Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

January 2^nd homily

Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

My best friend growing up was a boy named Josh Burcham.  He was about three years older than I but that didn’t seem to matter as we enjoyed the best friendship had to offer, Nintendo games at his house and hide and go seek at my house, with Jody Bertin, one of the residents at the home, always being ‘it’.

Today’s liturgy celebrates two friends, Saint Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen.  Their aim was not mutual entertainment but the goal of finding truth, of discovering God deeper and deeper in their lives and bringing that truth to others.  Their goal was learning, study and giving themselves completely to this task in monastic living.  “Our single object and ambition was virtue and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come (…) We spurred each other on to virtue.”  They lived amid the turbulent times of the Arian heresy, which claimed that Jesus was divine but not human.  Both of these men eventually left the monastery to be ordained bishops and to strenuously fight against this heresy, holding on to the orthodox claim of Christianity, that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, consubstantial with the Father.  Today they are remembered as doctors of the Church, having contributed significantly to the theological development (treasury) of the Church.  As Gregory writes

Different men have different names, which they owe to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and achievements.  But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians.

Theirs is a heroic example of following Christ despite great affliction and turmoil, the power of God at work amongst frail humanity.  May we not forget this power is open to us who approach the Lord in this great sign of his humility and love: the Eucharist.