Christian Art | Jesus At The Well Of Living Water | Jacob’s Well
Office Of Readings | Week 3, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Longer Rules For Monks By Saint Basil The Great | How Shall We Repay The Lord For All His Goodness To Us?
‘What shall we render to the Lord for all that he has bestowed on us?’
In this reading from the Detailed Rules for Monks, Saint Basil the Great reflects on the scale of God’s generosity and the only response that can meet it. Although written for a monastic audience, his argument addresses the basic shape of Christian gratitude and love.
Basil begins by admitting that God’s gifts are beyond full description. They are so many and so great that even one of them would deserve complete thanksgiving. He then selects what he considers the most fundamental gift: the creation of humanity in God’s image and likeness. Human beings are given knowledge of God, the capacity to think, and a place within a world of beauty and order. From the start, human life is marked by divine generosity.
Basil then turns to the tragedy of sin and its consequences. Despite humanity’s fall and its persistence in disobedience, God did not withdraw his care. Basil traces a steady pattern of divine assistance: the law, angels, prophets, warnings, and promises, all intended to guide humanity back towards virtue. Even repeated failure did not bring God’s concern to an end.
The centre of the passage is Christ. Basil describes the Incarnation as the supreme act of God’s goodness. The Son of God accepted the condition of a servant, shared human weakness, and endured suffering and death in order to restore humanity to life. Drawing on the language of Scripture, Basil presents Christ’s wounds, humiliation, and death as the means by which humanity is healed, redeemed, and raised to glory.
This saving work is not limited to forgiveness. Basil stresses that Christ also shares with humanity a participation in divine life and prepares a place of eternal rest. Salvation is therefore both deliverance from death and a gift of communion with God.
The final question follows naturally: how can such goodness be repaid? Basil’s answer is simple and demanding. God does not seek payment in kind, but only love. This love is not abstract feeling but a faithful and attentive response to God’s gifts. Basil ends with a personal note, expressing his fear of forgetting God through distraction and trivial concerns. Gratitude, for Basil, requires remembrance, attention, and a steady love that does not grow careless.
A Reading From The Longer Rules For Monks By Saint Basil The Great | How Shall We Repay The Lord For All His Goodness To Us?
What words can adequately describe God’s gifts? They are so numerous that they defy enumeration. They are so great that any one of them demands our total gratitude in response.
Yet even though we cannot speak of it worthily, there is one gift which no thoughtful man can pass over in silence. God fashioned man in his own image and likeness; he gave him knowledge of himself; he endowed him with the ability to think which raised him above all living creatures; he permitted him to delight in the unimaginable beauties of paradise, and gave him dominion over everything upon earth.
Then, when man was deceived by the serpent and fell into sin, which led to death and to all the sufferings associated with death, God still did not forsake him. He first gave man the law to help him; he set angels over him to guard him; he sent the prophets to denounce vice and to teach virtue; he restrained man’s evil impulses by warnings and roused his desire for virtue by promises. Frequently, by way of warning, God showed him the respective ends of virtue and of vice in the lives of other men. Moreover, when man continued in disobedience even after he had done all this, God did not desert him.
No, we were not abandoned by the goodness of the Lord. Even the insult we offered to our Benefactor by despising his gifts did not destroy his love for us. On the contrary, although we were dead, our Lord Jesus Christ restored us to life again, and in a way even more amazing than the fact itself, for his state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave.
He bore our infirmities and endured our sorrows. He was wounded for our sake so that by his wounds we might be healed. He redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for our sake, and he submitted to the most ignominious death in order to exalt us to the life of glory. Nor was he content merely to summon us back from death to life; he also bestowed on us the dignity of his own divine nature and prepared for us a place of eternal rest where there will be joy so intense as to surpass all human imagination.
How, then, shall we repay the Lord for all his goodness to us? He is so good that he asks no recompense except our love: that is the only payment he desires. To confess my personal feelings, when I reflect on all these blessings I am overcome by a kind of dread and numbness at the very possibility of ceasing to love God and of bringing shame upon Christ because of my lack of recollection and my preoccupation with trivialities.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
God of boundless goodness,
you have given us life, understanding,
and the hope of glory in Christ.
We thank you for your patience and mercy,
shown to us again and again
even when we turned away from you.
Above all, we thank you for your Son,
who shared our weakness
and restored us to life.
Teach us to remember your gifts
and not to be distracted by what is passing.
Let our lives be shaped by gratitude
and our hearts by faithful love.
May we never cease to love you
or bring dishonour to the name of Christ,
but grow steadily in devotion and trust.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Image and likeness of God | The special dignity and spiritual capacity given to human beings
Law | God’s instruction given to guide human life
Prophets | Messengers sent by God to call people to faithfulness
Incarnation | The Son of God becoming human in Jesus Christ
Equality with God | Christ’s divine status before becoming human
Emptying himself | Christ’s self-giving in becoming a servant
Redemption | Being set free from sin and death
Curse | The consequence of sin taken on by Christ
Eternal rest | The fullness of life with God after death
Divine nature | Participation in God’s own life
Recompense | Something given in return
Gratitude | Thankful recognition of God’s gifts
Recollection | Attentive remembrance of God
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading we are reminded particularly of the devotion we offer to Mary and of the saving grace the Mother of God brings to our relationship with Jesus. We are reminded once again to think of Mary as the greatest intercessor to whom we may pray. We think as well of how through our relationship with Mary we help enable our knowledge of God within our hearts: it is as if through our love of the Mother of God, Christ may be continually born within us; we seek to become akin to Mary, to emulate her example, so that through the Mother we may the better know the Son [ … ]
Christian Art | Parousia | Second Coming | Lamb Of God, You Take Away The Sins Of The World Luke 17: 26-37 (Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word) Early Christian thought about the Parousia – the second coming – was largely influenced by the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Saint Paul. In the early Christian community, expectation of Christ’s return was strong, and many Christians believed that it would happen in their lifetime. This belief is evident in the New Testament, where the authors express a sense of urgency in their writings and encourage their readers to be prepared for Christ’s imminent return. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the idea of the Parousia became more complex and nuanced. Theological debates arose around the nature of Christ’s return and the events that would precede it. Some theologians, such as Origen and Augustine, saw the Parousia as a spiritual event that was already happening in the Church. Others, such as the Montanists and the millenarians, believed in a literal, physical return of Christ and the establishment of a new, earthly Kingdom. In the Middle Ages, the Parousia was often associated with apocalypticism and the idea of a final, cataclysmic battle between good and evil – the last battle. The idea of the Antichrist, who would precede Christ’s return, became a popular theme in Christian literature, and the book of Revelation (Apocalypse – meaning to reveal, to uncover) was interpreted as a prophetic guide to the end of the world. Biblical Basis For The Parousia | The Second Coming The concept of the Parousia, or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, is central to Christian eschatology and is supported by numerous biblical passages in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, there are numerous passages that refer to the coming of a Messiah who will restore Israel and bring about the final judgment. For example, in Daniel 7:13-14, it is written: ‘I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’ This passage describes a divine figure who comes in the clouds and is given dominion over all nations. In the New Testament, the Parousia is described in greater detail, particularly in the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Saint Paul. Jesus speaks of his return in many passages, including Matthew 24:30-31, where Jesus says: ‘And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ Here, Jesus describes his return in power and glory, accompanied by angels who gather Jesus’ elect from all over the world. In Saint Paul’s letters, the Parousia is also described in detail. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Saint Paul writes: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ This passage describes a resurrection of the dead and the gathering of believers to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. The language and imagery used to describe the Parousia are often dramatic and apocalyptic in nature. The Parousia is often described as a time of judgment, when the righteous will be separated from the wicked, and God’s justice will be fully revealed. The imagery of clouds, trumpets, and angels is used to depict the power and glory of Christ’s return. Theological Interpretations Of The Parousia | Jesus’ Second Coming The concept of the Parousia has been interpreted in a variety of ways throughout Christian history. Dispensationalism Dispensationalism is a theological framework that emerged in the 19th Century and has since become popular among some evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. Dispensationalists believe that history is divided into distinct periods or ‘dispensations’, each of which is marked by a particular mode of divine revelation and a specific plan of salvation. According to dispensationalist theology, the Parousia will be preceded by a period of tribulation, during which the Antichrist will establish a one-world government and the Jews will be restored to their homeland. The Parousia itself will involve a physical, visible return of Christ, who will establish a thousand-year reign on earth before the final judgment. Preterism Preterism is a theological interpretation of the Parousia that holds that many of the prophecies in the New Testament, particularly those in the book of Revelation, were fulfilled in the first century AD. According to this view, the Parousia occurred in a spiritual sense when Christ ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to empower the Church. Preterists argue that the tribulation and other end-time events predicted in the New Testament were fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. Postmillennialism Postmillennialism is a theological view that holds that the Parousia will occur after a period of history in which the Church will gradually bring about the kingdom of God on earth. According to this view, the Church will spread the gospel throughout the world, and social, political, and economic conditions will gradually improve. Eventually, Christ will return to a world that has been largely transformed by the Gospel. Amillennialism […]
Saint Basil the Great’s homily, selected for Monday of the Third Week of Lent, meditates on the nature of true greatness and the proper orientation of human boasting. Saint Basil draws upon scriptural sources, particularly the writings of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:23-24) and Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 1:30-31; Philippians 3:8-11), to underscore that human wisdom, strength, and wealth are fleeting and should not be the source of pride. Instead, true boasting lies in knowing and understanding the Lord [ … ]
