Word on the day of memory of Basil the Great, brother

“The Sermon on the Day of Remembrance of Basil the Great, Brother” was delivered by St. Gregory of Nyssa in Caesarea Cappadocia, presumably on January 1, 381, on the anniversary of the death of St. Vasily. St. Gregory seeks to establish a day to celebrate the memory of St. Basil, provides important information about the personality and character of the saint, whom he compares with St. John the Baptist and St. Pavel. *Title of the work in Greek – ᾿Εϒκώμιον εἰς τὸν ἅϒιον Βασίλειον ἀρχιεπίσκοπον Καισαρείας Καππαδοκίας τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ. *The title of the work in Latin is In Basilium fratrem. The good Lord has established an order for these annual celebrations of ours, which, according to some established sequence, we have already celebrated in these days and are now celebrating. And the order of spiritual festivals for us is the same, which was taught by the great Paul, who had knowledge of such subjects from above. He says that the apostles and prophets were appointed first, and after them the shepherds and teachers (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11). The order of the annual celebrations is consistent with this sequence indicated by the Apostle. But I don’t consider the first festival along with the others. For the grace of the Theophany of the Only Begotten Son, revealed to the world through the birth of the Virgin, is not simply a holy festival, but the Holy of Holies and the Feast of Feasts. And so we will re-read the following ones after him. The first beginning of spiritual life was laid by the apostles and prophets; for both types of gifts—the apostolic spirit and the spirit of prophecy—completely belong to the same persons. They are: Stephen, Peter, James, John, Paul. Then after them, maintaining his turn, the real celebration begins for us, the shepherd and teacher. Who is this? Should I say the name or without naming enough grace to indicate (this) husband? For, hearing about the teacher and shepherd after the Apostles, you, of course, already imagined in your mind a shepherd and teacher who completely followed the Apostles. I am talking about him, about the vessel of election, high in life and word, Basil, who was “pleasing to God” (Acts 7:20) from birth, an old man in morals from youth, taught, like Moses, all the wisdom of external teachings and at the same time nourished, nurtured and strengthened by the sacred Scriptures from infancy to the end of his life. Therefore, teaching every person in all the wisdom of Divine and worldly, like some arm-on-arms warrior, armed with both teachings against his opponents, he overcomes both those who enter into battle with him, surpassing in each those who thought that they had power against the truth in any of these teachings - heretics, referring to the Scriptures, refuting them with the Scriptures, and the Greeks, confusing them with their own teachings. Victory over opponents did not result in the fall of the vanquished, but in rebellion, for those defeated by the truth received crowns, becoming victorious over error and lies. Such is our one who now offers us a real celebration, a true herald of the Spirit, a courageous warrior of Christ, a loud preacher of saving teaching, an ascetic and leader in boldness for Christ, to whom only time gives second place after the apostles. For if Basil had received life at the same time as Paul, then, without a doubt, he would have been written about him along with Paul, as about Silvanus and Timothy. And that my assumption is not alien to the truth can be proven as follows. Let us forget that the saints precede each other in time; for time, both past and present, equally has no relation to either virtue or vice, being by nature neither one nor the other; since goodness is in will, and not in time. Let us instead compare faith with faith and word with word, and then he who correctly compares the compared marvelous deeds will find in both the same grace, imparted by the same Spirit, to each of them according to their faith. If Paul preceded in time, and Basil appeared many generations later, then consider this a matter of Divine economy about people, and not proof of derogation in virtue; since Moses was born long after Abraham, and after Moses - Samuel, after him Elijah, after him the great John, after John - Paul and after him Basil. Just as in relation to the previous saints, a later appearance in time did not make them less famous according to God, so now, when speaking about virtue, let there be silence about seniority in time. Because the sequence in time of their appearance, as we said, is proof of God’s providence for people. For God, “who knew all things before their existence,” as the Prophet says (Dan. 13:42), foreseeing that the evil of the devil will spread with each generation of people, prepares a doctor who is decent and appropriate to the illness of each generation, so that the illness of people from the lack of doctors does not remain without treatment and does not take possession of the human race. Therefore, when the philosophy of the Chaldeans prevailed, they believed the cause of existence in a certain movement of the stars and did not recognize the highest visible Power that created everything; then God raises up Abraham, who, using this teaching as a guide, through the visible found the Intelligible and for his descendants became the path of faith in the existing God, having himself achieved it through the abandonment of paternal delusion and the affinity of feelings with the visible creation. Then, when the Egyptians invented some demonic and enchanting wisdom at the instigation, I think, darkened by various flattery, God raised up Moses, who destroyed Egyptian flattery with more excellent wisdom. Anyone familiar with Scripture knows, of course, how at a time when deceivers contrasted their false miracles with Divine signs, Moses, with the assistance of a higher power, overcame all Egyptian power, turning it into nothing; You understand that I am making an allusion to wands and other miracles. After the passage of time, when the Israelites, due to lack of leadership, under a troubled popular government, came to a bad position, Samuel appears, himself keeping the people in obedience and not allowing them to mix with foreigners; then, having prepared the replacement of anarchy with the establishment of a kingdom, he gathered the tribes that had fallen apart among themselves, becoming the legislator of royal power. Then many generations later, when Achaab, this woman-pleaser, himself fell away from the sacred laws of his fathers, becoming the slave of a depraved wife, and through her, carried away by the delusion of idolatry, he carried away the people of Israel with him; then God raises up Elijah, who had a healing power corresponding to the greatness of the illness of these people - a man, from contempt for caring for the body, an emaciated face and covered with the thickness of his own hair, a hermit in life, stern in appearance, with a sad face, with his gaze lowered to the ground, covering his body with goat skin as much as decency requires, leaving the rest open to the weather and not at all concerned about the changes in heat and cold. He, having appeared to the people, admonishes Israel with the scourge of hunger, as if with some kind of rod, with this execution striking the disordered life of the people. After this, the disease of idolatry is healed by Divine fire during sacred rites. Much time after Elijah, another appears, in the spirit and power of Elijah, born of Zechariah and Elizabeth and gathering all the people into the desert with his preaching; he was stained with the blood of the prophets, and all kinds of uncleanness, and various bonds of sin, with which the entire people were surrounded, as it were, with shackles at that time - he resolved all this by preaching repentance and washed it through immersion in the water of the Jordan, appearing in deeds according to God no less than those who labored before him in virtue. Did Paul's later appearance after John also prevent him from achieving the highest degree of success according to God? Didn’t he immediately become a lover of Divine beauty, as soon as it shone before his eyes and at the same time the scales fell from his eyes, figuratively meaning the veil of the heart, which, covering the spiritual gaze of the Jews, made them blind to the truth? And after he had laid aside the impurity of ignorance and error in the mysterious bath, did he not immediately change his nature to a more divine state and, as if throwing off this rough and carnal shell, dwell in the very heavenly sanctuary? Not at all burdened by the physical shell, was he not inside the God-planted paradise and, initiated there by the truth into the ineffable mysteries, did he not receive from there the power of the word to bring all languages ​​into the obedience of faith? Therefore, he became the father of almost the entire universe, bringing into the world through spiritual diseases of childbirth those who through him received the image of Christ in piety. So, if in relation to the other saints, succession in time did not in the least detract from their success in God, since grace equally contributed to perfection for each; then we rightly dare to count among these famous saints the man of God who was in our time, the great vessel of truth - Basil; since his later appearance did not serve as an obstacle either to his high striving for God or to Divine grace in raising his soul to perfection; time did not harm the intention of the Divine economy in any way, nor did it diminish the significance of the participation that he took in the struggle to defend the sacrament (faith). But, without a doubt, everyone knows the purpose of the appearance of our teacher at this time. After the insane veneration of idols was destroyed by the preaching of Christ and all the false sanctuaries had already turned into ruins and insignificance through the spread of the preaching of piety throughout almost the entire universe; so that the ruler of human error had to withdraw from everywhere, driven out of the universe by the name of Christ; the inventor of evil, being wise in evil, did not abandon his evil intention, as if again through deception to make the human race submissive to himself. And under the guise of Christianity, he secretly again led to idolatry, convincing with his false thoughts those who were inclined to him, not to fall away from the creation, but to worship it, honor it and honor the creation called by the name of the Son as God; if (they say) that this creature was created from nothing and by its nature is alien to the Divine essence, then do not pay any attention to this, but having assimilated the name of Christ to this creature, worship it, serve it, place the hope of salvation in it, expect judgment from it. Having completely taken possession of people capable of containing all his malice, I mean Arius and Aetia, Eunomius, Eudoxius and many others with them, the apostate through them again introduced idolatry, which had ceased, as it is said, into Christianity; and the disease of people serving the creature instead of the Creator triumphed, so that with the assistance of the kings of that time the error was supported, and all those in power fought against this disease. At this time, when almost all people were ready to submit to the overwhelming force, God raises up the great Basil, as under Achaab - Elijah. Having received the priesthood, which in some way had already fallen into decay, he, by the power of the grace dwelling in him, again kindled, as if some kind of dying lamp, the teaching of faith. He appeared to the Church as a beacon for those wandering at night on the sea, he directed everyone to the true path, arguing with prefects, entering into battle with governors, speaking boldly with kings, crying out in churches, attracting those who were far away with messages like Paul, not giving any reason to be caught by his enemies, so that his opponents could not prevail in anything. He was not afraid of taking away his property, depriving himself of it for the sake of the hope of the kingdom (of heaven). He was alien to the fear of exile, calling paradise the only fatherland of people, and looking at the entire universe as a place of exile for our nature. But a person who dies daily and always voluntarily exhausts himself by killing himself, could he ever be afraid of the death that his enemies threatened? Could someone be afraid of death for whom it was a misfortune that he could not often imitate the exploits of martyrs for the truth, since our (bodily) nature only dies once; the one who one of the prefects, who sternly threatened to tear out his liver from his entrails, jokingly responded to the rude threat, said: “I will be grateful for your intention, for my liver, lying in my entrails, suffers a lot; by throwing it away, as you threaten, you will free the body from the cause of the disease.” So, the appearance of Basil into the world after other saints, how does it reduce his glory with God, so that therefore the celebration in honor of him seems less than the holidays of other saints? Consider, if you wish, his life, comparing it with the life of (one) of any of his former saints. Paul loved God, I am talking about love, for it is the head of virtues, from it is all faith and all hope, from it is patience in waiting, and steadfastness in all good things, and the increase of every spiritual gift. But let us examine what measure of love for God was in Paul? Of course, you will say that he loved God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his thoughts, for this is the highest limit given by the law for the love of God (Deut. 6:5). Therefore, he who has devoted his entire heart, soul, and thought to God and to nothing else that constitutes the object of care in this life, is not attached to the highest degree of love. So, if anyone can show that the activity of our teacher was directed towards any objects of worldly concern, such as wealth, or power, or the desire for vain glory (I consider it indecent to talk about lower pleasures in relation to him); if it is found that he cared about something like that, then we must recognize in him a lesser measure of love for God; since the quality of his desires would distract him from God to the sensual. And if he was an enemy and foe of all this and that, first expelling from his life a sympathetic disposition towards this, and then purifying the life of everyone both with a teaching word and with his example; then it will be clear that he had in himself such a measure of love for God, more than which human nature cannot accommodate. For whoever loves God with all his heart, soul, and mind, how can he move to the highest degree of love, which has no place? So, if we know one limit of perfect love, which consists in loving God with all our hearts, and Paul and Basil loved, surrendering to God with all their hearts; then if anyone dares to say that both had the same measure of love, they will not sin against the truth. But the Apostle calls love the highest of all virtues (1 Cor. 13:13), and this is confirmed by the Holy Gospel. The Apostle says that it is superior to prophecy and knowledge, firmer than faith, unshakable than hope and always unchangeable, and that without it every act of virtue is useless (1 Cor. 13:1-4). And the Lord, making the whole law and all the prophetic mysteries dependent on this gift (Matthew 22:40), himself calls love the first of all (virtues). So, if in the highest and encompassing all other virtues Basil is not lower than the great Paul, then in all others, which this virtue leads and which come from it, without a doubt, he should be no less. For just as one who has human nature possesses all the properties of nature, so one who has achieved the perfection of love with the prototype of perfection also has all the types of virtues associated with it. Whether faith saves, whether we are saved by hope, whether we expect grace from patience, love “receives faith in all things, all things hope, all things endure” (1 Cor. 13:7), as the Apostle says. And all the other (perfections) that are contained in the concept of virtue (we do not count them separately, so as not to slow down the speech), grow from the root of love, so that he who has it in the other (virtues) does not lack. Having this love, the great Vasily, through it, did not lack any of the virtues. And if he had everything, then he was in no way less. But, of course, someone will say that Paul saw the third heaven, and was caught up into paradise, and heard ineffable verbs, which “man is not old enough to speak” (2 Cor. 12:2-6). But he also received such grace, obviously, not in this body, for he does not hide his doubts, saying: “If in the body, we do not know; if apart from the body, we do not know: God knows” (2 Cor. 12:2). And about Vasily, if anyone dared, he could say that although he did not see anything like that in his body, for his incorporeal and mental contemplation nothing of the kind remained unseen. Testimony to this is his word, which he proclaimed during his lifetime, and that which he left among his writings. Paul, going around the countries “from Jerusalem and around even to Illyricum” (Rom. 15:19), preached the word of the Gospel to everyone living in them; Vasily’s word and preaching also embraced almost the entire universe and, like the words of Paul, was respectfully accepted by everyone. But let’s not talk about other things in which Vasily’s life is similar to the life of Paul, such as: this one was crucified to the world and to him - peace; this one put to death the body and he made strength in weakness. For both, it was “a hedgehog to live, Christ,” and for both, “death is gain” and permission to the Lord (Phil. 1:21, 23) is more valuable than a life full of wanderings. Would you like to compare our teacher with John (the Baptist)? For when the divine voice testifies that he is greater than all those born of women and “less than a prophet” (Matthew 11:9, 11), then it would seem madness and at the same time wickedness to compare another for comparison with his life. But following in the footsteps of such and such a great man means the highest degree of bliss. Let us think about this: John did not wear soft clothes, nor was he a cane shaken by the wind; instead of populated areas, he loved the desert and, again, often visited populated areas. Will anyone contradict our words if the truth also testifies about our teacher that in this he was no lower than John? Who does not know how much he did not tolerate a pampered and refined way of life, willingly choosing the harsh and difficult instead of pleasures in everything, scorched by the sun, overwhelmed by the cold, exercising his body in fasting and abstinence, living in cities as in deserts, without harming his virtue in the least by community with people and making deserts into cities? Neither life among the crowds changed at all the careful and steady way of his life, nor did the removal to his desert of those seeking benefit deprive him of the opportunity to gather to him; so that under him, just as under the Baptist, the desert became a crowded city from those who flocked to it. And that he was not a stick, easily swayed by the opinions of his opponents, this proves his steadfastness in all decisions of life. At first he fell in love with non-covetousness - the decision remained an unshakable stone. He wanted to approach God with purity - his desire was a mountain, not a reed, for he never bowed to the winds of temptation. And the firmness of Basil’s love for God can only be expressed in the Apostle’s own words, that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, lower powers, neither present nor future, ... nor any other creature could separate his heart from the love of God” (Rom. 8:38–39). Likewise, in all decisions regarding virtue, he was never like a cane and not firm in thought, but his life in goodness was always unshakable. John was bold before Herod, and this one was bold before Valens. Let us compare the power of these two people. Herod, by definition of the Romans, received as his inheritance a certain part of Palestine, and the limit of Valens’ power was almost everything that flows around the sun - from the borders of Persia to Britain and to the limits of the ocean. The purpose of boldness against Herod was so that he would not break the law regarding a certain wife, but would curb lust in himself as prohibited by law. And what was the boldness of our teacher before Valens? So that he would leave intact and undamaged the faith, the criminal treatment of which was a desecration for the entire universe. Let the just investigator of affairs compare one power with another and the purpose of this boldness with that boldness. There the desecration was limited to the body of Herod, but here there was injustice against all human nature, an insult to faith. John did not give up his boldness until his death, and for Vasily the limit of his boldness was exile, which the king imposed instead of a death sentence. But regarding John they believed that he was alive even after death (Mk. 6, 16), and Vasily’s sentence of exile is canceled by the enemies themselves, since the threat did not make him at all more compliant in his persistence. Do we dare to speak in word to the great Elijah and show that our teacher through his life was likened to his grace? But let no one require from human nature to ride on a fiery chariot, control fiery horses and move to the heights of the heavenly inheritance, for Elijah, no longer within the limits of nature, remained unharmed in the fire, having changed by Divine power the heavy and earthly to the heavenly and light. We will not touch upon the fact that his words became a kind of key of heavenly gifts, opening (the sky) whenever he wants, and closing at will, when it is considered best to do so, nor will he touch upon the fact that he remained for a long time without food, preserving his strength for forty days by just eating this barley bread - let us leave this as the highest of human strength, for it is impossible for human nature to imitate what is higher than nature. Let it be kept silent along with this about that little water-carrier and about the lump of oil, from which both of them supplied enough for food and continued to pour out gifts throughout the entire famine, which lasted three years and six months; for the miracles of heavenly action have a special power inherent in their actions, and it would be wrong to attribute such miracles to human nature. So, what does our teacher see in common with the Prophet? Zeal for faith, indignation against those who rejected it, love for God, striving for what truly exists, not shying away from anything earthly, life tested in everything, a stern way of life, a look corresponding to the mood of the soul, artless importance, silence more effective than words, concern for the future, disdain for the visible, the same attitude towards everything external, whether someone is accidentally placed in high dignity or is in a humble and humiliated state. Our teacher imitates these and similar miracles of Elijah in his life. If anyone points out Elijah’s forty-day abstinence, we will point out the malnutrition of our teacher throughout his life; for malnutrition closely resembles non-eating, especially when the latter occurs for a short time, otherwise it continues throughout life. In addition, then this barley bread baked in ashes supported the strength of the Prophet, of course, because it had something in itself that preserved the strength of the one who brought such food (1 Kings 19:5-6). The proof of this is that none of the same people prepared this bread and offered it to the Prophet, but it was filled with food prepared by angels; therefore, the strength given to the body by this food remained intact and unexhausted. And here, since there was no deviation from what was usual, the measure of food was reasoning, which supplied the body not as much as nature desired, but as much as the law of abstinence commanded. The priestly service of the teacher is similar to the mysterious priesthood of the Prophet, when, through tripling, with the word of faith he attracted heavenly fire to the sacrifice. We know from Scripture that the power of the Holy Spirit is often called fire. Our teacher did not allow or cause drought in the land. There, the great Prophet, having struck the earth with the plague of rainlessness, himself becomes a doctor of the wound, bestowing healing with medicine equal to suffering. Is it possible to speak of some miracle of our Elijah similar to this? When one day, by God’s will, such a misfortune threatened and the entire winter time passed without rain, and there was no hope for the growth of fruits, then the teacher, falling to God, did not allow fear to extend beyond the threat, he propitiated God with prayers and prayers to ward off the disaster of lack of rain. The life of our teacher also represents something similar to the care during the famine that the great Elijah provided only to one widow. A once severe famine burdened both the city itself in which he was destined to live, and the entire region subordinate to the city. Having sold his property and used the money for food, at a time when it was rare that even the very wealthy could prepare a meal for themselves, during the entire time of famine he continued to feed those who flocked from everywhere and the children of the entire city population, so that the effect of his philanthropy equally extended to the children of the Jews. Of course, there is no difference whether the Divine commandment is fulfilled through the medium of a conceit or in some other way. Those in need, receiving consolation, do not ask where it comes from, but look at what has been done. If Elijah was ascended to heaven, then this, of course, is wondrous and indescribably wonderful, but one cannot reject another type of ascension to heaven, when someone by high life moves from earth to heaven, having made virtues a chariot by the power of the spirit. And that the teacher achieved this, every impartial researcher of his affairs will agree. Will our word dare to touch Samuel? Conceding primacy in everything else to the Prophet, let us point out, with two circumstances narrated about him, a similar circumstance from the life of our teacher. Both births were a gift from God. Both Samuel’s mother and Vasily’s father gave birth through prayer to God. And when, at a young age, he was overcome by mortal illness, the father saw the Lord appearing to him in a dream vision, who in the Gospel gave the boy to the courtier and said to him the same thing as the Lord said to him: “Go, your son is alive” (John 4:50). And he, imitating his faith, received the same fruit of faith, accepting the salvation of his son from the Lord’s love for mankind. This is the first thing that we compare with the miracles of Samuel, the other is that the image of the sacred rite performed by both was the same. Both offered sacrifices of peace to God, performing sacred services for the extermination of enemies - one by destroying heresies, the other by foreigners. The great Moses is a common example for all those striving for virtue, and he who would make the goal of his life imitation of the virtues of the legislator would not sin. So, we will not arouse anyone’s envy if we show that our teacher, in every way possible, imitated the legislator in his life. What was this imitation? A certain Egyptian princess, having adopted Moses, teaches him native teachings, without separating him from his mother’s breasts, until his youth required this food. The same can truly be testified about our teacher, for being familiar with external wisdom during his upbringing, he always clung to the breasts of the Church, growing and strengthening his soul with its teachings. After this, Moses renounced his fictitious relationship with his false mother. And Vasily did not continue to boast for long about what he was ashamed of; for, having abandoned all the glory of external learning, like Moses - from life at court, he passed on to a humble life and, like Moses, preferred the Jews to the Egyptian treasures. since nature works in everyone, for “everyone’s flesh lusts after the spirit” (Gal. 5:17), then Moses did not avoid the struggle with the Egyptian thought, which he erected against the pure thought, but, helping the better, he made dead the one who had viciously rebelled against the Jews. The Jewish thought is purified and undefiled, therefore, helping the soul by killing the earthly pleasures imitates the courage of Moses, which he showed against the Egyptian. But it is necessary to omit a large part of the (sacred) history, so that, wishing to carefully expound everything that was said about Moses and what was the similarity between the teacher and the legislator, it would not burden the ear. After killing the Egyptian, Moses left Egypt and spent a lot of time with himself, living privately. Vasily also left the noise of the city and all earthly disturbances and was in the desert, contemplating philosophy with God. For Moses the light shone in the bush. We can also talk about some similar vision of Vasily. One night, while he was praying, there was a shining of light in the house; This light was immaterial, illuminating the dwelling with Divine power, not kindled by any material object. Moses saves the people, freeing them from the tyrant; this people testifies the same about our lawgiver, who with his priesthood led him to the promise of God. And is it necessary to list in detail how many he led through the water? With how many words did he kindle the pillar of fire? How many were saved by the cloud of the Spirit? How many have you nourished with heavenly food? How did he resemble a stone in which a mouth for water was opened by a tree, that is, when the image of the cross touched his lips? How did he give water to those who were thirsty, pouring it out so abundantly that it seemed to come from the abyss? What kind of tabernacle of meeting and substance did he prepare in the suburb for the poor in body, making them, through good teaching, poor in spirit, so that poverty became bliss for them, bringing the grace of the true kingdom? And he established a true tabernacle for the indwelling of God in every soul with his word, establishing in it certain pillars (I call pillars the thoughts that support us in the difficult task of virtue), as well as lavers for washing the impurities of the soul, washing away filth with water from the eyes. How many lamps did he place in each soul, illuminating the innermost with words? How many censers of prayer and altars did you prepare from pure and unadulterated gold, that is, from a true and pure disposition in which the heavy lead of vanity did not darken the brilliance of your deeds? What can we say about the mysterious ark that he established in everyone, placing into the soul the tablets of the covenant, written with the finger of God? I say this, meaning that he made everyone’s heart an ark, capable of containing spiritual mysteries, having laws written by deeds, inscribed by the action of the Spirit (for this means the finger of God) (Luke 11:20, Matt. 12:28). In this ark, the staff of the priesthood always bore its fruit through the communion of holy things, and the stamna was not deprived of manna; for then the vessel of the soul is deprived of heavenly food when the sin that has entered into it prevents the influx of manna, and manna is the bread of heaven. Is it necessary to talk about the care with which he himself dressed himself in priestly clothing, and adorned others with it, following his example, always wearing on his chest an ornament whose name is “the word of judgment” (Exod. 28:15), and “declaration and truth” (2Ezra 5:40)? But I will leave it to the more diligent to allegorically apply all this to the teacher, as he himself, in accordance with this decoration, communicated it to others. Often we saw him within the darkness where God was; for what was invisible to others was made comprehensible to him by the mystery of the Spirit, so that he seemed to be in the region of that darkness that covers the word about God. Often he confronted the Amalekites, using prayer instead of weapons, and while he raised his hands, the true Jesus defeated his enemies. He destroyed the sorceries of many sorcerers, like that Balaam, who did not listen to the true word, but believed in the donkey teaching of demons, after the teacher changed the oath with prayer into a blessing, their lips could no longer exert evil influence. But we briefly and briefly talk about this; let anyone familiar with the life of the saint separately imagine, in accordance with reality, how many of those who prepared deceits against others through seduction and sorcery did not bring their wickedness into effect, because the faith of the teacher did not allow the evil to be carried out. Leaving all continuation of life, I will remind you of the death of both. Both of them left a temporary life; Neither one nor the other left a monument to his stay in the body; for just as the tomb of Moses is unknown, so Basil does not have a tombstone built with a material surplus; but at the same time as he passed away from life, everything that serves to support human life passed with him; so for this husband there is no material monument that could better preserve his posthumous memory with the help of the wealth he left behind. Likewise, history says about Moses that his tomb has not been found even to this day (Deut. 34:6). So, if our word proved that such was the great Basil, that compared in life with each of the great saints he was not far from them, then rightly the sequence of holidays now leads us to the real celebration - in his honor. But it would be decent to spend the day of his memory in a way that pleases him. Therefore, we must consider how we should celebrate the holiday in order to celebrate it in a manner pleasing to the saint. Perhaps someone will demand a magnificent and flattering word of praise for him, where it would be said about his fatherland and family, about his upbringing by his parents and daily activities, among which he grew and strengthened and through which he became glorious and famous among people; but the greatness of the merits seen in him makes any such vain glorification of him unnecessary - even the one who cares about this leads to the opposite; since the word does not have such power to adequately depict the greatness of his wondrous deeds. Therefore, so that the weakness of speech does not damage the surprise and so that, having undertaken to praise, does not diminish in any way the high opinion that everyone now has about him, it would be better to increase surprise in oneself by silence than to diminish the praise with a word. For is there anything that can be said about him that would make him more venerable? Will anyone point out his so-called noble origin in flesh and blood? But who doesn’t know how disgusting the great Vasily was to deal with things related to the body? Like a runaway slave, he always shackled him with the bonds of reasoning; With extreme exhaustion and abstinence he punished and tormented this slave worthy of punishment - the body, like an unforgiving master, without giving any mercy to the prisoner. It would be the most insane thing to glorify someone who treated the flesh this way for prosperity according to the flesh. For how will that which he was ashamed of in life now serve to his honor? In the same way, along with the speech about parents, the memory of the fatherland should be left. For the one who ascended above the whole world and was, as it were, embarrassed by the entire sensual nature of the elements, so that he could not bear even the sky stretched above him, but with his soul strived for the other side; the one who, with contemplation, crossing the limit of the sensory world, always lived in the intellectual world, rushed through the mountain along with the Divine powers, not in the least constrained by the bodily shell in the flight of the mind - how would he accept it if he were called by the name of a certain part of the earth and would praise him, pointing to the fruitfulness of the place (his homeland)? It would be an insult and a belittlement of true praise if, when contemplating the virtue that is presented, we began to marvel at water, plants, fields and the like; since everything that is not the acquisition of free will, even if it was quite beautiful, does not bring any glory to the one who received it as an inheritance. So, let’s not talk about fatherland and clan and everything like that that is given to those who have it beyond our control by a combination of circumstances. But everyone should remember his fatherland and nobility, which those who are zealous for this achieve with the help of free will. What was Vasily’s nobility? What is his homeland? His race is affinity with the Divine, and his fatherland is virtue. He who has received God into himself, as the Gospel says, has the power to “be a child of God” (John 1:12). Who would seek anything nobler than affinity with God? But he who abides in virtue, and cultivates it, and gains prosperity from it, makes for himself a fatherland in the midst of which he dwells. Chastity was his home; If someone praises him for such a fatherland and honors him for such a relationship, he will tell the truth and compose praise from what is pleasing to him. And land, and blood, and flesh, and wealth, and leadership, and nobility - let those who wish to glorify all this for the friends of the world. If the praise corresponding to it is not available to our word, then we will leave such an activity and abandon the art of words of praise. How can we carry out his memory, perhaps someone will say, if we do not commemorate it with praise? How will the law of Scripture be fulfilled, which says that “the memory of the righteous should be with praise” (Proverbs 10:7), if filling the word with true praise is inconvenient, and with ordinary praise it is offensive? Perhaps there is some way to avoid leaving him completely without honorable praise on our part? What is this method? Who does not know that every word that is not accompanied by deeds is vanity in itself and untenable? But the property of deeds in essence and truth expresses what is said in words. So praise, supplemented by deeds, would be preferable to words. What does this mean? So that through the memory of him our life becomes better than usual. Wax applied to the seal on the stone of the ring, on which some beautiful image is carved, takes on all the beauty found in the carved image, reproducing its entire outline with its own features; so that in words no one can describe the graceful beauty of the carving as the beauty imprinted on wax represents it; in the same way, if one only glorifies the teacher’s virtue with words, and another adorns his life through imitation of him, then the praise fulfilled by life will be more valid than a lofty word. So, brothers, if we imitate the chaste in chastity, we will worthily glorify virtue by what we do. In the same way in everything else: wonder at wisdom will become complete through our participation in wisdom; praise for non-acquisitiveness, if we are also non-covetous regarding material wealth; Let contempt of this world not only in words be a commendable and glorious deed, but let life itself be a witness to the contempt of worldly cares. Don’t just say that he is dedicated to God, but also hand over yourself to God; do not say that for him the only gain was the hoped-for peace, but you also collect in your treasure the same wealth as he did. It's possible. He transferred his residence from earth to heaven, so do you too. He deposited his wealth in heavenly treasures inaccessible to theft, and you imitate your teacher in this. “Every disciple will be perfect, as will his teacher” (Luke 6:40). For in other sciences too, someone who studied with a doctor, or a geometer, or a rhetorician would be an unworthy praiser of the teacher’s art, unworthy of faith, if he only glorified the knowledge of his teacher with words, but would not discover anything worthy of approval in himself. For everyone could say to him: how can you call a teacher a doctor, while remaining unhealed yourself? How do you call yourself a student of a geometer, being yourself inexperienced in geometry? But if someone himself shows knowledge of the art that he has studied, then with his knowledge he brings honor to the teacher of the art. So we, who boast about the teacher Basil, will show the teaching by life, striving for that which made it glorious and great before God and people in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: