HOMILY 42. Farewell Delivered on the Arrival in Constantinople of One Hundred and Fifty Bishops 55

HOMILY 43. Tombstone of Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. 62

HOMILY 44. For a new week, for spring and in memory of the Martyr Mamas. 86

HOMILY 45. On Holy Pascha. 89

HOMILY 32. On the observance of good order in conversation and on the fact that not every person and not at all times can reason about God

Since you have come diligently and the meeting is crowded, and therefore now is the best time for work, I will offer you something to buy, if not worth the general diligence, at least not enough for me. Your diligence requires more, and my strength offers the average, and it is better to offer what is possible than to refuse everything. For in both Divine and human affairs he is not subject to condemnation who could not do something, but is subject to responsibility who did not want to. I am a small and poor shepherd, not pleasing even to other pastors (I will express myself modestly), whether for good in thought and right teaching, or through faint-heartedness and disputes, I do not know this, God knows, says the divine Apostle (1 Corinthians 11:11), but the day of revelation and the last fire, by which all our deeds will be tested or purified, will clearly show; however, I will try, to the best of my ability, not to conceal my gift, not to put a candlestick under a bushel, not to bury my talent in the ground (which, as I often hear, everyone blames me, reproaching my inaction, being angry at my silence), but to instruct you with the word of truth and make you conformed to the Spirit.

Where then shall I begin to edify you, brethren? What word should be used to honor the ascetics, for whom this celebration has been established? What can be said about as the first, or as the most important? What is most profitable for your souls? Or what is most befitting of the present time? We learn this in the following way: What in our teaching is most excellent, I will add, and most useful? World. And what is most vile and harmful? Discord. But having proposed such a question and given an answer to it, I will ask once more: what has most divided the peace and what has introduced discord? I will ask in order that, as one does with illnesses, by cutting off the causes, by blocking or drying up the sources of suffering, to block their streams and effects, for it is impossible to know the end well without examining the beginning correctly. And so, do you want to discover and explain the cause of the disease yourself, or will you leave it to me, the physician, to discover and cure the disease? For I am ready to speak to those who will, and even more ready to listen to those who speak. But I know well that you will leave it to me; for perhaps you consider me not a bad physician and not unskilled in the healing of souls. And so, whether your opinion of me is erroneous or correct, do not be surprised if I say a strange word. Although it is strange, it is nevertheless true, as I assert, as you yourself will agree, if you are patient to listen to the end, and the very thing that I do not approve of happens to you, that is, out of fervor, you do not get up before the end of the speech.

The reason for this disorder is the natural ardor and greatness of spirit; however, not simple ardor and greatness (I do not in the least condemn that ardor, without which it is impossible to succeed either in piety or in any other virtue), but firmness combined with imprudence, ignorance, and the evil offspring of the latter, insolence, for audacity is the fruit of ignorance. Souls that are weak in relation to virtue and vice are equally slow and immobile, they do not incline much to either side, they have the same movements as people who suffer from torpor. And strong souls, if guided and governed by reason, are a great gain for virtue; but for want of knowledge and understanding, they are the same for vice. In the same way, the horse must be strong and courageous, so that it may later win victory in war or on the lists, but nothing good will come of it if it is not tamed by the bridle and accustomed to meekness by difficult exercise. And it was this foolish fervor that for the most part dissolved the limbs, divided the brethren, stirred up the cities, enraged the mob, armed the nations, stirred up kings and priests against the people and against each other, the people against themselves and against the priests, parents against children, children against parents, husbands against wives, wives against husbands, and all who are united by any bond of affection; against each other, also slaves and masters, students and teachers, old and young, and it was she, despising the law of shame, which is the greatest aid to virtue, who introduced the law of arrogance. And we have not only become each tribe apart (Zech. 12:14), for which we reproach ancient Israel, or Israel and Judah, two parts of one people and a small one, but divided in houses and close communities, and as it were each with himself; divided, I say, we are the whole universe, the whole human race, all to whom God's word has reached. And many beginnings have become without beginning, and our bones are poured into the jaws of hell (Psalm 140:7). It was necessary, after we had gained victory over external enemies, to endure destruction from one another, like those who are possessed by demons, to tear at their own flesh and not to feel, but to rejoice in evil more than others in peace, to consider calamity itself as gain, and to think, "By this destruction we serve God" (John 1:6:2); It was necessary to divide and be inflamed with a division not praiseworthy, but reprehensible, a flame that did not purify, but destructive. For it is not the sharp word, the sword of Christ (Heb. 4:12), that separates the faithful from the unbelievers; it is not the fire that is thrown into and kindled, but faith that destroys and consumes matter and the burning of the spirit; but we are eaten and cut in the opposite way before. This made the one Church begin to have many parts, and there was a division not between Paul, or Cephas, or Apollos, or so-and-so, the waterer, and such-and-such the waterer (1 Corinthians 3:6), but many Pauls, and Apollos, and Cephas, and instead of being called of Christ, the great and new name, we are called by their name and are considered their disciples. And oh, if only this alone were to be said! On the contrary (which is terrible to say), instead of one Christ, many appeared, born, created, beginning from Mary, resolving into the same thing from which he came into being, a man without a mind, really existing, visible; so also many Spirits, uncreated and equal in honor, creature, action, and bare name. One must know one God the Father, without beginning and unbegotten, and one Son, and one Spirit, having existence from the Father, yielding unbegotten to the Father and begotten to the Son, and in all other things co-natural and co-throned, one-glorious and equally honorable. This must be known, confessed, dwell on it, and leave unnecessary idle talk and filthy superstitions (1 Tim. 6:2) to idle people. But what prompted this? Ardor without reason and knowledge, unrestrained by anything, and the voyage of faith without a helmsman.

Knowing this, brethren, let us not be lazy for good, but let us burn in spirit, so that we do not fall asleep little by little into death, or so that during our sleep the enemy does not sow evil seeds (for slothfulness is associated with sleep); let us not be inflamed with recklessness and self-love, lest we be carried away and deviate from the royal path. Otherwise, we will certainly fall into one of the extremes — either we will have need of motives, because of laziness, or we will fall down, because of ardor. Let us borrow from both what is useful in them, meekness in the first, jealousy in the second, and let us avoid what is harmful in them, slowness in the first, and insolence in the second, so that we do not remain barren from lack and are not in danger from excess, for inactive idleness and inexperienced zeal are equally useless; the one does not approach the good, and the other oversteps the limits and does something more to the right than the right. Knowing this well, the divine Solomon says: "Do not deviate either to the right or to the left" (Proverbs 4:27), lest through the opposite you fall into the equal evil of sin, although he, in praise of that which is right by nature, says: "The Lord watches over the right ways, and the left ones are corrupted" (v. 28). In what way does he praise the right, and again lead away from the right? Obviously, it leads away from the right, which seems to be so, and is not the right. This is what he means, and in another place he says: "Do not be too truthful, and do not make yourself look too wise" (Ecclesiastes 7:17). For there is one thing that is dangerous for both righteousness and wisdom – fervor in deeds and words, which from excess oversteps the limits of perfection and virtue. Lack and excess are equally harmful, as is the rule of addition and subtraction. Therefore, let no one be wiser than the subject, or more lawful than the law, or more brilliant than the light, or more straightforward than the rule, or higher than the commandment. And we shall attain to some of this, if we know the world, praise the law of nature, follow reason, and do not despise good manners.

Look up, and look down (Isaiah 8:22), and ponder how and of what the universe was composed, what it was before its construction, and what it is called now. Everything was arranged in order, and arranged by the word, although everything could be produced suddenly, as something unified. For he who gave existence to the non-existent, and forms and outlines to the created, was not powerless to produce and arrange everything together. But for this reason one is considered first, another second, another third, and so on, so that order may be immediately introduced in the creatures. Thus, order has arranged the universe, order maintains both the earthly and the heavenly—order in imaginary beings, order in sensible things, order in angels, order in the stars, in their motion, size, mutual relation, and brightness. The glory of the sun is different, the glory of the moon is different, the glory of the stars is different; and star differs from star in glory (1 Cor. 15:41). Order in the parts of the year and seasons, which come and go in order, and by their intervals soften their steepness. Order in the continuations and intervals of the day and night. Order is in the elements of which the bodies are made. Order has encircled the heavens, stretched out the air, placed or superimposed the earth, poured out and gathered together the moist nature, sent the winds but did not give them complete freedom, bound the water in the clouds and did not retain it, but in good time and evenly disperses the face of the whole earth. And all this, not in the course of a brief moment, not in one case and not at one time, but from the beginning to the end, is directed and proceeds in one way, although the one is unchangeable, and the other is changeable, in the first case in relation to the law, in the second in relation to the current. He set them for ever and ever; he has given a statute that shall not pass away (Psalm 148:6) — this is immutability; and what has happened, or will happen, is a consequence of the current. And just as under the dominion of order in all things there is order and unchanging beauty, so disorder and disorder have given rise to storms in the air, upheavals in the earth, shipwrecks at sea, strife in cities and houses, sickness in the body, and sins in the soul. All these are not names of order or peace, but of confusion or disorder. And even that destruction, known to everyone and expected by all, I consider nothing else, brethren, than the multiplication of disorder; for order binds, and disorder destroys, if it pleases to destroy or transform the universe to Him who has bound it together. The order has also legitimized for all animals the manner of birth, I write, and the place of abode peculiar to each; No one saw a dolphin cutting the reins, an ox diving in the water and swimming, the sun waxing or waning at night and the moon shining during the day. High mountains for chamois, stone cliffs are a refuge for hares. He created the moon to indicate the times, the sun knows its setting (Psalm 103:18, 19). Night, and man is bound by sleep, and the beasts have received freedom, and everyone seeks the food that the Creator has given him; day — and the beasts gather, and man hastens to his work — so we give way to each other in order, according to the law and rule of nature!