A Reading from St. Basil, Bishop and Doctor
I Will Pull Down My Barns

Trials are of two kinds.  Either affliction will test our souls as gold is tried in a furnace, and make trial of us through patience, or the very prosperity of our lives will oftentimes, for many, be itself an occasion of trial and temptation.  For it is equally difficult to keep the soul upright and undefeated in the midst of afflictions, as to keep oneself from insolence and pride in prosperity.  We have an example of the first kind of trial in the blessed Job, that great and undefeated champion, who with unshaken courage and immovable purpose breasted every assault of the devil, as they came against him with the force of a torrent; and the more each attempt of the enemy appeared irresistible the higher his patience rose superior to every trial.  Of the second kind we have many examples besides this rich man of whom we have just read, who had much wealth, and hoped to have much more.  And the most kind God did not in the beginning condemn him for his thankless soul; rather, each day He added new riches to what he already had, to see if, when his soul had at length attained satiety, it might then awaken to liberality and to kindness.

For He said:  The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits.  And he thought within himself, saying:  What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said:  This will I do:  I will pull down my barns, and I will build greater (Lk. xii. 16-18).  Why then was the land of this man so rich; he who would do nothing of good with the abundance that was coming to him?  That we might see more clearly the forbearance of God, Whose goodness extends itself even to such persons, since He maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust (Mt. v. 45).  But such goodness of God brings greater chastisement upon the wicked.  He pours out His rains upon the fields cultivated by avaricious hands.  He gives us the sun that warms the seed and multiplies it into an abundance of fruit.  And it is from God such blessings are received; fertile lands, a fitting climate, seeds that are fruitful, the work of the oxen, and all things else by which the tilled earth becomes fruitful.