valens. Let us compare the dignities of these two men. The former had obtained for himself B the governance of a certain part of Palestine by the decree of the Romans, but the boundary of this man's empire was practically the entire path of the sun, extending from the borders of Persia to the Britons and the furthest shore of the Ocean. And the goal of the freedom of speech toward Herod was that he should not transgress the law against a certain woman, but rather that he should restrain his desire, as it was forbidden by the law. But what was the freedom of speech of our teacher toward Valens? That he should allow the faith to remain unharmed, intact, and undefiled, for if injury were done to it, it would become the wickedness and sin of the entire world. Let the just appraiser of facts, then, compare the authority with the authority, and the goal of this freedom of speech with that freedom of speech. For there, the wickedness was circumscribed within the body of Herod; here, however, the violation of the faith redounded to the injury of all human nature. He persisted in freedom of speech even unto death; and for this man, the end of his freedom of speech was exile, since the emperor had decreed this penalty for him in place of a death sentence. But John was believed to live even after death; and for Basil, the sentence of exile was rescinded by his very enemies, as he had not become any the more lax or sluggish in resisting because of their threats.
Shall we also dare to ascend in our discourse to the exalted Elijah, and show that our teacher was assimilated to the grace given to him in the conduct of his life? But indeed, let no one demand from human nature the riding upon the chariot of fire, or the driving of the fiery horses, or the migration to the state that is above and on high. For not even he, while remaining within the bounds of nature, was preserved unharmed in the fire, as he transformed his heavy and earthly body through divine power into that lightness which is borne aloft, nor because he used his own word as a kind of key to that power which was supplied from heaven, opening when he wished and again locking by his own authority when he deemed it better to do so. Furthermore, the fact that he endured fasting for a long time, preserving his strength in the same condition for up to forty days on only the food of that hidden unleavened bread—let this also be passed over, as being greater than human nature can grasp. For D the imitation of things that are above nature is impossible for human nature. Let also the small earthen jar of flour and the flask of oil be passed over in silence alongside these; each lasted for the need in the supply of food, and extended the grace throughout the entire time of the famine, to three years and six months. For the miracles of the power from above have a distinct strength in their works. And no one could reasonably ascribe such miraculous deeds to human nature.
A What assets, then, of our teacher possess communion and fellowship with the things seen in the prophet? A zeal for the faith, antagonism against those who reject it, love for God, a desire for the truly Existent that flows toward no material thing, a life refined in all respects, a disciplined life, a gaze commensurate with the intensity of the soul, an unstudied gravity; a silence more effective than speech, concern for things hoped for, contempt for the things that are seen, an equal regard for every person who appeared, whether one happened to be of high standing, or appeared to be among the lowly and rejected. These and such like are the things in which the teacher's life imitates the miracles of Elijah.
If anyone brings forward the forty-day fast, we too shall set forth the teacher's moderation in food throughout his whole life. For a small intake of food is somehow near to fasting, especially when the one occurs in a short time, while the other lasts through the whole of life. B Moreover, in that other case, that prophet obtained the strength of his bread baked in the ashes, having entirely some quality in itself by which the strength of the one who partook of that food was preserved. A proof of this is that it was not one of those of the same race as he who baked the food and set it before him, but he was sated by food prepared by angels. Whence the strength generated in the body by that food remained full and unfailing. Here, however, with nothing of customary practice being innovated, the rule for food was reason, providing the body not as much as nature wanted, but as much as the law of temperance commanded. C The priesthood of our teacher imitates the mysteries of the prophet's priesthood, by the fact that he hands down the three persons in the doctrine of the faith, drawing down the heavenly fire for the sacrifices. We have learned in many places in Scripture that the power of the Holy Spirit is called fire.
The teacher neither dissolved nor brought upon us the drought of the land. In that case, the great prophet, having struck the earth with the scourge of drought, himself also becomes the physician of the wound, granting them a relief and mitigation of the cure equal to the pain of the scourge. But if one must also speak of a miracle of our own Elijah comparable to this: when by divine will such a calamity was once threatened, and the whole winter season had passed in drought, and no hope of crops appeared, then the teacher, falling before God, stayed the fear of the threat, having appeased the Divine with prayers, and having dissolved through his intercessions the gloom of the drought.
But our life today also has a likeness to the consolation of the famine which the great Elijah showed in the case of a certain widow. For when a severe famine was at one time afflicting both the city in which he happened to be dwelling, and all the country subject to that city, he sold his own possessions, and
having exchanged his property for food when it was scarce, he sustained those who were flocking from all sides, and the youth of the entire urban populace, during the whole time of the famine, and indeed he made even the children of the Jews equally partakers of this philanthropy. But it matters nothing at all whether one fulfills the divine command by means of an oil-cruse, or by some other material and occasion. For the comforting of the needy does not seek the source, but looks to what is being done.
B If Elijah was caught up aloft, this is indeed a marvelous and extraordinary miracle, yet the other kind of upward flight is not to be rejected or despised—when someone, having used the virtues as a chariot through the Spirit, migrates from earth to heaven through a sublime manner of life. That the master attained this, anyone who is a fair judge of the deeds performed by him will not deny.
Must we then dare an oratorical comparison with Samuel? While we concede the primary roles to the prophet in all other respects, we shall show that regarding two things said of him, those concerning our master are also fitting. The birth of both was divinely granted and bestowed. For as the mother sought that one from God, so the father begat this one from divine request. And when he was once seized by a lethal disease while yet in the youth of his age, his father saw in a dream-vision the Lord appearing to him—the same who in the Gospel gave the son to the nobleman—saying to him the things the Lord had said to that man: "Go, thy son liveth." C Imitating his faith, he received the same fruit of faith as he did, having secured the salvation of his son through the Lord’s philanthropy.
And this, indeed, is one thing we compare with the miracles of Samuel. The second is that the form of the offering was zealously performed in the same manner by both. Both offered peaceful sacrifices to God, performing the sacred act for the defeat of enemies—the one doing this for the subversion of heresies, the other against the aliens.
Furthermore, the great Moses is set forth as a common example for all who look toward virtue; and no one would act wrongly if he proposed the virtue of the Lawgiver as the goal of his own life, by which he might direct his actions. Therefore, no one will be at all resentful if it is shown that our master, in whatever he was able, imitated the Lawgiver in his life. D In what things, then, did the imitation consist? A certain woman, ruling the Egyptians, having adopted Moses, teaches him the native instruction, though he did not depart from his mother’s breast until
it was time for his early age to be nourished with such food. Truth itself bears witness to this regarding our teacher. A For while he was being reared by external learning, he always clung to the breast of the Church, growing and maturing in his soul through its doctrines. Afterwards, Moses renounced his falsely named mother’s sophistic relationship. Nor did our teacher remain long in that state, to be celebrated and famous for a pursuit of which he was ashamed. For having shaken off all the glory acquired from worldly letters and disciplines, just as that man did his kingdom, he defected to a humble way of life, just as Moses also valued the Hebrews more than the treasures of the Egyptians. Now, since nature performs its own work in every person (for in each one the flesh lusts against B the spirit), neither was he exempt from that struggle of the Egyptian reasoning, which it waged against the one who was pure. But, bringing aid to the better part, he would mortify that which wrongly rose up against the Hebrew. The Hebrew reasoning, however, is that which has been cleansed and is undefiled. For he who, by mortifying the members that are upon the earth, brings aid to the soul, imitates the prowess of Moses which he exercised against the Egyptian. It is appropriate to pass over much of the history, lest, if one wished to set forth everything with precision—as much as the account contains about Moses, and in which instances our teacher bore a likeness to the lawgiver—one might bring great weariness upon the listeners. C Moses left Egypt after the slaughter of the Egyptian, and spent much time in the intervening period living by himself in seclusion. He too left behind the tumults of the city and these material clamors surrounding him on all sides, and was in solitude, philosophizing with God. That man was illuminated by the light through the bush. We have something akin to that vision to tell of this man as well: for, while it was night, there came to him an illumination and a radiance of light as he was praying in the house; that light was immaterial, illuminating the dwelling by divine power, and was not kindled by any material thing. Moses saves the people, having delivered them from the tyrant. This people, whom he led D by his priesthood to the promise of God, bears witness to the acts of our own lawgiver. And why is it necessary to speak of each detail: how many this man also led through the water; to how many by his discourse he provided the pillar of fire; how many he saved with the cloud of the Spirit; how many he nourished with the heavenly food; how he imitated the rock in which, long ago, by means of wood, the mouth and vein of water was opened—that is, the mouth which the figure of the cross once touched; how he gave drink to the thirsty with that water, by the magnitude of its abundance imitating the abysses; and what kind of tabernacle of witness he constructed, indeed corporally in the suburb, having caused those who were poor in body to be poor in spirit through good instruction, so that their destitution became memorable for the beatitude, as it was reconciling the gift and grace of the true kingdom? But the true tabernacle, in which
A God might dwell, he fashioned within each person’s soul by the Word, also constructing certain columns—by columns I mean those thoughts and reasonings which support and sustain virtue when it is oppressed by labors—and likewise basins for washing away the pollutions and defilements of the soul, scrubbing away the stain and the spots B with the water flowing from the eyes. How many lamps he placed in each soul, illuminating the hidden things with the Word! What kind of incense burners and altars for prayers he fabricated from pure and guileless gold—that is, from a true and pure disposition—where the heavy lead of vainglory did not at all obscure the splendor of what was being done! What need is there to commemorate the mystic ark, such as he fashioned for each one, placing within the soul the tablets of the covenant written by the divine finger? I say these things looking to the fact that he made each person’s heart an ark, capable of containing spiritual mysteries, having the law written and inscribed through works by the operation of the Spirit (for thus the finger of God is interpreted); in which the rod of the priesthood always blossomed its own fruit, sprouting and budding through participation in the holy things, and the urn never became empty of manna. For then the soul’s vessel becomes empty of the heavenly food, when sin, slipping in, prevents the inflow of the manna. Manna, however, is the heavenly bread. What need is there to speak of how he wrapped himself with the priestly stole with such precision, and adorned others by his own example, always carrying that ornament on his breast whose name is Oracle, and Decree, and Truth? I leave all these things C for the more diligent and industrious to apply to the teacher through their figurative and allegorical meaning, through which he was such a person himself, and shared that adornment with others. We have often noticed him even when he was in the darkness where God was. For that which was invisible to others, the teaching of the Spirit in which he had been trained in the sacred things made comprehensible to him, so that he seemed to be within the embrace of the darkness in which the discourse about God is hidden. He often stood against Amalekites, using prayer as his shield. As he lifted up his hands, the true Jesus defeated the enemies. He shattered the impostures of many sorcerers and of those like the Balaam of old—those who, not listening to the true Word but yielding to the asinine teaching of demons, had their mouths made powerless for evil when the teacher’s prayer changed the curse into a blessing. But these things are said by us in passing and briefly; whoever is not ignorant of the Saint’s life will apply the details to the truth of the events, D and how many who had devised plots against some through sorcery and incantation found their wickedness to be ineffective, not being permitted by the faith of the teacher to bring their evil to completion. But leaving aside all that was done in the meantime, I will recall the end of both. Indeed, each of them left this life; but a memorial of his own relationship regarding the flesh, not
A one or the other left to his age. For neither does the tomb of Moses exist, nor was this man buried with any material abundance; but he departed from this life, and all things through which the life of men has its substance passed away with him, so that no material monument of the man is to be found, heaped up from an abundance of leftover possessions, which might cause his estimation to be seen in a more magnificent light. Just as the history regarding Moses says this, that his tomb has not been found even unto this day. If therefore such a man as this has been shown to us by our discourse to be Basil the Great, so that he is not far removed from the saints when his life is compared to each of those great figures, it is right for us to hold this present festive assembly because of him, in the rotation of the holy days. Furthermore, it would be fitting to bring forward his memory through those things which were pleasing to him. Thus, we must consider how we may conduct the festival, so as to celebrate the holy man in a way pleasing to him. Will anyone require the demonstrative or pompous manner of panegyrics in his case? His fatherland and lineage, and his upbringing from his parents, and the particular habits of his life, with which he grew and flourished, and through which he became famous and conspicuous among men? But the greatness of the virtues seen in him rejects and turns away from all this pompous, elevated manner of speech, because the endeavor results in the opposite, seeing that there is no power in words that can measure up to the magnitude of his miracles. In order, therefore, that the miracle not be diminished by the meagerness of our speech, and that there occur no lessening of the opinion everyone now holds regarding him on account of those who attempt to praise him, it would be better to increase the miracle B within ourselves through silence, rather than to diminish and extenuate his praise by means of speech. For what manner of speech would make him more venerable? Would he accept that nobility which is said to be through flesh and blood? And who does not know that great man’s disposition regarding the flesh, and how he stood against it as an adversary, always casting upon it the bonds of reason, like some runaway slave, and through extreme hardship and continence, scourging and torturing that slave, his body, like some inexorable master, granting no relief to the prisoner? Therefore, to honor him, who was so disposed toward the flesh, by means of praise for bodily benefits would be the most absurd thing. For how would he be honored now by that which he was ashamed of during his life? And in like manner, along with the question of lineage, the mention of his fatherland is cast out and rejected. For he, who had placed himself above the whole world, and was as it were cramped within the entire sensible nature of the elements, so that he could not even bear to have the heavens placed above him, but his soul longed to be directed toward that which lies beyond, and, peering above the sensible C realm of the world, he was always traversing the intelligible, and taking flight together with the divine powers, being hindered by no bodily impediment in the journey of his intellect—at what point would he accept D that he should be placed in some portion of the earth themselves
A and collect praises for himself through the advantages of a location? For it would be an insult and a diminution of true praises if, when virtue is proposed for contemplation, water, leaves, soil, and such things were to be admired. Moreover, anything that is not a product of choice, even if it is in the highest degree beautiful, brings no reputation or commendation to the person to whom it happens by the same token. Therefore, let country and lineage be passed over in silence, and everything of that sort which befalls anyone by fortuitous intersection and chance. But one might rightly make mention of a country and nobility in his case, which happens to those who desire it by the decision of free will.
What, then, is Basil’s nobility and clarity of lineage? What is his country? His lineage is his familiarity and intimacy with God; his country is virtue. For he who has received God, as the Gospel B says, has the power to become a child of God. But what more noble and generous kinship with God could one seek? And he who is endowed with virtue, and cultivates it, and draws his revenue from it, and finds his gain in it, makes that in which he lives his country in every sense. Temperance was his dwelling, wisdom his estate; justice, truth, and purity were the bright and conspicuous beauties of the structures in which he lived, taking more delight in them than those who boast of houses made of marble and gold. If anyone were to praise him on account of such a country, and glorify him on account of such a lineage, he would be speaking the truth and would be adapting such praises as are pleasing to him. But let those who wish to be friends of the world bear witness to and proclaim the earth, and blood, and flesh, and wealth, and commands, and the splendor and glory joined to these things. If, C therefore, our speech cannot capture the celebrations of praise befitting him, ought such pursuits to be refused and the arts of laudation rejected? How, then, shall we commemorate him, someone might perhaps say, if this is not done by celebrations of praise? How shall the law of Scripture be fulfilled, which says that the memory of the just must be celebrated with praises, if the discourse cannot be adapted through true praises, while common praises cannot be mentioned without insult? But perhaps there will not be lacking some method by which he is not left entirely devoid of the honor and reward of our praises. What, then, is this method? Who does not know that every speech, when divorced from works, is vain in itself and unsubstantial? But the nature of works demonstrates and represents D what is said in substance and truth. Therefore, preference should be given to that praise which is performed and represented through works over mere speech. And what is this? That by the remembrance of him, our life should become, through the
A perfection of his virtue, superior. For just as with the bezel of a ring, when some most beautiful form appears in the engraving, the wax receiving the impression of the seal transfers into itself the beauty contained in the engraving, having entirely taken up the character of the seal with its own impressions—and no one could by speech so clearly describe the well-disposed grace of the engraving as by showing the beauty formed upon the wax—in the same way, if one person praises the virtue of the teacher with mere words, while another adorns his own life, the praise that is fulfilled through life will be more effective than the lofty speech. Thus, therefore, brothers, let us, by imitating the sober man with our own sobriety, praise virtue according to its worth by our deeds, and likewise let the miracle of the wise man be fulfilled in all other things through participation in wisdom. As for the praise of poverty, let it be fulfilled by our also becoming destitute of material possessions. Let the contempt of this world not merely be called something commendable and glorious, but let life itself be a witness to the contempt of those things which are sought after in the world. Do not say only that he was dedicated and devoted to God, but offer yourself also to God; and do not think that the only possession he had was the hope of rest, but do you also treasure up for yourself this wealth just as he did. For it is permitted; he transferred his way of life from earth to heaven, so transfer yours also. He deposited his own wealth in the inviolable treasuries of heaven; by these actions, you too imitate the teacher. For a disciple will be perfect if he is like his master. B For in other pursuits of life as well, he who has become a student of medicine, or geometry, or rhetoric, will be an unworthy praiser of his master’s art if he admires the teacher’s skill with words but displays in himself nothing worthy of admiration. For someone will say to him: "How do you call your teacher a physician when you yourself are unhealed? Or how do you say you are a student of geometry while possessing no knowledge of geometry?" But if someone shows in himself the art which he has learned, he honors by his own knowledge the one who taught him the art. Thus let us, too, who boast of Basil as our teacher, demonstrate our discipleship by our life, becoming that which made him renowned and great before God and men, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power, for ever and ever. Amen. D