Homily for Tuesday, 2 January 2018– Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

Readings of the day: 1 John 2:22-28; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; John 1:19-28

This homily was given at St. James Church, Vernon, BC, Canada.

How is it possible for us to discern that somebody, especially one whose task it is to communicate true and accurate information, to teach, or to preach, or simply to live our Christian faith truthfully and authentically, is actually doing so?

The first letter of John, from which we hear today, gives us a hint as to how to live truthfully, authentically, and faithfully ourselves, and how we might discern others who live this way. John says, “abide in him”; abide in God. What does it mean for us to “abide in” God?

To me, our readings today point toward humility as a key virtue toward abiding in God; toward allowing God to work in, with, and around us and not obstructing God’s work through our own pride or impatience. One of my brother Basilian priests has humility almost down to a mantra: “It’s not about me.”

John warns the disciples of his time of “the one who would deceive” them. Who are the most deceptive influences, the most distracting from and destructive of Christian faith, but anybody who would think and act as if our faith, and living it, is about them and not primarily about God?

In John the Baptist, our reading today from John’s Gospel gives us a standout example of humility. For John the Baptist, his ministry of baptizing in the Jordan, his faith and his living it out, is never about him but about God and about Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Could we imagine the temptation John the Baptist might have felt to attribute any success he had in his ministry to himself rather than to God? Instead, John the Baptist retreats to the wilderness, away from attention on himself that would detract from his contemplation of God, his heart-to-heart with God through his baptizing ministry. Still, the people seek out John the Baptist in that wilderness to be baptized. Ultimately, Jesus himself seeks out and finds John the Baptist, just as John announces himself as “not worthy to untie the thong on [Jesus’] sandals.” John never deceives those who tempt him to make himself out to be greater than he is: “‘I am not the Messiah’… ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ ‘I am not.’”

Sts. Basil of Caesarea and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops of the fourth century whom we celebrate today, are two more examples of allowing God to abide in them because of their humility. Together, as great friends to each other despite the power of their office as bishops, they worked to formulate the truth of the divinity of the Son and then of the Holy Spirit. They reminded especially the wealthiest of the faithful of their responsibility to uphold the dignity of the poorest. Basil and Gregory did all this while living humble and even austere lives themselves.

Basil, who is portrayed in icons with the dove representing the Holy Spirit, and Gregory knew and lived as though their ministry; their teaching was not about themselves but about God. John the Baptist lived and ministered in the same way. Their examples call us to the same lives of truth, faithfulness, and humility, so that God might abide in us and we in God.