Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and Doctors of the Church
(I John 2:22-28; John 1:19-280
The Church celebrates the Incarnation -- Christ becoming human
– on Christmas. It is, despite Santa
Claus and snowmen, a holy and glorious day.
But there is little time to reflect on how the Incarnation might happen
during Christmas week. On January 2, the
day following the Christmas octave, such reflection is indicated with the Memorial
of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen.
The two bishops and theologians were best of friends when
they studied together in Athens. They
lived during the fourth century when people literally fought over different
interpretations of the Incarnation.
Basil defended the Church’s Nicene teaching against Arianism, a widespread
and deeply rooted heresy. To protect divine
majesty, Arianism claimed that Jesus was not fully God. Gregory engaged in the controversy against the
more sophisticated heresy of Apollinarianism.
Apollinaris, the bishop who formulated the heresy, taught that Jesus was
a divine spirit inhabiting a foreign body.
Gregory claimed the contrary when he taught that “what is not assumed is
not redeemed.” In other words, if the
Son did not have a human body, no human body can be redeemed.
We believe that Jesus is our redeemer because of the
testimony of writers like John in today’s first reading. He tells us of how people experienced Jesus’ saving
power. We also accept the Church’s teaching
on the Incarnation because it follows quite logically from the teachings of
thinkers like Basil and Gregory.
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