The Ninth Day of Christmas: Feast of St. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

The fourth-century bishops, ascetics, monks, scholars and rhetoricians Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen were best friends who worked together to help pioneer both monastic communities and the doctrine of the Trinity (especially as it relates to the Holy Spirit being God).  Rather than living by themselves (which seemed a more spiritual route at the time to some), they elected to live in community with other likeminded Christians in Cappadocia.  It is, to me, no surprise that two people dedicated to community should help develop the doctrine of the Trinity.  Part of the reason the Church is called to live together is to manifest the nature of the Godhead itself, in which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost love one another and glorify and serve each other.  We will never totally understand this mystery at the very heart of God, but if we obey him and serve one another, we can bring it to bear on the world and allow it to transform (often very slowly) our broken human relationships into images of the Divine Nature.

Rather than write a full reflection for today, I’ve taken the following translated excerpt of St. Gregory’s writings from: Crossroads Initiative.

“Basil and I were both in Athens. We had come, like streams of a river, from the same source in our native land, had separated from each other in pursuit of learning, and were now united again as if by plan, for God so arranged it.I was not alone at that time in my regard for my friend, the great Basil. I knew his irreproachable conduct, and the maturity and wisdom of his conversation. I sought to persuade others, to whom he was less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fell immediately under his spell, for they had already heard of him by reputation and hearsay.

What was the outcome? Almost alone of those who had come to Athens to study he was exempted from the customary ceremonies of initiation for he was held in higher honor than his status as a first-year student seemed to warrant.

Such was the prelude to our friendship, the kindling of that flame that was to bind us together. In this way we began to feel affection for each other. When, in the course of time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognized that our ambition was a life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other: we shared the same lodging, the same table, the same desires the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper.

The same hope inspired us: the pursuit of learning. This is an ambition especially subject to envy. Yet between us there was no envy. On the contrary, we made capital out of our rivalry. Our rivalry consisted, not in seeking the first place for oneself but in yielding it to the other, for we each looked on the other’s success as his own.

We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Though we cannot believe those who claim that everything is contained in everything, yet you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other.

• Visit an old church or monastery and spend time contemplating the nature of the Trinity and praying for the Church.
• Make a pastry in remembrance of Basil and Gregory (perhaps baklava) and share it with someone.