Hope Lessens the Labour
The Psalter begins with the words: ‘Happy is the one who does not take the counsel of the wicked for a guide.’
These words immediately show us our final end which is happiness. The hope of future goods, therefore: can help us to accept willingly the sufferings of life.
For anyone travelling along an impassable road, the hope of a comfortable hotel is a relief. Merchants have to face many risks, and they find courage in the thought of making a profit. Farmers find the hope of the harvest cheers up their labours.
In the same way the great Master, who is Truth leading the life of every human being to a good end, first of all shows us our reward, so that our gaze may go beyond the tribulations of the present and our spirit hurry towards the eternal joys.
‘Happy is the one who does not take the counsel of the wicked for a guide.’ Yes, happy because he will enjoy God who is happiness par excellence.
God in fact is perfectly good. He is the One towards whom all things tend. His nature is unchangeable, supreme dignity, superabundant love, an inexhaustible treasure.
Basil the Great, Commentary on Psalm I, 3 (PG29, 213)
From Adam and Adam’s Rib Came a Perfect Human Being
Adam was formed from clay by the bands of God, so he became a perfect human being, endowed with a living soul, not by carnal intercourse and not by seed. In the same way the Word also became human without carnal intercourse and without seed.
In the Old Testament we read that God made a deep sleep fall upon Adam; then he took one of his ribs and formed a woman from it. In consequence, God the Word took a body with a soul from the actual rib of Adam, that is, from the woman, and built it into a perfect human being. In this way he became truly the child of Adam. In making himself a human being, becoming like us in everything except sin, the Word joined the human family.
On the other hand, he was at the same time human and God, O that his soul and body were holy, and more than holy. He was, he is, and he always will be God the Holy. The Virgin too is holy, without spot, just as the rib taken from Adam was holy.
As regards the rest of the human race they are, according to the flesh, really part of the same family; they are their brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, because of their nature they remain earthly and do not suddenly become holy.
But if God has himself been made a human being and has deigned to be called the brother of the human race, we ought to be born again, in water by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Simeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Treatises, 13, 13off. (SC129, p.411)
~Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
