Monday, January 2, 2023

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 Frosty the Snowman, 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 lived during the fourth century when people literally fought over different interpretations of the Incarnation.  They were best of friends when they studied together in Athens.  Basil defended the Church’s Nicene teaching against Arianism, a widespread and deeply rooted heresy claiming that Jesus was not 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 human 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 soul, the human soul cannot 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.

Monday, January 2, 2022

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.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church

(I John 2:22-28; John 1: 19-28)

Mere mention of “anti-Christ” raises the specter of consummate evil – the devil branded “666” coming to menace the whole world before Christ appears in glory. In the New Testament, however, the use of the terms conveys a less threatening figure. It only appears in four passages, all of which occur in the Letters of John and one of which we find in today’s first reading.

“Anti-Christ” in the Letters of John refers to anyone who refuses to accept Jesus as the Christ. They might be termed as well “against Christ” since they deny Christ’s coming in the flesh. Of course, the author of the letters finds these people subversive and despicable since they were once part of the Johannine community but have since followed the errant belief and may be leading others to follow suit.

Today we celebrate two great theologian saints, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen. They are apparently celebrated together because they were the best of friends. Perhaps more importantly here is that both wrote extensively to increase the understanding of the Blessed Trinity – how the Father and the Son have existed together with the Holy Spirit from the beginning of time and how Christ and the Spirit were sent from the Father to redeem and glorify humankind.