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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 2: Concerning Love Towards God, and that the Inclination and Power to Keep the…

Speak to us first then of love towards God. For we have heard that we must love, but we seek to learn how this may be done.

Love towards God cannot be taught. For neither have we learned from another to rejoice in the light and to cling to life, nor did anyone else teach us to love our parents or those that brought us up. In the same way, or much more so, the learning of the divine love does not come from outside; but when the creature was made (I mean man) a certain Word was disseminated among men,² having within itself the tendency towards an adaptation to love. The pupils in the school of God’s commandments having received this Word are by God’s grace enabled to exercise it with care, to nourish it with knowledge, and to bring it to perfection. Wherefore we also, welcoming your zeal as necessary for attaining our end, by God’s gift and your assistance of us in your prayers will strive to stir up the spark of divine love hidden within you according to the power given us by the Spirit. You must know that this virtue, though only one, yet as regards power accomplishes and comprehends every commandment. For “he that loveth me,” saith the Lord, “will keep my commandments.”³ And again: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”⁴ And we shall not now try to survey the whole field accurately (for thus we should miss the whole meaning of the commandments by concentrating on details), but in so far as it is in our power and befits our present purpose we shall remind you of the love due from us to God. But let me say this first: as regards all the commandments given us by God, we have received already from Him power to keep them, that we may neither feel aggrieved as though anything strange were demanded of us, nor be elated as though we paid more than was given us. And by this power, if we work rightly and fittingly, we fulfil in godly manner the life of virtue; but if we corrupt its working we are carried away into vice. This is a definition of vice—an evil use, and one contrary to the command of the Lord, of things given us by God for good. Similarly, the virtue required by God may be defined as the use of them with a good conscience according to the commandment of the Lord. This being so, we may say the same about love. Having received a commandment —to love God—we possess the power to love implanted in us at the moment we were constituted. The proof of this is not external, but anyone can learn it from himself and within himself. For by nature we desire beautiful things though we differ as to what is supremely beautiful; and without being taught we have affection towards those near and dear to us, and we spontaneously show goodwill to all our benefactors.

Now what is more marvellous than the divine beauty? What thought has more charm than the magnificence of God? What yearning of the soul is so keen and intolerable as that which comes from God upon the soul which is cleansed from all evil and cries with true affection: “I am wounded with love”⁵? Ineffable wholly and inexplicable are the flashes of the divine beauty; speech cannot express them, hearing cannot receive them. Though thou talk of the rays of the morning star, of the brightness of the moon or the light of the sun, all are worthless in comparison with its glory and fall short as far, compared with the true light, as the deep shades of a moonless night compared with the glow of the noonday sun. This beauty is unseen by fleshly eyes, and comprehended only by the soul and mind when perchance it has illumined some one of the Saints, and left in them the sting of intolerable yearning—Saints such as those who, weary of the present life, cried: “Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged.”⁶ “When shall I come and appear before the presence of God?”⁷ And again: “To depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.”⁸ And again: “My soul is athirst for God, the strong, the living One.”⁹ And: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart.”¹⁰ Chafing at this life as it were a prison, those whose souls were touched by the divine yearning could thus scarce restrain their impulses. Yes, they had an insatiable desire to behold the divine beauty and prayed that their contemplation of the sweetness of the Lord might last on into life eternal. So then men are naturally desirous of beauty. But the good is properly fair and lovable. Now God is good, and all things desire good. Therefore all things desire God.

So then whatever is done rightly of free choice is also in us naturally, provided our thoughts have not been perverted by vice. Therefore to love God is demanded of us as a necessary debt, which to the soul that cannot pay is the most intolerable of all evils. For to be alienated and estranged from God is more intolerable even than the punishments that await us in hell, and more burdensome to him that experiences it than deprivation of light is to the eye, though no pain be attached, or deprivation of life to the living creature. But if there is natural affection towards parents on behalf of children, and this is proved both by the habits of animals and the disposition of mankind in early youth towards the mother, shall we not seem more stupid than infants, even wilder than beasts, if we remain loveless and alienated as regards our Maker? Even if we have not known His nature from His goodness, we ought to love Him and cherish Him exceedingly from the very fact of having been made by Him, and to cling continually to Him, as children cling to their mothers. But a benefactor ranks higher than those who are loved by natural impulse. And this trait, attachment to those who have given some good, is characteristic not only of men but also of nearly all animals. “The ox knoweth his master, and the ass his lord’s crib.”¹¹ God forbid that the next words should be said of us: “but Israel doth not know me, and my people did not understand.” As for the dog and many similar animals, I need not say what great goodwill they show towards those that feed them. But if we naturally choose goodwill and affection towards our benefactors, and endure every labour in order to recompense them for what they have already done; what words can worthily describe the gifts of God, which are so many as to be innumerable, and so excellent that one alone¹² is sufficient to make us render all thanks to the Giver? I will leave out the rest, which, though in themselves of surpassing extent and grace, are outshone by the greater gifts, as stars by the rays of the sun, and display an intrinsic grace less brilliant. For I have no leisure to leave the surpassing gifts and to measure the goodness of the Benefactor by the lesser.

Let us then pass over in silence the risings of the sun, the circuits of the moon, the varying temperatures of the air, the changes of the seasons, the water descending from the clouds or springing from the earth, the sea itself, the whole earth and what grows in it, the denizens of the waters, the tribes of the air, animals in their myriad variety, everything in fact that is ordained for the service of our life. But the supreme benefit (of creation) we could not pass over even if we wished. To be silent about it is absolutely impossible for any man with a sound mind and reasoning power; but to speak of it worthily is still more impossible. For God made man¹³ in His image and likeness, deemed him worthy of knowledge of Himself, equipped him with reason beyond all other creatures, allowed him to luxuriate in the inconceivable beauties of Paradise, made him ruler of all earthly things. Then when he had been deceived by the serpent and had fallen into sin, and through sin into death and its concomitants, God did not neglect him; but first gave him a law as a help, set angels to guard him and care for him, sent prophets to reprove vice and teach virtue, frustrated the impulses of vice by threats, stirred up zeal for goodness by promises, made clear in advance the end of virtue and vice by the frequent examples of many persons who served as a warning for others, and, to crown these and such-like mercies, was not estranged from mankind abiding in disobedience. For we were not neglected by the goodness of the Master, nor even did we hinder His love towards us, though we had insulted our benefactor by callous indifference to His gifts. On the contrary, we were called back from death and made alive again by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Whom also the manner of beneficence is even more marvellous; for “being in the form of God, he thought it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.”¹⁴

Moreover He took our weaknesses and bore our diseases, and was wounded on our behalf, that by His stripes we may be healed.¹⁵ And He redeemed us from the curse, having become a curse on our behalf,¹⁶ and underwent the most dishonourable death, that He might bring us to the life of glory. And He was not content merely to quicken us when we were dead, but He bestowed the dignity of divinity, and prepared eternal resting-places, surpassing all human thought in the greatness of their delight. What then shall we render to the Lord for all the benefits which He hath bestowed upon us?¹⁷ He is so good as to ask no recompense but is content merely with being loved in return for His gifts. D When I think of all this—let me speak freely of my personal feelings—I fall into a fearful shuddering and terror, lest haply through carelessness of mind or absorption in vain things I should fall from the love of God and become a reproach to Christ. For he that now deceives us and is eager to make us forget our Benefactor, using every contrivance and worldly enticements, leaping upon us and attacking us to destroy our souls, will one day offer our carelessness as a reproach to the Lord, and will boast of our disobedience and apostasy. He neither created us nor died for us, yet he has kept us in his train following his disobedience and neglect of God’s commandments. This reproach against the Lord and this boasting of the enemy seem to me harder to bear than the punishment of hell, namely that we should become to the enemy of Christ a subject for boasting and an opportunity for elation against Him Who died for us and rose again, to Whom on this account we are more abundantly debtors, as it is written.¹⁸

Let this be enough about the love of God. For my purpose, as I said before, is not to say all—that is impossible—but under various heads to implant brief reminders in your souls, which shall stir up the divine longing.

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