May the Lord bless with His Peace and Blessings. It is 02nd January 2024. We celebrate the memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops, Doctors of the Church. St. Basil is hailed as “a luminary of the Church” while St. Gregory, the Theologian for their remarkable contribution. The contributions of St. Basil on monasticism are decisive and deep.
Are we believing in half-truths or the Truth?
The confusing, and painful moments are constantly ablaze in families and communities in believing and passing on half-truths. When we do have personal regard and relationship with the other, we fall trap to the hooks of the half-truths.
God’s faithfulness inspires us to be faithful even in most challenging situations. However hard to believe and prove the faithfulness of God in human terms, our inner peace in forgiving and accepting circumstances and people that are murky and messy around is tangible proof that God still cares for us.
What does it mean to know and live in Christ?
To know a person without a personal relationship is a mere waste of time. It is like having millions of contacts in our address book not having called them or been in touch with them personally for years.
In reflecting on these two great saints, the late Pope Benedict XVI hailed St. Basil, as “an apostle and minister of Christ, steward of God’s mysteries, herald of the Kingdom, a model and rule of piety, an eye of the Body of the Church, a Pastor of Christ’s sheep, a loving doctor, father and nurse, a co-operator of God, a farmer of God, a builder of God’s temple” and again remembering the teachings of St. Gregory, the late Pope said, “without God, man loses his grandeur; without God, there is no true humanism.”
The spiritual friendship of these two saints is so inspiring. Remembering this friendship, Gregory was later to write: “Then not only did I feel full of veneration for my great Basil because of the seriousness of his morals and the maturity and wisdom of his speeches, but he induced others who did not yet know him to be like him…. The same eagerness for knowledge motivated us…. This was our competition: not who was first but who allowed the other to be first. It seemed as if we had one soul in two bodies” (Orationes 43: 16, 20; SC 384: 154-156, 164].
There are many people around to confuse us but to clarify a handful or none sometime. We can all emulate the spiritual friendship of these two great saints.
What matters most in our life is not about the stand we take but with whom are we standing changes everything.
‘Who-are-we’ will describe ‘who-we-truly-believe-in.’ May the Lord help us love Christ by being charitable to one another.
We are the voice of Christ still echoing God’s unfailing love and mercy. God bless you.