Appendix B to My Series on "Love Wins": A Quick Quote from St. Basil the Great

From St. Basil the Great in his “Hexæmeron” (“Six Days,” i.e., of Creation), when discussing how the luminous bodies could come to exist after light itself:

     And let no one suppose it to be a thing incredible that the brightness of the light is one thing, 

     and the body which is its material vehicle is another. First, in all composite things, we 

     distinguish substance susceptible of quality, and the quality which it receives. The nature of 

     whiteness is one thing, another is that of the body which is whitened; thus the natures differ 

     which we have just seen reunited by the power of the Creator. And do not tell me that it is 

     impossible to separate them. Even I do not pretend to be able to separate light from the body 

     of the sun; but I maintain that that which we separate in thought, may be separated in reality 

     by the Creator of nature. You cannot, moreover, separate the brightness of fire from the virtue 

     of burning which it possesses; but God, who wished to attract His servant by a wonderful 

     sight, set a fire in the burning bush, which displayed all the brilliancy of flame while its 

     devouring property was dormant. It is that which the Psalmist affirms in saying “The voice of 

     the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” Thus, in the requital which awaits us after this life, a 

     mysterious voice seems to tell us that the double nature of fire will be divided; the just will 

     enjoy its light, and the torment of its heat will be the torture of the wicked.

I thought it would prove interesting, as it did to me, and compliments some of the things I mentioned in the “Love Wins” series.

In Christ,
Teopile/Theophilos Porter