St. Basil was such a great man! His
approach to justice has the fire and freshness of the prophets! Pope Paul VI,
in his pleas for the people of developing nations, often used Basil’s writing.
I’ve been reading his sermon, “I will
tear down my barns.”
Example: “Who are the greedy? Those
who are not satisfied with what suffices for their own needs. Who are the
robbers? Those who take for themselves what rightfully belongs to everyone. And
you, are you not greedy? Are you not a robber? The things you received in trust
as a stewardship, have you not appropriated them for yourself? Is not the
person who strips another of clothing called a thief? And those who do not
clothe the naked when they have the power to do so, should they not be called
the same? The bread you are holding back is for the hungry, the clothes you keep
put away are for the naked, the shoes that are rotting away with disuse are for
those who have none, the silver you keep buried in the earth is for the needy.
You are thus guilty of injustice toward as many as you might have aided, but
did not.”
He makes me dance!
BUT! BUT! Look at this weird thing
that the great St Basil, Basil the Great, in his great writing, did! When he
explains why you should take care of the poor, he quite properly ties his
teaching to the words of the Lord. Jesus, describing the day of judgment, says …
and Basil mentions the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked, about whom Jesus
said, what you do for them, you do for me, and what you failed to do for them,
you failed to do for me. I am not criticizing; I’m just taking note: Basil
mentions three of the six precepts of the Lord, the first and second and
fourth. The pattern of skipping the third – welcome strangers – shows up in the
best and most eloquent of the Fathers who pleaded for justice! He didn’t
pretend that he had the whole list; he quoted three of the six. And those three
were about items that you can HAVE – own, store, share – not DO. To welcome the
stranger or to visit the sick and imprisoned – those are things you can DO. So
Basil’s choice makes sense. I’m not criticizing.
I’m just disappointed, because I
wanted his eloquence applied to the issue of hospitality.
