Basil of Caesarea, That One Should Not Adhere to Worldly Things

we may turn aside from the divine way, and incline ourselves towards his ambush. And there is great fear lest at some time, by running to them unguardedly, and considering the pleasure from the enjoyment to be nothing harmful, we swallow the hidden hook of deceit in the first taste; then by this, partly willing, partly unwilling, we be bound to them, and, drawn by pleasures, we be dragged unawares to death, the robber's dreadful den. 31.544

Therefore it is necessary and advantageous for all, brothers, that we, having prepared ourselves like travelers or runners, and having contrived from every side lightness for our souls for this race, should press on without turning back to the end of the road. And let no one suppose that I am a maker of new names, because I have now called human life a road, since David the prophet also named life thus; now saying something like this: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord; and now crying to his own Master: Remove from me the way of iniquity, and in your law have mercy on me. And at another time, singing of the swift help of God against those who vexed him, and bringing it to the lyre with pleasure, he would say: And what God is there except our God? The God who girds me with strength, and has made my way blameless; everywhere rightly considering that the sojourn of men on earth, whether admirable or worthless, should be so addressed. For just as those who complete a continuous journey, moving forward the paces of their feet competing with one another into a run, and always making the one planted on the ground second by the quick exchange of the other, they easily proceed to the journey's end; so those brought forth to live by the Creator, right from the beginning treading on the segments of time, and always leaving the former behind, arrive at the end of life. Or does it not seem to you also that this present life is spread out as a continuous road, and a journey divided by ages as by stations, offering to each the pangs of mothers as the beginning of the journey, and showing the tents of tombs as the end of the race, and leading all to them, some more quickly, others more slowly, and some having traveled through all the intervals of time, but others not even having lodged at the first stations of life? Therefore, the other roads, as many as lead from city to city, it is possible to turn from, and for one who does not wish to, not to travel them; but this one, even if we should wish to postpone the race, having seized us by force, drags those upon it to the end ordained by the Master; and it is not possible, beloved, for one who has once passed through the gate leading to this life, and has set foot on this road, not also to come to its end; but each of us, after having escaped the maternal womb, is immediately bound to the streams of time and is swept along, always leaving behind the day that has been lived, and never being able to return to yesterday, even if he should wish to.

But we are pleased to be carried forward, and we rejoice in changing our ages, as if gaining something; and we judge it blessed, when from a boy one becomes a man, and from 31.545 a man an old man; but we are ignorant, then, that we lose so much of life each time as we have lived, and we do not perceive our life being spent, although we are always measuring it by what has run past and flowed by, nor do we consider how uncertain it is how much time He who sent us forth on this journey will wish to grant for the race, and when for each of the runners He will open the gates of entrance, and that we must be prepared daily for our departure from here, and await the Master's nod with watchful eyes. For, he says, let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves like men waiting for their lord, when

θείας ἐκτραπῶμεν ὁδοῦ, πρὸς δὲ τὸν ἐκείνου λόχον ἑαυτοὺς ἀποκλίνωμεν. Καὶ δέος πολὺ μή ποτε, προσ δραμόντες ἀφυλάκτως αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀπο λαύσεως τέρψιν οὐδὲν ἡγησάμενοι βλαβερὸν, ἐγκε κρυμμένον τῇ πρώτῃ γεύσει τὸ τοῦ δόλου καταπίω μεν ἄγκιστρον· εἶτα ὑπὸ τούτου τὰ μὲν ἑκόντες, τὰ δὲ ἄκοντες, προσδεθῶμεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ πρὸς τὸ φοβε ρὸν τοῦ λῃστοῦ καταγώγιον τὸν θάνατον λάθωμεν ἑλκυσθέντες ὑπὸ τῶν ἡδονῶν. 31.544

Ὥστε ἀναγκαῖον καὶ λυσιτελὲς ἅπασιν, ἀδελφοὶ, καθάπερ ὁδοιπόρους ἢ δρομέας στειλαμένους ἡμᾶς, καὶ πανταχόθεν τὸ κοῦφον ταῖς ψυχαῖς πρὸς τὸν δρό μον τοῦτον ἐπινοήσαντας, ἀμεταστρέπτως ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ πέρας ἐπείγεσθαι. Καί με μηδεὶς ὑπο λάβοι καινῶν ὀνομάτων γίνεσθαι ποιητὴν, ὅτι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ζωὴν ὁδὸν ἐκάλεσα νῦν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ∆αβὶδ ὁ προφήτης οὕτω τὸν βίον ὠνόμασε· νῦν μὲν ὧδέ πη λέγων· Μακάριοι οἱ ἄμωμοι ἐν ὁδῷ, οἱ πορευό μενοι ἐν νόμῳ Κυρίου· νῦν δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ∆εσπότην βοῶν· Ὁδὸν ἀδικίας ἀπόστησον ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ τῷ νόμῳ σου ἐλέησόν με. Ποτὲ δὲ ὑμνῶν τὴν ὀξεῖαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κατὰ τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων βοή θειαν, καὶ τῇ λύρᾳ προσάγων μεθ' ἡδονῆς, Καὶ τίς Θεὸς πλὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν; ἔλεγεν· Ὁ Θεὸς ὁ περιζωννύων με δύναμιν, καὶ ἔθετο ἄμωμον τὴν ὁδόν μου· πανταχοῦ τὴν ἐπὶ γῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων διατριβὴν, ἢ θαυμαζομένην ἢ φαύλην, οὕτω δεῖν προσαγορεύειν ἡγούμενος εἰκότως. Ὥσπερ γὰρ οἵ τινα συντεταμένην πορείαν ἀνύοντες, ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσω τὰς τῶν ποδῶν βάσεις ἁμιλλωμένας ἀλλήλαις εἰς δρόμον ἀμείβοντες, καὶ τὴν ἀεὶ προτέραν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐρεισθεῖσαν δευτέραν ἀποδεικνύντες τῇ ταχείᾳ μεταθέσει τῆς ἄλλης, ῥᾳδίως ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ τέρμα χωροῦσιν· οὕτως οἱ πρὸς τὸ ζῇν παραχθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ κτίσαντος, εὐθὺς ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῖς τοῦ χρόνου τμή μασιν ἐπεμβαίνοντες, καὶ τὸ πρότερον ἀεὶ καταλιμ πάνοντες ὕστερον, ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας φθάνουσι τῆς ζωῆς. Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ ὑμῖν δοκεῖ συνεχής τις ὁδὸς ὑφηπλῶσθαι ἡ παροῦσα ζωὴ, καὶ πορεία διειλημμένη ταῖς ἡλι κίαις καθάπερ σταθμοῖς, ἀρχὴν μὲν ἑκάστῳ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας παρέχουσα τὰς τῶν μητρῶν ὠδῖνας, τέρμα δὲ ὑποδεικνῦσα τοῦ δρόμου τὰς τῶν τάφων σκηνὰς, καὶ πρὸς ἐκείνας ἅπαντας ἄγουσα, τοὺς μὲν θᾶττον, τοὺς δὲ βραδύτερον, καὶ τοὺς μὲν διὰ πάν των τῶν τοῦ χρόνου διαστημάτων ὁδεύσαντας, τοὺς δὲ οὐδὲ τοῖς πρώτοις ἐναυλισθέντας τοῦ βίου στα θμοῖς; Τὰς μὲν οὖν ἄλλας ὁδοὺς, ὅσαι πρὸς πόλιν ἐκ πόλεως ἄγουσιν, ἔστιν ἐκκλῖναι, καὶ μὴ ὁδεῦσαι τὸν μὴ βουλόμενον· αὕτη δὲ, κἂν ἡμεῖς ἀναβάλλεσθαι βουληθῶμεν τὸν δρόμον, περιλαβοῦσα πρὸς βίαν, ἐπὶ τὸ τεταγμένον ὑπὸ τοῦ ∆εσπότου πέρας ἕλκει τοὺς ἐπ' αὐτῆς· καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀγαπητοὶ, τὸν ἅπαξ ὑπεκ δραμόντα τὴν ἐπὶ τόνδε τὸν βίον φέρουσαν πύλην, καὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ ταύτης ἐπιβάντα, μὴ καὶ πρὸς τὸ τέλος ταύτης ἐλθεῖν· ἕκαστος δὲ ἡμῶν, μετὰ τὸ τοὺς μητρῴους κόλπους ἀποφυγεῖν, εὐθὺς τοῖς τοῦ χρό νου ῥεύμασιν ἐνδεθεὶς ὑποσύρεται, κατόπιν ἀεὶ τὴν βεβιωμένην ἡμέραν ἐῶν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν χθὲς ἐπανελ θεῖν οὐδέποτε, κἂν θελήσοι, δυνάμενος.

Ἡμεῖς δὲ ἡδόμεθα μὲν ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσω φερόμενοι, καὶ τὰς ἡλι κίας ἀμείβοντες, ὥς τι προσλαμβάνοντες, χαίρομεν· καὶ μακάριον κρίνομεν, ὅταν ἐκ παιδὸς μὲν ἀνὴρ, ἐκ 31.545 δὲ ἀνδρὸς γένηταί τις πρεσβύτης· ἀγνοοῦμεν δὲ ἄρα, τοσοῦτον ἀπολλύντες ἑκάστοτε τῆς ζωῆς, ὅσον ἐζήσα μεν, καὶ οὐκ αἰσθανόμεθα δαπανωμένου τοῦ βίου, καίτοιγε ἀεὶ μετροῦντες αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ παραδρα μόντος καὶ παραῤῥεύσαντος, οὐδὲ ἐννοοῦμεν, ὡς ἄρα ἄδηλον ὁπόσον ὁ πρὸς τὴν ὁδοιπορίαν ταύτην ἐκπέμψας ἡμᾶς ἐνδοῦναι τῷ δρόμῳ χρόνον βουλήσεται, καὶ πότε ἑκάστῳ τῶν δρομέων ἀνοίξει τῆς εἰσόδου τὰς πύλας, καὶ ὅτι δεῖ παρεσκευασμένους ἐφ' ἡμέραν εἶναι πρὸς τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἀποδημίαν ἡμᾶς, καὶ τὸ τοῦ ∆εσπότου νεῦμα περιμένειν ἑστῶσι τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς. Ἔστωσαν γὰρ, φησὶν, αἱ ὀσφύες ὑμῶν περιεζω σμέναι, καὶ οἱ λύχνοι καιόμενοι· καὶ ὑμεῖς ὅμοιοι ἀνθρώποις προσδεχομένοις τὸν κύριον ἑαυτῶν, πότε