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| Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen |
Today's feast of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen is a reminder of the power of spiritual friendship. Both men were bishops, but were nearly opposite in personality. St. Basil was a pastor and preacher, and a excellent bishop (of Caesarea in 370). He is the father of Eastern Monasticism. St. Gregory was more of an introvert and contemplative. Their friendship developed while they were students in Athens. They are both Doctors of the Church. You can read more here.
Below is the text of a sermon By St. Gregory Nazianzen from today's Office of Readings.
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 honour 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 recognised 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.
Our single object and ambition was virtue, and a life
of hope in the blessings that are to come; we wanted to withdraw from
this world before we departed from it. With this end in view we ordered
our lives and all our actions. We followed the guidance of God’s law and
spurred each other on to virtue. If it is not too boastful to say, we
found in each other a standard and rule for discerning right from wrong.
Different men have different names, which they owe to
their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and
achievements. But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be
Christians, to be called Christians.
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