Basil of Caesarea: Utter Ruin

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They trust in their wealth and boast of great riches. Psalm 49:6

“An illness that has become chronic, like a habit of wrong-doing that has become ingrained is very hard to heal. If after that, as very often happens, the habit turns into second nature, a cure is out of the question.

So the ideal would be too have no contact with evil. But there is another possibility: to distance yourself from evil to run away from it as from a poisonous snake, once you have experienced it.

I have known some unfortunate people who in their youth let themselves slide into evil habits which have held them enslaved all their lives. Like pigs wallowing continually in the mire and becoming increasingly filthy, such sinners as these multiply their shame every day with fresh sins.

So, blessed is the one who has never thought of evil. However, if through his wiles the suggestions of the Enemy have found a foothold in your heart, do not remain inactive in the toils of sin.

Be careful not to be utterly overcome by it. If the sin is already weighing you down, if the dust of riches has already settled on you, if your soul has been dragged right down by the attachments to material things, then before you fall into utter ruin get rid of the heavy burdens. Before your ship sinks, follow the example of sailors and cast overboard the possessions you have accumulated.”

Basil the Great (330-379) bishop of Caesarea, in Commentary on Psalms 1, 6 (PG 29, 224ff) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 40.

I am enjoying a daily devotional of early church quotes that I packed in my bag for my trip. Basil is inspiring me in preparation for preaching this Sunday on “Openhanded and Generous” living.

If we allow ourselves to become attached to things in this life, they will drag us down to destruction. Does utter ruin await you? Most people think. Calm down. I am okay. I can love God and things.

After all, they are gifts from God, right? Pause. Ask God to reveal to you if there are any areas where you have given the Enemy a foothold. Do this specifically with regard to money and possessions.

Two word pictures are vivid to me: “the dust of riches” settling on us shows how subtle are the ways of the Enemy and “cast overboard” any possessions tells us how they seek to work in our lives and pull us down.

In other words, our response to the ways of the Enemy must not be causal but careful. We cannot act with ignorance but rather with intentionality. Let us love and trust not the gifts of God but God alone.

Only openhanded people can be generous because they have tapped the abundance of God. People who hold on to wealth and things give only from scarcity, so by choice they quench the fruit of generosity from flowing.