We have entered a new year, and for many the holidays are behind and life is returning to normalcy. Advent has prepared us to celebrate and live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We can do that, but it is not easy. It is the way of the Cross, the way of humility, the way of wisdom, and the way of grace.
Today is entitled “courageous faith”, in honor of the Church’s remembrance of two great early Church fathers – St. Basil the Great (329-379) and St. Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), bishops and doctors of the Church. Although not celebrated today, a third saint deserves mention in this area of courageous faith - Gregory of Nyssa, a brother of Basil the Great.
All three are known as the Cappadocian Fathers because they lived and served the church in the Cappadocia region of what is now Turkey. All three were friends and they worked tirelessly to protect the Church from Trinitarian and Christological heresies, which greatly advanced the Church’s defense of orthodoxy. While they made an impact as collaborators, each one had unique gifts that left their mark on Christian doctrine.
First, who were these men?
Basil was born about 330, the oldest of four sons; three of his brothers
became bishops, one of whom was St. Gregory of Nyssa. St. Basil developed a deep, life-long
It was the three Cappadocians who firmly entrenched the
definition of the Trinity in the life of the church. This goes back to
Tertullian. He was the one who gave us the definition of the Trinity, that God
is one substance in three persons. And it was the three Cappadocians who fought
against the Arian heresy to establish the truth of the Trinity – and the person
and work of Christ – in the orthodox teachings of the church. It was also Basil
who helped us think about the Holy Spirit and recognized that not only do we
need to talk about the deity of Christ, but we also need to talk about the
deity of the Holy Spirit.
The specific heresy that had emerged was called “Arianism”,
after Arius, a Presbyter from Alexandria. Simply put, Arius taught that “there was a
time when the Son, Jesus, was not”. In
other words, Arius taught that Jesus was created by the Father as the “first-born
of all Creation”, and thus taught that Christ Jesus was not divine, not eternal,
not co-equal, or as the Creed would eventually proclaim, “consubstantial” with
the Father. Consubstantial means that
the Father and the Son share the same substance of Deity.
First, some Scripture that leads us to understand the
importance of the Humanity/Divinity, eternity, and equality of Christ Jesus
with the Father:
John 1:1, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God…
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
John 10:30, Jesus said, “The Father and I are
one."
1 John 2:22-23
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist,
the one who denies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son
has the Father also.
1 John 4:2-3
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of
which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
Many other passages in the New Testament confirm the
equality, eternality, and divinity of the Father and the Son. The 4th century was a crucial time
in the development of the Church’s orthodox teachings on who Jesus is and what
the relationship of the Father is to the Son.
In 325, the council at Nicaea had established that Jesus Christ is
truly God and truly man. After Nicaea, many bishops drifted away from the
Nicene Creed and accepted Arius’ teaching.
The Nicene Creed established the orthodox doctrine that Jesus Christ is
truly God in the words: “I believe in
one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God”. Arius took the words “begotten” and concluded
that Jesus was created by the Father and not consubstantial with the Father.
St. Basil, along with St. Nazianzen preached, taught, and
sought to counter the influence of Arianism., Eventually, another council was
called, this time at Constantinople in 381. By then, Basil the Great was dead,
but both Gregorys were still alive, yet all three contributed to the affirmations
at the Council of Constantinople which reestablished in the church the orthodox
teaching that Jesus Christ was “truly God, truly Man, consubstantial (i.e.
of the same substance) with the Father”. Today, when we recite the Nicaean Creed, we’re
technically reciting the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, but that, of course,
is a mouthful, so we just call it the Nicene Creed.
Today we celebrate these two great courageous defenders of
the Orthodox faith. At the beginning of this
year, I’d like to challenge you to become proficient in the Orthodoxy of the
Christian faith. We are still surrounded
by many heresies, such as Jehovah's Witness, Mormonism, Christian Science, and other
churches that say they are Christian, such as Unitarianism, the Unity Church, that
teach Jesus is not equal to God, the Father.
Other religions such as Islam, and Buddhism, also reject the Trinity. Read, study, learn, and become a part of those
who can courageously defend the faith these early church Fathers courageously
fought for that remains orthodox Christianity today.
A Prayer:
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church
by the example and teaching of
the Bishops Saints Basil and Gregory,
grant, we pray,
that in humility we may learn your truth
and practice it faithfully in charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
— Amen & Peace
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