NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Homiletical.lion hath roared: who will not fear?” National calamity is traced to national sin, speciallyto neglect of the poor. Children, it appears, 638 were allowed a holiday from school to attendthe public services held to deprecate the divine wrath. Crowds of men, to whose sins thedistress was more due than to the innocent children, wandered cheerfully about the towninstead of coming to church.Homily X. is against the angry. Section 2 contains a description of the outward appearanceof the angry men. “About the heart of those who are eager to requite evil for evil, theblood boils as though it were stirred and sputtering by the force of fire. On the surface itbreaks out and shews the angry man in other form, familiar and well known to all, as thoughit were changing a mask upon the stage. The proper and usual eyes of the angry man arerecognized no more; his gaze is unsteady, and fires up in a moment. He whets his teeth likeboars joining battle. His countenance is livid and suffused with blood. His body seems toswell. His veins are ruptured, as his breath struggles under the storm within. His voice isrough and strained. His speech—broken and falling from him at random—proceeds withoutdistinction, without arrangement, and without meaning. When he is roused by those whoare irritating him, like a flame with plenty of fuel, to an inextinguishable pitch, then, ah!then indeed the spectacle is indescribable and unendurable. See the hands lifted against hisfellows, and attacking every part of their bodies; see the feet jumping without restraint ondangerous parts. See whatever comes to hand turned into a weapon for his mad frenzy.The record of the progress from words to wounds recalls familiar lines which probably Basilnever read. 639 Rage rouses strife; strife begets abuse; abuse, blows; blows, wounds; and fromwounds often comes death.”St. Basil, however, does not omit to notice 640 that there is such a thing as righteous indignation,and that we may “be angry and sin not.” “God forbid that we should turn intooccasions for sin gifts given to us by the Creator for our salvation! Anger, stirred at theproper time and in the proper manner, is an efficient cause of manliness, patience, and endurance.…Angeris to be used as a weapon. So Moses, meekest of men, armed the handsof the Levites for the slaughter of their brethren, to punish idolatry. The wrath of Phinehaswas justifiable. So was the wrath of Samuel against Agag. Thus, anger very often is madethe minister of good deeds.”Homily XI., against Envy, adduces the instances of Saul’s envy of David, and that of thepatriarchs against Joseph. It is pointed out that envy grows out of familiarity and proximity.“A man is envied of his neighbour.” 641 The Scythian does not envy the Egyptian. Envylxiv638 § 3.639 Jurgia proludunt; sed mox et pocula torques Saucius, et rubra deterges vulnera mappa. Juv., Sat. v. 26.640 § 6.641 Ecc. iv. 4.111