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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 261: The Lord Promised, All Things, Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask in Prayer, Believing, Ye…

Since our Lord Jesus Christ said in prayer: ‘“‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me”’⁴ and then added: “‘Yet not my will but thine be done,”⁵ you must know first of all that we are not allowed to ask for everything that we want, we do not even know in full how to ask for what is expedient. ‘For we know not how to pray as we ought.”⁶ SoC that our petitions ought to be made with much circumspection, according to the will of God. But if we are not heard we must know that there is need either of perseverance or of intensity, according to the parable of the Lord, to the end that we ought always to pray and not to faint, and according to His statement in another place: Because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth.”⁷ Or perhaps we need reformation and diligent care, according to what God said to certain men through His prophet: “When ye stretch out your hands towards me I will turn my face away from you; and if ye multiply your prayer I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood. Wash ye, become clean, etc.”⁸ But that the same happens p nowadays and that the hands of the many are full of blood they ought not to doubt who believe in that judgment of God which He proclaimed against the man who, bidden to speak to the people, yet kept silence: “The blood of the sinner shall be required from the hands of the watchman.”⁹ The apostle, persuaded that this was true and unalterable, said: “I am pure henceforth from the blood of all men. For I shrank not from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”¹⁰ But if he who was merely silent is found guilty of the blood of sinners, what shall one say of those who cause others to offend by their deeds or words? Sometimes it happens that a request is not granted owing to the unworthiness of him who makes it, as in the case of David, who prayed that he might build a house for God and was prevented; while he was not debarred from being well-pleasing to God, yet he was not counted worthy of that. Jeremiah indeed seems not to have been heard owing to the wickedness of those for whom he prayed. It often happens that the time at which we ought to have made the request has been lost to us through slackness, and we are found later asking unseasonably and in vain. As regards ‘For this I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me,”¹¹ you must know that there are many different reasons for calamities, whether arising from external circumstances or bodily causes, since God brings them on us or allows them by a certain dispensation better for us than sudden relief. If then any one knows for certain that he ought to be freed from disaster by prayer and request, then when he asks he is heard—witness the two blind men in the Gospel, the ten lepers and many others. But if a man does not know the reason why he has fallen into trial (for often he is meant by patience to attain the end for which these things are inflicted upon him) and, when he ought to endure to the end, tries to escape the calamity, he is not heard, since he does not acquiesce in the object of God’s kindness. The meaning of “if two of you shall agree”’ is made plain by the context; for it is discussing the man who rebukes the sinner and the man who is rebuked. Because since God willeth not the death of a sinner so much as that he should be converted and live, if he who is rebuked feels compunction and agrees with the purpose of him who administers rebuke, then concerning any thing, that is, any sin remission of which they ask, it shall be given them by the merciful God. For if he who receives does not agree with him who administers rebuke, then remission is no longer possible but rather binding, according to what is written: ‘What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”’; so that the judgment is fulfilled:¹² If he (who is rebuked) refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and publican.”¹³

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