Thursday, January 2, 2014

Homily: January 2 - Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen




Today we celebrate two Saints, Basil and Gregory. They were both bishops, they were both born in the year 330, they were both educated at the most famous school of their day (at Caesarea in Cappadoccia, which is modern day Turkey), and there, met each other and became close friends. They were baptized together in the year 358.  They are two of the three Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, the other being Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Basil’s brother.

 These two friends, Basil and Gregory, eventually became Bishops and spent themselves without reserve in faithful service to the Church, especially in opposing the Arian heretics.  In the first reading, the Apostle John warns us against listening to those who teach falsely about Jesus.  Basil and Gregory spoke out against those who falsely taught that Jesus was not God in the same way that the Father is God—that he is not consubstantial with the Father.  Basil and Gregory opposed this heresy, teaching the true faith that has been received from the Apostles.

I’ve said it before, but in a way, our culture has become Arian again.  It has lost the sense that Jesus is truly God.  This is why our culture fails to keep Christ in Christmas, because it fails to recognize in the Christ Child, God incarnate who has come to save us from our sins.  Pope Francis said, this morning in Rome, “God reveals himself in the weakness and fragility of this newborn babe”. 


St. Basil and Gregory gave their life in witness to the truth about that newborn babe, that he is truly God come to save us from our sins.  And we are to do the same.  As we prayed in the opening prayer, “O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the Bishops Saints Basil and Gregory, grant we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practice it faithfully in charity” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.  

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