Basil of Caesarea: Choice and Blessedness

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matthew 19:21

“Poverty is not always praiseworthy, but only when it represents a free choice according to the Gospel commandment.

Many are poor in possessions and very miserly in spirit, and those people will not be saved through the poverty but damned by their attitude of mind.

Not every poor person therefore is worthy of praise but only those who of their own choice put the commandment of the Lord before all the treasures of the world.

Those people the Lord says are blessed when He proclaims: “Blessed are the power in Spirit” [Matthew 5:3]. He does not say the poor in possessions but those who have freely chosen poverty in spirit.

What is involuntary cannot merit blessedness. Every virtue, and poverty in spirit more than any other, must be a free choice. The same argument applies to Christ. In His own nature He is rich.

Everything that the Father has is His. But “For your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty, you might become rich” [2 Corinthians 8:9].

Moreover anything that can lead us to blessedness has been experienced by the Lord first. Reflect on the beatitudes, analyze them one by one, and you will realize that the theoretical teaching in them is drawn from practical experience.”

Basil of Caesarea in On Psalm 33 (PG31, 561) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 305-306.

What are you doing with the Gospel commandment?

Letting go of things is a choice. It’s not easy, but our Lord modeled the way for us that it can lead us to blessedness. Whatever we hold onto gets a hold onto us. So, the command is actually an invitation to the same blessedness that Christ experienced.

But why is it so hard for us and how does it relate to generosity?

Most of the time, we think of generosity in terms of sharing our surplus rather than making sacrifices and putting the needs of others ahead of our own. When we do it, however, we discover the blessing therein. God takes care of us as we take care of others.

It’s a choice that leads to blessedness.

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.” Isaiah 41:17-18

“We should possess only what we can carry with us on our journey: a light burden, therefore… Any who want to climb the hard path ought to have a good staff, namely the practical helping of the poor. Any who want to share the true rest should show themselves generous to the afflicted… Look at the well of spring water. We draw some off and the water returns to its previous level. It is the same with true generosity, where the spring is love for one’s neighbor. When generosity gives drink to the thirsty, it wells up again and is full again at once.”

Clement of Alexandria in Paedagogus [The Teacher] 3, 7 (PG8, 609) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 304-305.

Even as God makes a well full again once a cup of water is drawn out of it, God can supply what we need if we share generously from what we have with someone in need. He desires us to travel light on the journey of life and care generously with those in need around us.

This especially true in hard times. Notice in today’s Scripture can God can do this in barren heights and in parched ground. The question is whether or not we will experience it. I want to challenge you to give generously in these difficult days. He can make you full again.

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

“God compares His rock-solid covenant commitment to His promises to the permanence of immovable parts of nature… The mountains and hills are as solid and unmovable as anything known on earth, but when a large earthquake hits, even the rock-solid mountains will shake and totter… Though this shaking may seem almost unimaginable, it is far more unimaginable for anything to cause God’s steadfast loving-kindness to depart, move… Equally firm is God’s absolute commitment to “my covenant of peace” which will not shake, totter… Peace and salvation will be two of the great characteristics of the kingdom of God prepared for His people. In the last line of v. 10, God assures this audience that God’s promise is based on the fact that He is the one who has compassion on you. In this passage God’s love and compassion are two of the prime motivations for His actions toward each person on the earth.”

Gary V. Smith in Isaiah 40-66 (NAC 15B; Nashville: B & H, 2009) 485-486.

My post today is in honor of my Filipino friend and brother in Christ, Kuya Anjji Gabriel, who is mourning the passing of his mother. She was mountain in his life, a rock-solid influence, and while God has removed her from his life, because God is so faithful, generous, and compassionate, He will not remove His unfailing love and peace from Anjji. God be with you, Anjji, and your whole family as you mourn. 

I echo today’s Scripture and this prayer for others whom I know or have heard in social media who have lost loved ones in this season of sickness. I mourn with you. God be with you all, surround you with unfailing love and peace. Though the whole world seems to be crumbling in unimaginable ways, may God’s faithfulness and generous compassion sustain and strengthen you with hope. 

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So He said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Luke 5:23-25

“The healing was immediate and the people glorified God. But even more than receiving healing, the man experienced forgiveness and the start of a whole new life. Our Lord’s miracles not only demonstrated His deity and His compassion for needy people, but they also revealed important spiritual lessons about salvation. They were “object lessons” to teach spiritually blind people what God could do for them if only they would believe in His Son.”

Warren Wiersbe in Be Compassionate (Luke 1-13): Let The World Know That Jesus Cares (TBSC; Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2010) 65.

When Jesus walked the earth and healed people, the healings had a purpose: “to teach spiritually blind people what God could do for them if only they would believe in His Son.” In that light they were “object lessons” filled with generosity and compassion.

Don’t you love teachers who use object lessons? They point to something you see and understand to instruct you regarding deeper spiritual realities you cannot fathom. Jesus used everything from birds and flowers to help people connect with important ideas. He taught with object lessons.

That’s what we are when we live generously during a plague. We are object lessons. What spiritual realities do people connect to your life? Is there anything missing that you want them to see? While many are sick or suffering for a variety of reasons, when we minister care and give generously we show what God has done for us who believe and how He too can transform their lives.

Father, fill us with your Spirit to exhibit your kindness and compassion, your generosity and grace to all those around us so they see you through our living, giving, serving, and loving. In your mercy, hear my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. Psalm 145:9

Dear Lord,

Help me keep my eyes on you. You are the incarnation of Divine Love, you are the expression of God’s infinite compassion, you are the visible manifestation of the Father’s holiness. You are beauty, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness, and mercy. In you all can be found. Outside of you, nothing can be found. Why should I look elsewhere or go elsewhere? You are the words of eternal life, you are the food and drink, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You are the light that shines in the darkness, the lamp on the lamp stand, the house on the hilltop. You are the perfect Icon of God. In and through you can see the Heavenly Father, and with you I can find my way to Him. O Holy One, Beautiful One, Glorious One, be my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Guide, my Consoler, my Comforter, my Hope, my Joy, and my Peace. To you I want to give all that I am. Let me be generous, not stingy or hesitant. Let me give you all — all that I have, think, do, and feel. It is yours, O Lord. Please accept it and make it fully your own.

Amen.

Henry Nouwen (1932-1996) in A Cry for Mercy, prayer for 31 March in You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living (New York: Convergent, 2017) 99.

I was exploring compassion in Nouwen’s writings and came across this prayer. When I read it, it touched me deeply.

Notice how it opens with a call for help. I could relate in the hard times in which we find ourselves, and help is what our compassionate Lord supplies.

We find in Him who is life and light, all the peace, hope, and joy we long for. Then notice that this is precisely what releases our generosity.

Only when we experience that we have everything we need in our relationship with our Lord, can we be generous. Our response is to give all we are and all we have.

Let us worship our Lord today by exhibiting compassionate generosity toward others. As He has touched us deeply, we get to bless others.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

“The love of which Jesus speaks addresses the provision of positive goods, not jut alleviation of painful conditions. This and the difference it makes are often missed by those who like to compare the teachings of Jesus to those of other religions. Our aim here is not to prove that Jesus is superior to other spiritual masters and traditions. But He really is different, and we should acknowledge it. Commonly, “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you,” the Silver Rule, is equated with, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” the Golden Rule, but they are vastly different applications.

The positive formulation is directed toward helping others by doing what is good for them. The negative formulation is directed toward avoiding harm. It might be that some, in practice, would do the same things under either formulation, but many would not. The Silver Rule is not directed toward the good of the other the way the Golden Rule is. The mind and heart are in a different place for those who would follow one or the other. The Golden Rule is devoted to the good of the lives of those around us, and this reaches far beyond the mere absence of harm. The “love” of Jesus not only reaches indiscriminately toward those with whom we are actually in contact, but it aspires toward a remarkable richness in their lives, not simply in the alleviation of their suffering.”

Dallas Willard in Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (New York: Harper One, 2009) 88-89.

During COVID-19, many people have real needs. How we as followers of Christ meet those needs with the “Golden Rule” aim of “provision of positive goods” will set Christianity apart our faith from other religions.

While we can’t meet most of the needs around us, let’s each assess what we have, such as food, time, money, or other items. From there, let us ask God how we might show God’s love to others with what we have.

This is our golden moment to shine! And remember, our shining is only as reflectors. Our role is to reflect the matchless love and abundant grace we receive from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3

“Old age is the most precious time of life, the one nearest eternity. There are two ways of growing old. There are old people who are anxious and bitter, living in the past and illusion, who criticize everything that goes on around them. Young people are repulsed by them. They are shut away in their sadness and loneliness, shriveled up in themselves. But there are also old people with a child’s heart, who have used their freedom from function and responsibility to find a new youth. They have the wonder of a child but the wisdom of maturity as well. They have integrated their years of activity and so can live without being attached to power. Their freedom of heart and their acceptance of their limitations and weakness makes them people whose radiance illuminates the whole community. They are gentle and merciful, symbols of compassion and forgiveness. They become community’s hidden treasures, sources of unity and life. They are true contemplatives at the heart of community.”

Jean Vanier in Community and Growth, revised edition (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1989) 140-141.

As we think about growing in compassionate generosity this year, I want you to envision a person of old age in your mind right now who is a radiant symbol of compassion. Take five minutes and send them them a note. In this season of social distance it will likely bless them deeply. Thank them for being “gentle and merciful” and living with “the wonder of a child” and “the wisdom of maturity” at the same time. Ask them for a tip to follow in their footsteps and consider doing it yourself.

Then [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

“As you say, the thing is to rely only on God. The time will come when you will regard all this misery a small price to pay for having been brought to that dependence. Meanwhile (don’t I know) the trouble is that relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had been done.”

C.S. Lewis in his “Letter to Mrs. Lockley of Magdalen College” dated 12 September 1949, in Letters of C.S. Lewis (Orlando: Harcourt, 1968) 395.

This week I faced a challenge related to my work. When I took the challenge to God in my despair, He reminded afresh to depend on Him. He could carry my burden yet again. The love and compassion (my word for the year) I experienced was from a caring God who reminded me that I could trust Him to help me sort it.

As our faith grows as followers of Christ, our challenges grow as well. It’s in those everyday faith-stretching moments we must “begin all over again.” We must rely on God daily to supply the grace we need in order to continue to live, give, serve, and love generously. We get to deny ourselves daily, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.

Father, thanks for your compassion. May your Holy Spirit help us to trust you with the needs and challenges we face. As daily they seem to be bigger than anything we have experienced, remind us that you are with us and empowering us carry our cross. In your mercy, hear our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12

“Christ in a believer’s heart will act the same as He acted in Galilee and Judea. His disposition is the same now as then. He was holy, righteous, compassionate, meek, and humble then, and He has not changed. He is the same wherever He is found, whether it be at the right hand of God or in the nature of a true disciple. He was friendly, loving, prayerful, kindly, worshipful, self-sacrificing while walking among men; is it not reasonable to expect Him to be the same when walking in men?

Why then do true Christians sometimes act in an unChristlike manner? Some would assume that when a professed Christian fails to show forth the moral beauty of Christ in his [or her] life it is a proof that he [or she] has been deceived and is actually not a real Christian at all. But the explanation is not so simple as that.

The truth is that while Christ dwells in the believer’s new nature, He has strong competition from the believer’s old nature. The warfare between the old and the new goes on continually in most believers. This is accepted as inevitable, but the New Testament does not so teach. A prayerful study of Romans 6 to 8 points the way to victory. If Christ is allowed complete sway He will live in us as He lived in Galilee.”

A.W. Tozer in That Incredible Christian: How Heaven’s Children Live On Earth, compiled by Anita M. Bailey, 11.

Christ is risen and with the Father. As He walked the earth and touched the lives of many with compassion and generosity, so can we. As today’s Scripture notes, He Himself declared we would do not just the same things but greater things.

But we have strong competition. The flesh wages war within us. Our inner man or inner woman must give complete sway to the Spirit rather than succumb to the desires of the flesh. How are you tempted to live for yourself rather than for God?

Complete sway starts with commitment. It is lived out victoriously not so much in big areas, but in the small decisions of life. We realize over time, the small ones are really the big ones. What keeps you from a life of compassion and generosity? 

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

“Learn in Christ how possible it is to be strong and mild, to blend in fullest harmony the perfection of all that is noble, lofty, generous in the soldier’s ardor of heroic devotion; and of all that is calm, still, compassionate, tender in the priest’s waiting before God and mediation among men.”

Alexander Maclaren in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham, 1895) 412. I snapped the header photo in my office. It’s where I have basically lived for the last month. You can see I love books to learn in Christ, and my chair and map (at right) is my place of prayer for the world.

In life after Easter, in light of the resurrection, I am returning to my word for the year, which is compassion. May Christ teach us how to be the mix of these amazing traits: strong and mild, lofty and calm, generous and compassionate, noble and tender. Clearly, it’s only possible by knowing and abiding in Him. Teach us, Christ Jesus.