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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 40: If a Brother Makes Another Sorry, How Ought We to Correct Him? (R. 72)

If the grieving in question was that in the apostle’s mind when he said: ‘For ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing,”1 then not he that made sorry needs correction but he that was made sorry ought to show the special marks of sorrow after a godly sort. But if he made some one sorry in unimportant matters, then let him who made sorry remember the apostle’s words:2 ‘If because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love.” And recognising his sin let him fulfil the words of the Lord:3 ‘If thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

Notes

  1. 2 Cor. vii. 9.
  2. Rom. xiv. 15.
  3. Mt. v. 23 al ἐκεῖ for χκἀχεῖ K; 24.

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