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 On Harmony of Thunder Orthodox podcast: When St. Basil preached his eighth sermon from the Hexaemeron, some of the people who were listening to him signaled that he should stop because he'd made a mistake. Listen to this week's Harmony of Thunder to find out what happened, and to think about the kind of situation that would allow for such interaction between a priest and the people listening to him preach a sermon.
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Harmony of Thunder, program fourteen, St Basil the Great Hexaemeron, Homily 8
What would be a good excuse for making a sermon as long as possible? At the end of St. Basil's eighth sermon in the Hexaemeron, he describes the kinds of things some of his listeners will start doing the moment they leave the church: “If I let you go, and if I dismiss this assembly, some will run to the dice, where they will find bad language, sad quarrels and the pangs of avarice. There stands the devil, inflaming the fury of the players with the dotted bones.”
Well, I know that here in our time there are some who attend church on Sunday morning and then go to Indian casinos in the afternoon. I guess I get amazed, dear listener, every time I see that the problems faced by St Basil the Great in the fourth century are still the same problems we face today. It makes me feel a somewhat greater affinity with this great saint, preacher, and theologian, but it also tells all of us that there is nothing new under the sun, and that it's a great benefit to our souls to return again and again to the ancient fathers of the church for instruction in the practical as well as the noetic things of life.
Hi, welcome to Harmony of Thunder, where we explore and enjoy the rich tradition of Orthodox preaching. I’m your host, Fr. David Smith. Each week, Harmony of Thunder chooses a sermon from scripture or from the works of a saint and we spend our time together looking at the style, the illustrations, and the spiritual message of the preacher.
Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and of all the saints, bless your Holy Orthodox Church with great preachers and people who want to hear them. Amen.
There is another part of this eighth sermon which is very unusual. In the midst of his sermon, St. Basil stopped preaching and was silent for an unusually long time. Of course, we can't hear that in the text, but we can tell that it's happened because of how he continues after the long pause: “Perhaps many of you ask why there is such a long silence in the middle of the rapid rush of my discourse. The more studious among my auditors will not be ignorant of the reason why words fail me. What! Have I not seen them look at each other, and make signs to make me look at them, and to remind me of what I have passed over? I have forgotten part of the creation...”
The preacher goes on to say that he skipped from the animals in the sea to those on land, which meant that he had skipped over the birds and flying creatures. He seems to say that this was a genuine omission – that he really forgot about the birds, but because people signaled him from among his listeners, he remembered to “retrace (his) steps, punished for (his) negligence by the weariness of the journey.”
Wow. There are so many insights into the preaching of St. Basil in this one section that it's difficult to know where to begin. First, he describes his preaching as a “rapid rush of words.” Have you heard preachers like that? These are the preachers who have so much good to say, have such a rich depth of thought, that they almost fall over themselves in an attempt to convey it all to us. They are passionate about God, about the spiritual life, and about conveying truth in sermons. Now I know that in the Orthodox Church many preachers attempt to display a kind of dispassionate style, in an attempt to communicate inner peace and, well, passionlessness. But we can define the word “passion” two different ways (actually, more than two, but I'm just looking at two here) – one the one hand, it refers to those sins that are so ingrained into our lives that we commit them without any pause or thought. But the word “passion” can also mean an overwhelming love of something that compels strong emotions, enthusiasm, or longing. In that case, the word “passion” might describe a good thing – if someone is passionate about God, about prayer, about the church, or his family – these are all good things. I certainly don't want to listen to a preacher than conveys a lack of inner peace, but I confess that I find it enlightening and wonderful to listen to someone who clearly loves what he's saying and loves his people enough to become passionate about communication. St. Basil's description of his own preaching style tells us that he was such a preacher. He was passionate.
He also indicates that people who were listening to him, first of all, knew the scriptures, second, were constantly checking to see if he was preaching the word properly, and third, were not afraid to let him know if he wasn't. Now I'm not sure if preachers today would wish that they could have a parish like this, full of people checking to see if every word is in its proper place. But you know what? They should! I mean, preachers should wish for such listeners, and Christians should strive to become such listeners. I can recall several times when I've had people come up to me after a liturgy to question something I've said in the sermon. Sometimes, the people who do that eel like they're imposing, or overstepping their place, or disrespecting the priesthood. Not at all! My heart was so thrilled to know that someone was listening, and thinking, and that there was enough of a storehouse of theological thought and experience that the person could compare what I had said to what he or she had heard before. If your priest gets defensive, then he's saying that he doesn't want to be questioned at all, that he doesn't enjoy having his people know God and the scriptures. So be it. It doesn't mean you should stop listening to him closely and critically. Like St. Basil's people listened to him. Can't you imagine a group of people discussing his sermon – even while he's still preaching – and then waving their hands to get his attention so they can make a complaint? I've got to tell you, that sounds better than a steak dinner.
Before we get too far away from the sermon itself, I want to look at some of the comparisons he makes between animals and certain kinds of people. If you remember, St Basil did this in his seventh sermon as well, when he compare us to fish. Here in the eighth, it's birds: “Let no one lament poverty; let not the man whose house is bare despair of his life, when he considers the industry of the swallow. To build her nest, she brings bits of straw in her beak; and, as she cannot raise the mud in her claws, she moistens the end of her wings in water and then rolls in very fine dust and thus procures mud. After having united, little by little, the bits of straw with this mud, as with glue, she feeds her young; and if any one of them has its eyes injured, she has a natural remedy to heal the sight of her little ones. This sight out to warn you not to take to evil ways on account of poverty; and, even if you are reduced to the last extremity, not to lose all hope...”
He also speaks of the halcyon, which is a sea bird: “For it only takes seven days to hatch the young. Then, as they are in need of food so that they may grow, God, in is munificence, grants another seven days to this tiny animal. All sailors know this, and call these days halcyon days. If Divine Providence has established these marvelous laws in favor of creatures devoid of reason, it is to induce you to ask for your salvation from God.”
Here again, we must step back and hear, not only the wonderful illustrations and words of St. Basil, but also look at his technique, the philosophical basis upon which he forms his sermon. St. Basil looked at all of creation, and found in every living thing a lesson that applied to all of us as Christians. Turtle doves, lamprey eels, donkeys – he even uses the fact that camels seem to harbor grudges as an anti-lesson for us, as in “Don't be like camels,” and as you remember from the last sermon, neither are we to be like squid.
What does this say to us? That all the world around us is an instruction book about the character and will of God. In some things we see the good, and the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts that we should imitate that. In other things we see bad things, and our hearts tell us to use this as a model of what NOT to do. As St. Basil says in this eighth sermon, “Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary.” We really should make that our quote of the day : “Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary.” Say it with me: “Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary.”
Join us next week for the last sermon in the Hexaemeron, the ninth sermon entitled “The Creation of Terrestrial Animals.” What a wonderful feast we have had, enjoying these eight sermons of St. Basil the Great, don't miss the ninth one. Isn't it true, dear listener, that dessert is often the best part of the meal?
Oh Lord God, Creator of Heaven and earth, of the sea and all it contains, of the sky and all the beautiful creatures that fly though it, help us to hear and heed the words of the great preachers of Orthodoxy, that we may glorify you with our faith and lives, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
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