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Longer Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 46: That a Man Must Not Hide His Sins from His Brother or Himself
Every sin must be brought to the notice of the Superior1 either by the sinner himself or by those who have become aware of the sin, if they cannot cure it themselves, according to the Lord’s command. For wickedness passed over in silence is like a festering sore in the soul. As then we should not call him a benefactor who shuts up deadly things in the body but rather the man who by pain and rending brings it to the light, so as to cast out what is doing the harm by an emetic, or generally so that by the laying bare of the disease the mode of cure becomes well known—so obviously to hide sin is to assist the sick man to his death. For the sting of death is sin.”2 “Open rebukes are better than hidden friendships.”3 So let us neither hide our sins from one another lest we become slayers of our brethren rather than their friends, or from ourselves. “For he that does not cure himself in his works is brother of him that destroyeth himself.”4
Notes
- For confession to the Superior see Intr. p. 51.
- 1 Cor. xv. 56.
- Prov. xxvii. 5.
- Prov. xviii. 9. Bas. ὁ μὴ ἰώμενος ἑαυτὸν ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ with ℵca A, as against Sw.’s (B) text αὐτὸν . . . αὐτοῦ.