Basil of Caesarea

In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know oneself.

A Patristic Treasury: Early Church Wisdom for Today, edited by James R. Payton, Jr

The Trinity

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man’”.  Does not the light of theology shine in these words, as through windows?  And does not the Second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yet manifesting Himself until the great day?

There is one God and Father, one Only Begotten, and one Holy Spirit.  We proclaim each of the hypostases singly; and, when count we must, we do not let an ignorant arithmetic carry us away to the idea of a plurality of Gods.

God

The maker of the universe…needed only the impulse of His will to bring the immensities of the visible world into being.

Without discounting or contradicting Basil, God did speak, whatever that means regarding a Being which does not have vocal cords.  Then again, this was done through the Son…so…

Here is where trying to parse God and the Trinity too much does me no good.

“In the beginning God created”: this teaches us that at the will of God the world arose in less than an instant.

Instantly.

“And God saw that it was good.” … It is the purpose of the work which makes the goodness.

Unless the ends are good (the purpose), there is really nothing good about the means (the work).  Of course, there also can be found good and bad means, as a good end does not justify bad means.

“Let the earth bring forth the living creature”: this command has continued and earth does not cease to obey the Creator.

All other parts of creation display far more obedience to the Creator than does man.

[God’s power in creating is] a power as incomprehensible to human reason as it is unutterable by human voice.

Even so, the whole universe cannot give us a right idea of the greatness of God.

Assuming we could even comprehend the whole universe.  How could we ever have a right idea of God’s greatness if we understand almost nothing of His Creation?  Or even ourself (see the opening quote).

He has passed over in silence, as useless, all that is unimportant for us.  Shall I then prefer foolish wisdom to the oracles of the Holy Spirit? 

Yet, what do I spend more time in?  That which He has told me is useful, or all else that He has passed over?

The Son

Honor paid to the image [the incarnate Son of God] passes on to the prototype [God the Father].

Man

We shall not give occasion to sin, we shall not give place to the enemy within us, if we remember God and keep Him ever dwelling in our hearts.

That’s a big “if.”  But, for me at least, that’s the purpose of this blog for me: to shrink that “if.”

…what shall we say, who are honored with reason…but who show less sense about our own affairs than do fish?

If we see a creature in the non-human animal world acting other than intended, we would immediately recognize this as some sort of defect or shortcoming.  Yet we celebrate such actions in human beings – we show pride about it.  Remember, from just above: other creatures are far more obedient than is man.

Now all vice is a sickness of the soul, as virtue is its health.

Apparently not in today’s world.  See my comment immediately above.  it really just shows how far we, as a society, have come to despise God.  And, therefore, why the work of those who love Him grows evermore urgent.

Evil

That evil exists, no one living in the world can deny. … Evil is not a living animated essence; it is a condition of the soul opposed to virtue.

Chesterton, or someone like him, said something like…the fall is the most provable doctrine in Scripture.  It is amazing to me how many people don’t believe this.  the evidence is around us, every minute of every day.

So do not go beyond yourself to seek for evil, nor imagine that there is an original nature of wickedness. 

I fully agree with the first part of this – to cleanse the world I must focus on myself, the line dividing good and evil runs right through me, etc.  I don’t really understand the second part.  Perhaps Basil means for us to stop looking for someone to blame and start focusing on our relationship with God.

Let us all acknowledge that each of us is the first author of our own vice. … Do not look for the guiding cause beyond yourself, but recognize that evil, rightly so called, has no other origin than our voluntary falls.

Same comment….

Other

The corrupters of the truth are incapable of submitting their reason to Holy Scripture.

Faith first.  This drives us toward truthful understanding.

But why torment ourselves to refute the errors of philosophers, when it is sufficient to produce their mutually contradictory books, and, as quiet spectators, to watch the war?

This is quite true.  Ask two philosophers a question and get three answers.

[Speaking about tensions within the Church]: We have become more brutish than the brutes; at least they herd with their fellows, but our most savage warfare is with our own people.

This is quite true.  Ask two devout and sincere Christians a doctrinal question and get three answers.  And watch them anathematize each other over this.

By the tradition of the Fathers doctrine has been preserved by an unbroken sequence of memory down to our own day.

I will continue to struggle with this.  I have played the telephone game.  I trust the person who began the game to rightly state what was said initially far more than I trust the last person in line – especially a line that stretches 2,000 years.

And I trust the early Church Fathers far more than I trust almost anyone speaking today.  Which is why I am working through this book.

Is not this the nature of time, where the past is no more, the future does not exist, and the present escapes before being recognized?

This reminds me of a line from “The Garden,” by Rush:

The future disappears into memory

With only a moment between

Forever dwells in that moment

Hope is what remains to be seen

To live in the present is, in some way, to live eternally.  I certainly fail at this too often, allowing the present to escape even before I experience it.

Biographies / Sources

Basil (329 – 379) was bishop of Caesarea, and is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.  Prior to becoming bishop, he received an excellent education and traveled throughout Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, studying monasticism.