47 (4). To Gregory, His Companion
SAINT BASIL
The Father stands and awaits your return from your wandering. Only turn to Him and, while you are still afar off, He will run and fall upon your neck, and with loving embraces will enfold you, now cleansed by your repentance. And He will put the best robe on your soul which has stripped off the old man with his works; and He will put a ring on your hands, washed of the blood of death; and He will put shoes on your feet, since they have turned from the way of evil to the course of the gospel of peace. And He will announce a day of joy and gladness for His own, both angels and men, and will celebrate in every way your salvation.
He says: 'Amen I say to you that there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents.'46 And if anyone of those who seem to stand shall bring a charge that you have been quickly received, the good Father Himself will answer for you and say: 'But it is fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this My daughter was dead and is come to life again; she was 16st and is found.'47
47. To Gregory, His Companion1 'Who will give me wings like a dove?'2 Or how can my old age be renewed, so that I may be able to visit your
46 Cf. Luke 15.7.
47 Cf. Luke 15.32.
I Letters 47·291 inclusive form the second main division of St. Basil's letters according to the Benedictine arrangement. They are the letters written during his episcopate. The present letter was written at the death of Eusebius, Archbishop of Caesarea, in 370, and St. Basil, who had really directed the affairs of the see for some years, was the ablest of all possible candidates. St. Basil himself, understanding the dif. ficulties of the time and realizing that he was the most fit to deal with the situation, was eager for the office. He had summoned St. Gregory, his friend, to Caesarea on the plea of his own illness, but St. Gregory
LETTERS
Charity/ there to satisfy the longing which I have of seeing you and to tell you the sorrows of my soul, and thus through you to find some solace for my afHictions? For, at the death of the blessed Bishop Eusebius4 we were seized with no little fear that, perchance, those who are ever lying in wait for the church of our metropolis and desiring to fill it with the tares of heresy would grasp the opportunity of rooting out of the souls of men by their wicked teachings the piety planted with much trouble, and would destroy its unity, as they have done in many churches. Then, when letters also came to us from the clergy, urging us not to be negligent at such a time, taking thought, I recalled your charity and upright faith, and the zeal which you ever had for the churches of God.
Therefore, I have sent Eustathius, my beloved5 fellow deacon, to appeal to your Grace and to entreat you to add this imminent task to all your former labors for the churches.
And this not only to comfort myoid age by a conference with you but to restore the widely proclaimed piety of the true
Church by helping us (if, indeed, we should be considered worthy to share with you in the good work) to give it a refused to come. The Benedictine editors and Tillemont, Memoires pour semir a l'histoire ecc/,'siastique des six premiers siccles 9 (Paris
1643-1712) 658, assign the letter to the elder Gregory, writing through the younger Gregory to Eusebius of Samosata. One reason for this is that St. Basil was not an old man and both the wrirer and the addressee of this letter were old. Again, the elder Gregory was instrumental in securing St. Basil's election. He had Eusebius come from Samosata to make the third hishop necessary for the consecration, while he himself had to be carried to the church from his bed of sickness. This letter also appears as Letter 42 among those of Gregory of Nazianzus.
2 Ps. 55.6.
3 Agdpel1-a title of address used hy St. Basil in speaking to bishops.
4 On the death of Dianius in 362, Eusebius had been elected Bishop of Caesarea through the counsels and influence of the elder Gregory. It was Eusebius who had ordained St. Basil to the presbyterate. and at first chafed because of the activity and success of his more able subordinate.
5 Agapeto,-a title of distinction used by St. Basil for both clergymen and laymen.