The answer
St. Basil leans towards giving more attention to the positive aspects of repentance, while emphasizing the importance of the negative aspects. The positive aspects in resisting sin are as follows:
a. Rather than resisting sin by simply refraining from committing it, the believer asks
for the grace of God to replace his energies which were used as evil instruments for them to be constructive instruments used for the edification of the Kingdom of God, so that whoever used his mind or tongue in blaspheming, will now use it to offer thanksgiving and praise to God. Thus, in fixing his mistakes and weaknesses, he finds an opportunity to acquire the grace of God for the edification of God’s kingdom. Whoever was used to stealing from others, will now give alms to the poor and needy, since he counts everything he possess, a gift from God who gives to him on account of his brothers and sisters.
b. St. Basil the Great says, “Whoever sins in his flesh, must use the flesh in a contrary
virtue. You blasphemed? Praise God with your mouth. You have stolen? Compensate for that by doing good. You drank alcohol? You should fast. You boasted? Humble yourself. You envied others? Pray for those you envied. Maybe you killed someone, you should bear the pains of martyrdom and to exhaust your body with mortification.”
c. The believer should not waste his time contemplating the past or imagining what the
future could look like, but instead live in the present to experience a token of eternity. St. Basil the Great says, “Why, what does it profit a man to have dined well yesterday, if today his natural hunger does not find food for its proper satisfaction? Likewise, there is no gain for the soul from yesterday’s virtue, if that virtue is deprived of today’s just actions.”1447
d. An interest in constructive communal work and worship. St. Basil the Great says,
“As the day begins to dawn, all will gather in one voice and one heart, and will offer
to God the confession Psalm (Psalm 50), so everyone will consider those words to be for his repentance.”1448
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1447 St. Basil of Caesarea, Letters 1–185 42.1 To Chilo, His Pupil (FOTC 13:103).
1448 Mike Aquilina, The Way of the Fathers: Praying with the Early Christians (Our Sunday Visitor, 2000): Article 426.