5 (188). A Letter of Condolence to Nectarius
SAINT BASIL
should perchance receive the gift of speech. She would probably say: 'I chose to dwell with this man, because now he praises Zeno, who, having lost everything in a shipwreck, uttered no complaining words, but said, "Well done, a Fortune, you are helping to reduce me to one threadbare cloak." ,
Again, he praises Cleanthes,3 who hired himself out to draw water from a well to earn money for his living and for his teachers' fees. And never did he cease admiring Diogenes, who, aspiring to be content with the gifts of nature alone, threw away even his drinking cup as soon as he had learned from a boy how to bend over and drink from his hollowed hands. In these and similar words would you be censured by my companion Poverty, driven out with your magnificent gifts. And she might also add some such threat as this: 'If I catch you here again, I will show you that your previous experiences were of Sicilian or Italian fastidiousness, so severely will I punish you with all the resources at my command.'
But, enough of this jesting. I am delighted to hear that you have already begun your course of treatment, which I pray may help you. Bodily activity free from pain would be worthy of your holy soul.
5. A Letter of Condolence to Nectarius1 On the third or fourth day after I had received the dazing report of your crushing misfortune, while I was still be3 Cleanthes was also called Phreantlus, 'one who draws from a well.
Cf. Val. Max. Ill. 7: Sen., Ep. 44.
I This Nectarius, according to Tillemont, was the future bishop of Constantinople (381·397), the successor of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and predecessor of SI. John Chrysostom. He appears as SI. Nectarius in the Orthodox Menaion for Octoher I l. This letter was written in 358, in the early part of St. Basil's retirement.
LETTERS
wildered because of the meagerness of detail given by the messenger who brought the distressing news, and, moreover, while
I was still skeptical of the current report because of my earnest wish that it might not be true, a letter came from the bishop giving in full the pitiable tidings. I need not say how grieved
I was nor how many tears I shed. For, who is so stony-hearted or so entirely devoid of human sympathy as to hear unfeelingly of such a 'Sorrowful event or to give his soul to only moderate grief?
The heir of an illustrious house, the pillar of his family, the hope of his father, the offspring of pious parents, reared in an atmosphere of prayer, in the very flower of his youth has been snatched from the hands of his parents and is gone from our midst. What human heart, even though it were adamant, would these sorrows not melt into deepest compassion? It is not surprising, therefore, that the misfortune most profoundly touched us, also, since from the beginning we have been whole-heartedly attached to you and have made your joys and griefs our own. And, although it seemed, until the present time, that your sorrows were few and that, for the most part, your affairs flowed smoothly with the stream, yet, suddenly, by the malice of the Devil,2 all that domestic felicity and spiritual joy vanished, and, in consequence, life has become a dreary tale. A lifetime will not suffice us fittingly to weep and deplore this misfortune. Although all the world should mourn with us, not even then can the expression of grief equal our suffering. Nay, more, should all the waters of the rivers become tears,3 they would not suffice to fill up the measure of our grief over this sad occurrence.
If, however, we are now willing to bring forward the gift which God has placed in our hearts-I mean sound reason2 Cf. Luke 13.16; 2 Cor. 12.7.
3 Cf. Lam. 2.18.
SAINT BASIL
ing-and if we permit it to repeat continually to us its advice, we shall quickly find some measurable relief from suffering.
For, indeed, sound reasoning is able in prosperity to keep our soul within moderate bounds, and in the darker circumstances of life to remind us of the lot of mortal man. It suggests to us what we have already seen and heard, that life is full of such sufferings and examples of human miseries, and, besides, that God has commanded the followers of Christ not to grieve for the dead, because of the hope of resurrection and because the Judge has reserved great crowns of glory for patient endurance. Therefore, I exhort you, as a noble combatant, to withstand the blow, great though it is, and not to fall under the weight of your grief, nor to permit your soul to be overwhelmed, being persuaded that, even if the reasons for God's manner of dispensing His graces elude us, what is dispensed to us by a wise and loving God, although it may be painful, nevertheless is assuredly acceptable. God
Himself knows how He apportions advantages to each and why He sets unequal terms of life for all. Doubtless, there is some cause incomprehensible to men for which some are taken sooner out of this world, while others are left to endure for a longer time this life of suffering.
Consequently, we ought in all things to reverence His loving kindness and not to be inordinately grieved, calling to mind that great and famous saying of Job, the mighty champion of God. He, when he saw his ten children crushed in one brief instant while they were sitting together at table, said: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as is hath pleased the Lord, so is it done.'4 Let us make these admirable words our own. There is an equal recompense from the just Judge for those showing equally noble deeds.
We have not been deprived of a child, but we have given 4 Job 1.21.