Hexameron (Homily I, cont. 2)

A continuation of Hexameron (Homily I, cont.)

5. It appears, indeed, that even before this world an order of things existed of which our mind can form an idea, but of which we can say nothing, because it is too lofty a subject for men who are but beginners and are still babes in knowledge. The birth of the world was preceded by a condition of things suitable for the exercise of supernatural powers, outstripping the limits of time, eternal and infinite. The Creator and Demiurge of the universe perfected His works in it, spiritual light for the happiness of all who love the Lord, intellectual and invisible natures, all the orderly arrangement of pure intelligences who are beyond the reach of our mind and of whom we cannot even discover the names (NOTE: this term "demiurge" has an extensive history that bridges both pagan Greek philosophy and early Christianity; see below) . They fill the essence of this invisible world, as Paul teaches us. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers Colossians 1:16 or virtues or hosts of angels or the dignities of archangels. (NOTE: St. Basil urges us to consider the "invisible" order as a kind of precondition for the material to even present itself to our senses in an orderly arrangement (that is, through their essences); here, we can think of the orderliness or "universal constants" that exist prior to any instantiation through which material phenomena is said to "observe" in law-like fashion; metaphysically, an analogy would be that any painting depends upon the canvas as "space" for the visualization to even be possible.  We often think of things like "space" and "time" as hard-built givens to the universe but their existence independently of matter is something that Basil clearly does not take for granted...) To this world at last it was necessary to add a new world, both a school and training place where the souls of men should be taught and a home for beings destined to be born and to die. Thus was created, of a nature analogous to that of this world and the animals and plants which live thereon, the succession of time, for ever pressing on and passing away and never stopping in its course. Is not this the nature of time, where the past is no more, the future does not exist, and the present escapes before being recognised? And such also is the nature of the creature which lives in time — condemned to grow or to perish without rest and without certain stability. It is therefore fit that the bodies of animals and plants, obliged to follow a sort of current, and carried away by the motion which leads them to birth or to death, should live in the midst of surroundings whose nature is in accord with beings subject to change. Thus the writer who wisely tells us of the birth of the Universe does not fail to put these words at the head of the narrative. In the beginning God created; that is to say, in the beginning of time. Therefore, if he makes the world appear in the beginning, it is not a proof that its birth has preceded that of all other things that were made. He only wishes to tell us that, after the invisible and intellectual world, the visible world, the world of the senses, began to exist.

The first movement is called beginning. To do right is the beginning of the good way. Just actions are truly the first steps towards a happy life. Again, we call beginning the essential and first part from which a thing proceeds, such as the foundation of a house, the keel of a vessel; it is in this sense that it is said, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs 9:10 that is to say that piety is, as it were, the groundwork and foundation of perfection. Art is also the beginning of the works of artists, the skill of Bezaleel began the adornment of the tabernacle. Often even the good which is the final cause is the beginning of actions. Thus the approbation of God is the beginning of almsgiving, and the end laid up for us in the promises the beginning of all virtuous efforts. [NOTE: St. Basil argues here that "beginnings" are not only conceptually coherent but track in so many ways to the life that we live.  The question then, is what explains this intentionality behind "starts" and "finishes" for discrete actions to complete themselves by which life has coherence?  Processes might be cyclical--- think of a thermostat--- but their inner coherence as a process still must be explained.  You simply cannot do so without using a start and finish.  Indeed, all of science depends on the metaphysical coherence that beginnings are real.  So, if this is true of science writ large, then it cannot be an illusion much less an accident but an indication of a true beginning of all beginnings.].

6. Such being the different senses of the word beginning, see if we have not all the meanings here. You may know the epoch when the formation of this world began, it, ascending into the past, you endeavour to discover the first day. You will thus find what was the first movement of time; then that the creation of the heavens and of the earth were like the foundation and the groundwork, and afterwards that an intelligent reason, as the word beginning indicates, presided in the order of visible things. You will finally discover that the world was not conceived by chance and without reason, but for an useful end and for the great advantage of all beings, since it is really the school where reasonable souls exercise themselves, the training ground where they learn to know God; since by the sight of visible and sensible things the mind is led, as by a hand, to the contemplation of invisible things. For, as the Apostle says, the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. Romans 1:20 Perhaps these words In the beginning God created signify the rapid and imperceptible moment of creation. The beginning, in effect, is indivisible and instantaneous. The beginning of the road is not yet the road, and that of the house is not yet the house; so the beginning of time is not yet time and not even the least particle of it. If some objector tell us that the beginning is a time, he ought then, as he knows well, to submit it to the division of time — a beginning, a middle and an end. Now it is ridiculous to imagine a beginning of a beginning. Further, if we divide the beginning into two, we make two instead of one, or rather make several, we really make an infinity, for all that which is divided is divisible to the infinite. Thus then, if it is said, In the beginning God created, it is to teach us that at the will of God the world arose in less than an instant, and it is to convey this meaning more clearly that other interpreters have said: God made summarily that is to say all at once and in a moment. But enough concerning the beginning, if only to put a few points out of many. [NOTE: there is a beautiful analogy here that is suggested by St. Basil: before an artist actually paints, he imagines what he is going to paint.  That is, the image is already in his head, so to speak, and it is the "plan" or "model" by which he projects his vision upon the materials at hand.  Thus, while the talk of angels and invisible orders, including the diabolical, strike modern men and women as far-fetched and strange, to affect disbelief in such a hierarchy is fundamentally unsound because it would be like equating the artist with the ideas in his head.  No, the ideas are also creations of the artist's mind but not identical with the artist himself.  Such it is with God and His celestial hierarchy of purely spiritual beings.].

7. Among arts, some have in view production, some practice, others theory. The object of the last is the exercise of thought, that of the second, the motion of the body. Should it cease, all stops; nothing more is to be seen. Thus dancing and music have nothing behind; they have no object but themselves. In creative arts on the contrary the work lasts after the operation. Such is architecture — such are the arts which work in wood and brass and weaving, all those indeed which, even when the artisan has disappeared, serve to show an industrious intelligence and to cause the architect, the worker in brass or the weaver, to be admired on account of his work. Thus, then, to show that the world is a work of art displayed for the beholding of all people; to make them know Him who created it, Moses does not use another word. In the beginning, he says God created. He does not say God worked, God formed, but God created. Among those who have imagined that the world co-existed with God from all eternity, many have denied that it was created by God, but say that it exists spontaneously, as the shadow of this power. God, they say, is the cause of it, but an involuntary cause, as the body is the cause of the shadow and the flame is the cause of the brightness. It is to correct this error that the prophet states, with so much precision, In the beginning God created. He did not make the thing itself the cause of its existence. Being good, He made it an useful work. Being wise, He made it everything that was most beautiful. Being powerful He made it very great. Moses almost shows us the finger of the supreme artisan taking possession of the substance of the universe, forming the different parts in one perfect accord, and making a harmonious symphony result from the whole. [NOTE: most of Basil's intellectual adversaries were not "atheist" per se, but had a pagan sense of an indifferent yet powerful "first mover" or prime principle to explain the world.  This was the "God" of the philosophers.  Basil's argument, however, is critical of such a characterization and he argued instead for a true theism (or belief in a personal God) who had intention, will, and specifically created the world.  For the charity of the Gospel to track onto reality, it is necessary for that reality to have been loved by the Creator in the first instance.  This is the essence of the "Our Father" as taught by Jesus Christ.  That is what is at stake in the first line of Genesis.].