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

To Optimus the bishop.it is said, “to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.” 3157 “If a skilful man hear a wise wordhe will commend it, and add unto it.” 31586. About the words of Simeon to Mary, there is no obscurity or variety of interpretation.“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His mother, Behold, this Child is set forthe fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea,a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may berevealed.” 3159 Here I am astonished that, after passing by the previous words as requiringno explanation, you should enquire about the expression, “Yea, a sword shall pierce throughthy own soul also.” To me the question, how the same child can be for the fall and risingagain, and what is the sign that shall be spoken against, does not seem less perplexing thanthe question how a sword shall pierce through Mary’s heart.7. My view is, that the Lord is for falling and rising again, not because some fall andothers rise again, but because in us the worst falls and the better is set up. The advent 3160of the Lord is destructive of our bodily affections and it rouses the proper qualities of thesoul. As when Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” 3161 the same man is weakand is strong, but he is weak in the flesh and strong in the spirit. Thus the Lord does notgive to some occasions of falling and to others occasions of rising. Those who fall, fall fromthe station in which they once were, but it is plain that the faithless man never stands, butis always dragged along the ground with the serpent whom he follows. He has then nowhereto fall from, because he has already been cast down by his unbelief. Wherefore the firstboon is, that he who stands in his sin should fall and die, and then should live in righteousnessand rise, both of which graces our faith in Christ confers on us. Let the worse fall that thebetter may have opportunity to rise. If fornication fall not, chastity does not rise. Unlessour unreason be crushed our reason will not come to perfection. In this sense he is for thefall and rising again of many.8. For a sign that shall be spoken against. By a sign, we properly understand in Scripturea cross. Moses, it is said, set the serpent “upon a pole.” 3162 That is upon a cross. Or else asign 3163 is indicative of something strange and obscure seen by the simple but understoodby the intelligent. There is no cessation of controversy about the Incarnation of the Lord;some asserting that he assumed a body, and others that his sojourn was bodiless; some that2993157 Prov. ix. 9.3158 Ecclus. xx. 18.3159 Luke ii. 34, 35.3160 ἐπιδάνεια.3161 2 Cor. xii. 10.3162 Num. xxi. 8.3163 σήμειον, LXX.817