Untitled - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 world is one home…In additions while honesty serving God, he is a stranger even in his own city…., I might almost say, among the parents themselves of his earthly life, he is a stranger. The praetorian prefect, Modestus was sent on behalf of the Emperor Valens to the Bishop of Caesarea, named Basil (c. AD 330 –379), to persuade him to adopt Arian theology or to resign his post. Modestus met with resolute opposition in Basil and none of his threats of confiscation, exile, torture or even death had any effect. Basil, it is said, made his reply by asking What are such threats to me? He who has nothing to lose can scarce fear confiscation, and I have no possessions save these mean garments, and some few books. Neither does he fear exile who counts no spot on earth his home, being here but a pilgrim and a sojourner, seeking a safer place of rest. Heaven is my home. Nor do I fear torture — my frail body would endure but little—you could strike but one blow and my pain is past—I should but depart the sooner to Him, for Whose service alone I am willing to live, and after Whom my soul yearns. Needless to say, Modestus left without having received any concessions from Basil. Whereas Tertullian and Cyprian touch on citizenship and relations to parents and home, John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) the Archbishop of Constantinople addresses the result of this sojourner outlook in practical terms of home building. In his Homily on Ephesians he compares and contrasts the life of a Christian pilgrim and a settler and states: But as to us let us not be insatiable…let us not be seeking out for splendid houses; for we are on our pilgrimage, not at home; so that if there be any that knows that the present life is a sort of journey, and expedition, and, as one might say, it is what they call an entrenched camp, he will not be seeking for splendid buildings. For who, tell me, be he ever so rich, would choose to build a splendid house in an encampment?...The present life is nothing else than a march and an encampment. 122 122 “Homily XIII on Ephesians” in Hall. Learning , p. 198 256