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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

5. Rule 5: Concerning the Avoidance of Distraction (R. 2)

This must indeed be recognised, that we cannot succeed in keeping any commandment at all, nor in the actual love towards God and our neighbour, if our minds are wandering now in one direction, now in another. For it is impossible to gain an accurate knowledge of any art or science, if one is always starting on fresh subjects; nor even to master one, without having recognised what befits the end in view. For it is necessary that actions should correspond with the aim since nothing right is accomplished by inappropriate methods. It is impossible to master the smith’s art through the works of pottery; nor are athletes’ crowns won by practising the flute. But for each end a proper and fitting labour is demanded. So also we practise successfully the art of being well-pleasing to God according to Christ’s gospel, by retirement from the cares of the world and complete estrangement from distractions. Wherefore the apostle, although he had allowed marriage and deemed it worthy of blessing, contrasted its preoccupations with the cares that are concerned with God, as if the two were inconsistent, saying: “He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.”¹ So also the Lord bore witness to His disciples as regards their sincere and steady disposition, saying: “Ye are not of this world.”² And, in opposition to this, He testified that it was impossible for the world to receive the knowledge of God, or the Holy Spirit. “O righteous Father,” He says, “the world knew thee not.”³ And, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.”⁴

He then who would truly follow God must be loosed from the chains of attachment to this life. Now this is secured by complete retirement and forgetfulness of former habits. So that, unless we exile ourselves from fleshly relations and communications of this life, migrating as it were to another world in our habit of mind, as the apostle said—“Our citizenship is in heaven”⁵—it is impossible that we should succeed in the aim of being well-pleasing to God, for the Lord said definitely: “So every one of you that renounceth not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.”⁶ Having done this, it befits us to keep our hearts with all watchfulness, so as never to lose the thought of God, or to defile the memory of His wonders with imaginations of vanity; but to bear about the holy thought of God with continual and pure memory imprinted in our souls, as it were an indelible seal. For thus we gain love towards God; which both stirs us up to work the Lord’s commandments and Is in its turn preserved by them in permanence and security. And this the Lord shows, saying in one place: “If ye love me, keep my commandments,”⁷ and in another: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love”⁸; adding with still more insistence: “Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

He teaches us hereby to keep ever before us as the aim of the work set us the will of Him Who gave the order, and to direct our efforts towards Him, as also He says elsewhere: “I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of the Father that sent me.”⁹ For as the arts of daily life, having set before themselves certain proper objects, accommodate their particular activities in accordance with these, so also, as there is one rule and canon prescribed for our works, to fulfil God’s commandments in a manner pleasing to Him, it is impossible for our work to be carefully done unless it is performed in accordance with the will of Him Who has prescribed it. But in the careful endeavour to do our work as God wills we shall be joined to God in memory. For just as a smith in making, say, an axe, mindful of the man who set the task and having him always in his thoughts, plans the right shape and size and directs the work according to the will of him that ordered it—for if he forgets he will produce something other than or different from what he set out to make—so also the Christian, directing all his energies small and great to the fulfilment of God’s will, at one and the same time accomplishes the work carefully and preserves the intention of Him Who gave the order and fulfils what was said: “I have seen the Lord always before me, for he is on my right hand, lest I be shaken.”¹⁰ And he performs what is commanded: “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”¹¹ But if anyone corrupts the exactness of the commandment in doing it, clearly his memory of God is weakened. We ought therefore to fulfil every act as happening beneath the eyes of the Lord, and every thought as presided over by Him, remembering the voice of Him Who said: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord”¹²; and: “I am a God at hand, and not a God far off”¹³; and: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”¹⁴ For thus fear will continue steadily, hating iniquity, as it is written,¹⁵ and insolence and arrogance and the ways of evil men, and love will be perfected, fulfilling the Lord’s words: “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father that sent me,”¹⁶ since the soul is steadily convinced that good deeds are acceptable with the Judge and Umpire of our life, while their opposites receive condemnation from the same source. I think it must be added that even the commandments of the Lord cannot be performed with the intent of pleasing men. For no man turns to an inferior if he is convinced a superior is present; but, if it should happen that something is acceptable and pleasing to the more important person, but seems undesirable and reprehensible to the less important, then he values the acceptance of the superior man but disregards the censure of the inferior. But if this be the case with men, will any soul that is truly sober and healthy, convinced of the presence of God, leave off acting to please God and turn to the good opinion of men? Or will any such soul neglect God’s commandments and be enslaved to human customs or conquered by public opinion, or be talked over by dignitaries? Remember the state of mind of him who said: “The lawless spoke idle words, but not according to thy law, O Lord.”¹⁷ And again: “And I spoke in thy testimonies before kings and was not ashamed.”¹⁸

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