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Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint
Gregory Nazianzus, bishops and doctors of the Church
St. Basil the Great
Feastday: January 2
Patron of hospital
administrators
d.379
St. Basil the Great was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330. He
was one of ten children
of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. Several of
his brothers and sisters are honored among the saints. He attended school in
Caesarea, as well as Constantinople
and Athens, where he became acquainted with St. Gregory Nazianzen
in 352. A little later, he opened a school of oratory in
Caesarea and practiced law. Eventually he decided to become a monk and found
a monastery in Pontus
which he directed for five years. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has
proved the most lasting of those in the East. After founding several other
monasteries, he was ordained and, in 370, made bishop of Caesaria. In this post until his death in 379, he continued
to be a man
of vast learning and constant activity, genuine eloquence and immense charity. This earned for him the title of
"Great" during his life and Doctor of the Church
after his death. Basil was one of the giants of the early Church. He was
responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over
Arianism in the Byzantine East, and the denunciation
of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople
in 381-82 was in large measure due to his efforts. Basil fought simony, aided
the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a
rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever
he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread
prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was learned, accomplished in
statesmanship, a man
of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity. His feast day is January 2.
Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint
Gregory Nazianzus, bishops and doctors of the Church
St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Doctor of the Church b. c 325
Feast Day: January 2
Doctor
of the Church, born at Arianzus, in Asia Minor, c.
325; died at the same place, 389. He was son -- one of three children -- of
Gregory, Bishop
of Nazianzus (329-374), in the south-west of Cappadocia,
and of Nonna, a daughter of Christian
parents. The saint's father was originally a member of the heretical sect of
the Hypsistarii, or Hypsistiani,
and was converted to Catholicity by the influence of his pious wife. His two
sons, who seem to have been born between the dates of their father's priestly
ordination and episcopal consecration, were sent to a
famous school at Caesarea, capital of Cappadocia, and educated by Carterius, probably the same one who was afterwards tutor
of St. John
Chrysostom. Here commenced the friendship between Basil and Gregory which
intimately affected both their lives, as well as the development of the
theology of their age. From Caesarea in Cappadocia Gregory proceeded to
Caesarea in Palestine, where he studied rhetoric under Thespesius;
and thence to Alexandria, of which Athanasius was then bishop, through at the time in
exile. Setting out by sea from Alexandria to Athens,
Gregory was all but lost in a great storm, and some of his biographers infer --
though the fact is not certain -- that when in danger of death he and his
companions received the rite of baptism. He had certainly not been baptized in
infancy, though dedicated to God by his
pious mother; but there is some authority for believing that he received the
sacrament, not on his voyage to Athens, but on his return to Nazianzus some years later. At Athens Gregory and
Basil, who had parted at Caesarea, met again, renewed their youthful
friendship, and studied rhetoric together under the famous teachers Himerius and Proaeresius.
Among their fellow students was Julian, afterwards known as the Apostate, whose
real character
Gregory asserts that he had even then discerned and thoroughly distrusted him. The saint's studies at Athens (which Basil left before
his friend) extended over some ten years; and when he departed in 356 for his
native province, visiting Constantinople
on his way home, he was about thirty years of age.
Arrived
at Nazianzus, where his parents were
now advanced in age, Gregory, who had by this time firmly
resolved to devote his life and
talents to God, anxiously considered the plan of his future career. To a young man of his
high attainments a distinguished secular career was open, either that of a
lawyer or of a professor of rhetoric; but his yearnings were for the monastic
or ascetic life, though this did not seem compatible either with the Scripture
studies in which he was deeply interested, or with his filial duties at home.
As was natural, he consulted his beloved friend Basil in his perplexity as to
his future; and he has left us in his own writings an extremely interesting
narrative of their intercourse at this time, and of their common resolve (based
on somewhat different motives, according to the decided differences in their
characters) to quit the world for the service of God alone.
Basil retired to Pontus
to lead the life
of a hermit ; but finding that Gregory could not join him there, came and
settled first at Tiberina (near Gregory's own home),
then at Neocæsarea, in Pontus, where he lived in holy
seclusion for some years, and gathered round him a brotherhood of cenobites,
among whom his friend Gregory was for a time
included. After a sojourn here for two or three years, during which Gregory
edited, with Basil some of the exegetical works of Origen, and also helped his
friend in the compilation of his famous rules, Gregory returned to Nazianzus, leaving with regret the peaceful hermitage where
he and Basil (as he recalled in their subsequent correspondence) had spent such
a pleasant time
in the labour both of hands and of heads. On his
return home Gregory was instrumental in bringing back to orthodoxy his
father who, perhaps partly in ignorance, had subscribed the heretical creed of Rimini ; and
the aged bishop, desiring his son's presence and support, overruled his
scrupulous shrinking from the priesthood, and forced him to accept ordination
(probably at Christmas, 361). Wounded and grieved at the pressure put upon him,
Gregory fled back to his solitude, and to the company of St. Basil; but after
some weeks' reflection returned to Nazianzus, where
he preached his first sermon on Easter
Sunday, and afterward wrote the remarkable apologetic oration, which is really
a treatise on the priestly office, the foundation of
Chrysostom's "De Sacerdotio", of Gregory
the Great's "Cura Pastoris", and of countless subsequent writings on the
same subject.
During
the next few years Gregory's life at Nazianzus was saddened by the deaths of his brother Caesarius and his sister Gorgonia,
at whose funerals he preached two of his most eloquent orations, which are
still extant. About this time Basil was
made bishop
of Caesarea and Metropolitan
of Cappadocia, and soon afterwards the Emperor Valens, who was jealous of
Basil's influence, divided Cappadocia into two provinces. Basil continued to
claim ecclesiastical jurisdiction , as before, over
the whole province, but this was disputed by Anthimus,
Bishop of Tyana, the chief city of New Cappadocia. To strengthen his
position Basil founded a new see at Sasima, resolved
to have Gregory as its first bishop, and accordingly had him consecrated,
though greatly against his will. Gregory, however, was set against Sasima from the first; he thought himself utterly
unsuited to the place, and the place to him; and it was not long before he
abandoned his diocese
and returned to Nazianzus as coadjutor to his father. This episode in
Gregory's life
was unhappily the cause of an
estrangement between Basil and himself which was never altogether removed; and
there is no extant record of any correspondence between them subsequent to
Gregory's leaving Sasima. Meanwhile he occupied
himself sedulously with his duties as coadjutor to his aged father, who died
early in 374, his wife Nonna soon following him to
the grave. Gregory, who was now left without family ties,
devoted to the poor the large fortune which he had inherited, keeping for
himself only a small piece of land at Arianzus. He
continued to administer the diocese for
about two years, refusing, however, to become the bishop, and continually
urging the appointment of a successor to his father. At the end of 375 he
withdrew to a monastery at Seleuci, living there in
solitude for some three years, and preparing (though he knew it not) for what
was to be the crowning work of his life. About the end of this period Basil
died. Gregory's own state of health prevented his being present either at the
deathbed or funeral; but he wrote a letter of condolence to Basil's brother,
Gregory of Nyssa, and composed twelve beautiful memorial poems or epitaphs to
his departed friend.
Three
weeks after Basil's death, Theodosius was advanced by the Emperor Gratian to the
dignity of Emperor of the East. Constantinople, the seat of
his empire, had been for the space of
about thirty years (since the death of the saintly and martyred Bishop Paul)
practically given over too Arianism,
with an Arian prelate, Demophilus, enthroned at St.
Sophia's. The remnant of persecuted Catholics, without either church or
pastor, applied to Gregory to come and place himself
at their head and organize their scattered forces; and many bishops
supported the demand. After much hesitation he gave his consent, proceeded to Constantinople
early in the year 379, and began his mission in a private house which he
describes as "the new Shiloh where the Ark was fixed", and as
"an Anastasia, the scene of the resurrection of the faith ".
Not only the faithful Catholics, but many heretics
gathered in the humble chapel of the
Anastasia, attracted by Gregory's sanctity, learning and eloquence; and it was
in this chapel
that he delivered the five wonderful discourses on the faith of Nicaea --
unfolding the doctrine of the Trinity while safeguarding the Unity of the
Godhead -- which gained for him, alone of all Christian
teachers except the Apostle St.
John, the special title of Theologus or the Divine.
He also delivered at this time the
eloquent panegyrics on St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, and the Machabees,
which are among his finest oratorical works. Meanwhile he found himself exposed
to persecution
of every kind from without, and was actually attacked in his own chapel, whilst
baptizing his Easter
neophytes, by a hostile mob of Arians from St. Sophia's, among them being Arian
monks and infuriated women. He was saddened, too, by dissensions among his own
little flock, some of whom openly charged him with holding Tritheistic
errors. St. Jerome became about this time his
pupil and disciple, and tells us in glowing language how much he owed to his
erudite and eloquent teacher. Gregory was consoled by the approval of Peter, Patriarch of Constantinople
(Duchesne's opinion, that the patriarch was
from the first jealous or suspicious of the Cappadocian
bishop's influence in Constantinople, does not seem sufficiently supported by
evidence), and Peter appears to have been desirous to see him appointed to the
bishopric of the capital of the East. Gregory, however, unfortunately allowed
himself to be imposed upon by a plausible adventurer called Hero, or Maximus, who came to Constantinople
from Alexandria
in the guise (long hair, white robe, and staff) of a Cynic, and professed to be
a convert to Christianity, and an ardent admirer of Gregory's sermons. Gregory
entertained him hospitably, gave him his complete confidence, and pronounced a
public panegyric on him in his presence. Maximus's
intrigues to obtain the bishopric for himself found support in various
quarters, including Alexandria, which the patriarch
Peter, for what reason
precisely it is not known, had turned against Gregory; and certain Egyptian bishops
deputed by Peter, suddenly, and at night, consecrated and enthroned Maximus as Catholic Bishop of
Constantinople, while Gregory was confined to bed by illness. Gregory's
friends, however, rallied round him, and Maximus had
to fly from Constantinople. The Emperor Theodosius, to whom he had recourse,
refused to recognize any bishop other
than Gregory, and Maximus retired in disgrace to
Alexandria.
Theodosius
received Christian
baptism early
in 380, at Thessalonica, and immediately addressed an edict to his subjects at
Constantinople, commanding them to adhere to the faith taught
by St. Peter, and professed by the Roman pontiff, which alone deserved to be
called Catholic. In November, the emperor entered the city and called on Demophilus, the Arian bishop, to subscribe to the Nicene creed
: but he refused to do so, and was banished from Constantinople. Theodosius
determined that Gregory should be bishop of the
new Catholic
see, and himself accompanied him to St. Sophia's, where he was enthroned in
presence of an immense crowd, who manifested their feelings by hand-clappings and other signs of joy. Constantinople
was now restored to Catholic
unity; the emperor, by a new edict, gave back all the churches to Catholic use;
Arians and other heretics
were forbidden to hold public assemblies; and the name of Catholic was
restricted to adherents of the orthodox and Catholic
faith.
Gregory
had hardly settled down to the work of administration of the Diocese of
Constantinople, when Theodosius carried out his long-cherished purpose of
summoning thither a general council of the Eastern Church. One hundred and
fifty bishops
met in council, in May, 381, the object of the assembly being, as Socrates
plainly states, to confirm the faith of
Nicaea, and to appoint a bishop for Constantinople
(see CONSTANTINOPLE, THE FIRST COUNCIL OF). Among the bishops
present were thirty-six holding semi-Arian or Macedonian opinions; and neither
the arguments of the orthodox prelates nor the eloquence of Gregory, who
preached at Pentecost, in St. Sophia's, on the subject of the Holy Spirit,
availed to persuade them to sign the orthodox creed. As to the appointment of
the bishopric, the confirmation
of Gregory to the see could only be a matter of
form. The orthodox bishops were
all in favor, and the objection (urged by the Egyptian and Macedonian prelates
who joined the council later) that his translation from one see to another was
in opposition to a canon of the
Nicene council was obviously unfounded. The fact was well known that Gregory
had never, after his forced consecration
at the instance of Basil, entered into possession of the See
of Sasima, and that he had later exercised his episcopal functions at Nazianzus,
not as bishop
of that diocese, but merely as coadjutor of his father. Gregory succeeded Meletius as president of the council, which found itself at
once called on to deal with the difficult question of appointing a successor to
the deceased bishop. There had been an understanding between the two orthodox
parties at Antioch, of which Meletius and Paulinus had been respectively bishops that
the survivor of either should succeed as sole bishop. Paulinus,
however, was a prelate
of Western origin and creation, and the Eastern bishops
assembled at Constantinople
declined to recognize him. In vain did Gregory urge, for the sake of peace, the
retention of Paulinus in the see
for the remainder of his life, already fare advanced; the Fathers of the
council refused to listen to his advice, and resolved that Meletius
should be succeeded by an Oriental priest. "It was in the East that Christ was born", was one
of the arguments they put forward; and Gregory's retort, "Yes, and it was
in the East that he was put to death ", did not shake their decision. Flavian, a priest of
Antioch, was elected to the vacant see; and Gregory, who relates that the only
result of his appeal was "a cry like that of a flock of jackdaws"
while the younger members of the council "attacked him like a swarm of
wasps", quitted the council, and left also his official residence, close
to the church of the Holy Apostles.
Gregory
had now come to the conclusion that not only the opposition and disappointment
which he had met with in the council, but also his continued state of
ill-health, justified, and indeed necessitated, his resignation of the See of Constantinople, which he had held for only a few
months. He appeared again before the council, intimated that he was ready to be
another Jonas
to pacify the troubled waves, and that all he desired
was rest from his labours, and leisure to prepare for
death . The Fathers made no protest against this
announcement, which some among them doubtless heard with secret satisfaction;
and Gregory at once sought and obtained from the emperor permission to resign
his see. In June, 381, he preached a farewell sermon before the council and in
presence of an overflowing congregation. The peroration of this discourse is of
singular and touching beauty, and unsurpassed even among his many eloquent
orations. Very soon after its delivery he left Constantinople
(Nectarius, a native of Cilicia, being chosen to
succeed him in the bishopric ), and retired to his old
home at Nazianzus. His two extant letters addressed
to Nectarius at his time are
noteworthy as affording evidence, by their spirit and
tone, that he was actuated by no other feelings than those of interested
goodwill towards the diocese of
which he was resigning the care, and towards his successor in the episcopal charge. On his return to Nazianzus,
Gregory found the Church there in a miserable condition, being overrun with the
erroneous teaching of Apollinaris
the Younger, who had seceded from the Catholic
communion a few years previously, and died shortly after Gregory himself.
Gregory's anxiety was now to find a learned and zealous bishop who
would be able to stem the flood of heresy which
was threatening to overwhelm the Christian
Church in that place. All his efforts were at first unsuccessful, and he
consented at length with much reluctance to take over the administration of the
diocese
himself. He combated for a time, with his usual eloquence and as much energy as
remained to him, the false teaching of the adversaries of the Church ; but he felt himself too broken in health to
continue the active work of the episcopate, and wrote to the Archbishop of Tyana urgently appealing to him to provide for the
appointment of another bishop. His request was granted, and his cousin Eulalius, a priest of holy
life to
whom he was much attached, was duly appointed to the See
of Nazianzus. This was toward the end of the year
383, and Gregory, happy in seeing the care of the diocese
entrusted to a man
after his own heart, immediately withdrew to Arianzus,
the scene of his birth and his childhood, where he spent the remaining years of
his life in
retirement, and in the literary labours, which were
so much more congenial to his character than
the harassing work of ecclesiastical administration in those stormy and
troubled times.
Looking
back on Gregory's career, it is difficult not to feel that from the day when he
was compelled to accept priestly orders, until that which saw him return from Constantinople
to Nazianzus to end his life in
retirement and obscurity, he seemed constantly to be placed, through no
initiative of his own, in positions apparently unsuited to his disposition and
temperament, and not really calculated to call for the exercise of the most
remarkable and attractive qualities of his mind and
heart. Affectionate and tender by nature, of highly sensitive temperament,
simple and humble, lively and cheerful by disposition, yet liable to despondency
and irritability, constitutionally timid, and somewhat deficient, as it seemed,
both in decision of character and
in self-control, he was very human, very lovable, very gifted -- yet not, one
might be inclined to think, naturally adapted to play the remarkable part which
he did during the period preceding and following the opening of the Council of
Constantinople. He entered on his difficult and arduous work in that city within
a few months of the death of Basil, the beloved friend of his youth; and
Newman, in his appreciation of Gregory's character and
career, suggests the striking thought that it was his friend's lofty and heroic
spirit
which had entered into him, and inspired him to take the active and important
part which fell to his lot in the
work of re-establishing the orthodox and Catholic faith in the
eastern capital of the empire. It did, in truth, seem to be rather with the
firmness and intrepidity, the high resolve and unflinching perseverance,
characteristic of Basil, than in his own proper character, that of a gentle,
fastidious, retiring, timorous, peace-loving saint and scholar, that he sounded
the war-trumpet during those anxious and turbulent months, in the very
stronghold and headquarters of militant heresy, utterly regardless to the
actual and pressing danger to his safety, and even his life which
never ceased to menace him. "May we together receive", he said at the
conclusion of the wonderful discourse which he pronounced on his departed
friend, on his return to Asia from
Constantinople, "the reward of the warfare which we have waged, which we
have endured." It is impossible to doubt, reading the intimate details
which he has himself given us of his long friendship with, and deep admiration
of, Basil, that the spirit of his
early and well-loved friend had to a great extent moulded
and informed his own sensitive and impressionable personality
and that it was this, under God, which nerved and inspired him, after a life of what
seemed, externally, one almost of failure, to co-operate in the mighty task of
overthrowing the monstrous heresy which
had so long devastated the greater part of Christendom, and bringing about at
length the pacification of the Eastern Church.
During
the six years of life
which remained to him after his final retirement to his birth-place, Gregory
composed, in all probability, the greater part of the copious poetical works
which have come down to us. These include a valuable autobiographical poem of
nearly 2000 lines, which forms, of course, one of the most important sources of
information for the facts of his life; about a hundred other shorter poems
relating to his past career; and a large number of epitaphs, epigrams, and
epistles to well-known people of the day. Many of his later personal poems
refer to the continuous illness and severe sufferings, both physical and
spiritual, which assailed him during his last years, and doubtless assisted to
perfect him in those saintly qualities which had never been wanting to him,
rudely shaken though he had been by the trails and buffetings of his life. In
the tiny plot of ground at Arianzus, all (as has
already been said) that remained to him of his rich inheritance, he wrote and
meditated, as he tells, by a fountain near which there was a shady walk, his favourite resort. Here, too, he received occasional visits
from intimate friends, as well as sometimes from strangers attracted to his
retreat by his reputation for sanctity and
learning; and here he peacefully breathed his last. The exact date of his death
is unknown, but from a passage in Jerome (De Script. Eccl.) it may be assigned,
with tolerable certainty, to the year 389 or 390.
Some
account must now be given of Gregory's voluminous writings, and of his
reputation as an orator and a theologian, on which, more than on anything else,
rests his fame as one of the greatest lights of the
Eastern Church. His works naturally fall under three heads, namely his poems,
his epistles, and his orations. Much, though by no means all, of what he wrote
has been preserved, and has been frequently published, the editio
princeps of the poems being the Aldine (1504), while
the first edition of his collected works appeared in Paris in
1609-11. The Bodleian catalogue contains more than thirty folio pages
enumerating various editions of Gregory's works, of which the best and most
complete are the Benedictine edition (two folio volumes, begun in 1778,
finished in 1840), and the edition of Migne (four volumes XXXV - XXXVIII, in P.G., Paris, 1857 -
1862).
These,
as already stated, comprise autobiographical verses, epigrams, epitaphs and
epistles. The epigrams have been translated by Thomas Drant
(London, 1568), the epitaphs by Boyd (London, 1826), while other poems have
been gracefully and charmingly paraphrased by Newman in his "Church of the
Fathers". Jerome and Suidas say that Gregory wrote more than 30,000 verses;
if this is not an exaggeration, fully two-thirds of them have been lost. Very
different estimates have been formed of the value of his poetry, the greater
part of which was written in advanced years, and perhaps rather as a relaxation
from the cares and troubles of life than as a
serious pursuit. Delicate, graphic, and flowing as are many of his verses, and
giving ample evidence of the cultured and gifted intellect
which produced them, they cannot be held to parallel (the comparison would be
an unfair one, had not many of them been written expressly to supersede and
take the place of the work of heathen writers) the great creations of the
classic Greek poets. Yet Villemain, no mean critic,
places the poems in the front rank of Gregory's compositions, and thinks so
highly of them that he maintains that the writer ought to be called,
pre-eminently, not so much the theologian of the East as "the poet of
Eastern Christendom
".
These,
by common consent, belong to the finest literary productions of Gregory's age.
All that are extant are finished compositions; and that the writer excelled in
this kind of composition is shown from one of them (Ep. ccix,
to Nicobulus) in which he enlarges with admirable good sense on
the rules by which all letter-writers should be guided. It was at the request
of Nicobulus, who believed, and rightly, that these
letters contained much of permanent interest and value, that Gregory prepared
and edited the collection containing the greater number of them which has come
down to us. Many of them are perfect models of epistolary style -- short,
clear, couched in admirably chosen language, and in turn witty and profound,
playful, affectionate and acute.
Both
in his own time, and by the general verdict of posterity, Gregory was
recognized as one of the very foremost orators who have ever adorned the Christian Church.
Trained in the finest rhetorical schools of
his age, he did more than justice to his
distinguished teachers; and while boasting or vainglory was foreign to his
nature, he frankly acknowledged his consciousness
of his remarkable oratorical gifts, and his satisfaction at having been enabled
to cultivate them fully in his youth. Basil and Gregory, it has been said, were
the pioneers of Christian
eloquence, modeled on, and inspired by, the noble and sustained oratory of
Demosthenes and Cicero, and calculated to move and impress the most cultured
and critical audiences of the age. Only comparatively few of the numerous
orations delivered by Gregory have been preserved to us, consisting of
discourses spoken by him on widely different occasions, but all marked by the
same lofty qualities. Faults they have, of course: lengthy digressions,
excessive ornament, strained antithesis, laboured
metaphors, and occasional over-violence of invective. But their merits are far
greater than their defects, and no one can read them without being struck by
the noble phraseology, perfect command of the purest Greek, high imaginative
powers, lucidity and incisiveness of thought, fiery zeal and
transparent sincerity of intention, by which they are distinguished. Hardly any
of Gregory's extant sermons are direct expositions of Scripture, and they have
for this reason
been adversely criticized. Bossuet, however, points out with perfect truth that
many of these discourses are really nothing but skillful interweaving of
Scriptural texts, a profound knowledge of
which is evident from every line of them.
Gregory's
claims to rank as one of the greatest theologians of the early Church are
based, apart from his reputation among his contemporaries, and the verdict of
history in his regard, chiefly on the five great "Theological
Discourses" which he delivered at Constantinople
in the course of the year 380. In estimating the scope and value of these
famous utterances, it is necessary to remember what was the
religious condition
of Constantinople
when Gregory, at the urgent instance of Basil, of many other bishops, and of
the sorely-tried Catholics of the Eastern capital, went thither to undertake
the spiritual charge of the faithful. It was less as an administrator, or an
organizer, than as a man of saintly
life and of
oratorical gifts
famous throughout the Eastern Church, that Gregory was asked, and consented, to
undertake his difficult mission; and he had to exercise those gifts in combating not
one but numerous heresies which had been dividing and desolating Constantinople
for many years. Arianism in every form and
degree, incipient, moderate, and extreme, was of course the great enemy, but
Gregory had also to wage war against
the Apollinarian teaching, which denied the humanity
of Christ, as well as against the contrary tendency -- later developed into Nestorianism -- which distinguished between the Son of Mary and the Son of God as two
distinct and separate personalities.
A
saint first, and a theologian afterwards, Gregory in one of his early sermons
at the Anastasia insisted on the principle of reverence in treating of the
mysteries of faith
(a principle entirely ignored by his Arian opponents), and also on the purity
of life and
example which all who dealt with these high matters must show forth if their
teaching was to be effectual. In the first and second of the five discourses he
develops these two principles at some length, urging in language of wonderful
beauty and force the necessity for
all who would know God aright to lead a supernatural
life, and to approach so sublime a study with a mind pure and
free from sin. The third discourse (on the Son) is devoted to a defence of the Catholic
doctrine of the Trinity, and a demonstration of its consonance with the
primitive doctrine of the Unity of God.
The eternal existence of the Son and Spirit are
insisted on, together with their dependence on the Father as origin or
principle; and the Divinity of the Son is argued from Scripture
against the Arians, whose misunderstanding of various Scripture
texts is exposed and confuted. In the fourth discourse, on the same subject,
the union of the Godhead and Manhood in Christ Incarnate is set forth
and luminously proved from Scripture and
reason. The fifth and final discourse (on the Holy Spirit )
is directed partly against the Macedonian heresy, which denied altogether the
Divinity of the Holy Ghost , and also against those who reduced the Third Person of the
Trinity to a mere impersonal energy of the Father. Gregory, in reply to the
contention that the Divinity of the Spirit is not
expressed in Scripture, quotes and comments on several passages which teach the
doctrine by implication, adding that the full manifestation of this great truth was
intended to be gradual, following on the revelation of the
Divinity of the Son. It is to be noted that Gregory nowhere formulates the
doctrine of the Double Procession, although in his luminous exposition of the
Trinitarian doctrine there are many passages which seem to anticipate the
fuller teaching of the Quicumque vult.
No summary, not even a faithful verbal translation, can give any adequate idea of the
combined subtlety and lucidity of thought, and rare beauty of expression, of
these wonderful discourses, in which, as one of his French critics truly
observes, Gregory "has summed up and closed the controversy of a whole
century". The best evidence of their value and power lies in the fact that
for fourteen centuries they have been a mine whence the greatest theologians of
Christendom
have drawn treasures of wisdom
to illustrate and support their own teaching on the deepest mysteries of the Catholic
Faith.
Memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint
Gregory Nazianzus, bishops and doctors of the Church
Reading I
1 Jn
2:22-28
Beloved:
Who is the liar?
Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist.
Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,
but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.
Let what you heard from the
beginning remain in you.
If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life.
I write you these things about those who would deceive you.
As for you,
the anointing that you received from him remains in you,
so that you do not need anyone to teach you.
But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false;
just as it taught you, remain in him.
And now, children, remain in him,
so that when he appears we may have confidence
and not be put to shame by him at his coming.
Responsorial
Psalm
98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
R. (3cd) All
the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. All the ends of the earth
have seen the saving power of God.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. All the ends of the earth
have seen the saving power of God.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. All the ends of the earth
have seen the saving power of God.
Gospel
Jn
1:19-28
This is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him
to ask him, “Who
are you?”
He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted,
“I am not the Christ.”
So they asked him,
“What are you then? Are you Elijah?”
And he said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
So they said to him,
“Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?”
He said:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’
as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
“Why then do you baptize
if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”
John answered them,
“I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
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