|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
|
130 Pages
Page 104
Homily VIII., on the Famine and Drought, belongs to the disastrous year 368. The circumstances of its delivery have already been referred to. [637] The text is Amos iii. 8, "The lion hath roared: who will not fear?" National calamity is traced to national sin, specially to neglect of the poor. Children, it appears, [638] were allowed a holiday from school to attend the public services held to deprecate the divine wrath. Crowds of men, to whose sins the distress was more due than to the innocent children, wandered cheerfully about the town instead of coming to church.
Homily X. is against the angry. Section 2 contains a description of the outward appearance of the angry men. "About the heart of those who are eager to requite evil for evil, the blood boils as though it were stirred and sputtering by the force of fire. On the surface it breaks out and shews the angry man in other form, familiar and well known to all, as though it were changing a mask upon the stage. The proper and usual eyes of the angry man are recognized no more; his gaze is unsteady, and fires up in a moment. He whets his teeth like boars joining battle. His countenance is livid and suffused with blood. His body seems to swell. His veins are ruptured, as his breath struggles under the storm within. His voice is rough and strained. His speech--broken and falling from him at random--proceeds without distinction, without arrangement, and without meaning. When he is roused by those who are irritating him, like a flame with plenty of fuel, to an inextinguishable pitch, then, ah! then indeed the spectacle is indescribable and unendurable. See the hands lifted against his fellows, and attacking every part of their bodies; see the feet jumping without restraint on dangerous parts. See whatever comes to hand turned into a weapon for his mad frenzy. The record of the progress from words to wounds recalls familiar lines which probably Basil never read. [639] Rage rouses strife; strife begets abuse; abuse, blows; blows, wounds; and from wounds often comes death."
St. Basil, however, does not omit to notice [640] that there is such a thing as righteous indignation, and that we may "be angry and sin not." "God forbid that we should turn into occasions for sin gifts given to us by the Creator for our salvation! Anger, stirred at the proper time and in the proper manner, is an efficient cause of manliness, patience, and endurance....Anger is to be used as a weapon. So Moses, meekest of men, armed the hands of the Levites for the slaughter of their brethren, to punish idolatry. The wrath of Phinehas was justifiable. So was the wrath of Samuel against Agag. Thus, anger very often is made the minister of good deeds."
[637] p. xxi.
[638] S: 3.
[639] Jurgia proludunt; sed mox et pocula torques Saucius, et rubra deterges vulnera mappa. Juv., Sat. v. 26.
[640] S: 6.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=104
