Basil: sin slain in the flesh

Wednesday, March 7, 2012
    Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
Meditation:
    O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
    —1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV)
Quotation:
    If what was reigned over by death was not that which was assumed by the Lord, death would not have ceased working his own ends, nor would the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh have been made our gain; He would not have killed sin in the flesh; we who had died in Adam should not have been made alive in Christ; the fallen to pieces would not have been framed again; the shattered would not have been set up again; that which by the serpent’s trick had been estranged from God would never have been made once more His own.
    ... St. Basil the Great (330?-379), letter 261.2, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, v. VIII, Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, ed., New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895, p. 300 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, in You our estrangement ends. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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