Feast Day: January 2^nd

We celebrate this week two of the greatest theologians of the Early Church.  These two close friends, along with Basil’s brother, Gregory of Nyssa, form the three “Cappadocian Fathers” (nicknamed that because of their birthplace in Eastern Turkey, the ancient region of Cappadocia) who almost single-handedly (triple-handedly?) managed to convert the Eastern Empire to orthodox Christianity.  Just as we saw St. Ambrose working so feverishly in the West at the same time (with St. Augustine), so these men preached and taught and argued for the full divinity of Christ, and, as we shall see, the Holy Spirit.  I should mention that the older sister of Gregory of Nyssa, an early nun by the name of Macrina, is a tremendous theologian of her own right, so some have placed her with these three bishops as a 4^th Cappadocian (a Cappadocian Mother, I suppose).  That said, of the five siblings from this family – Basil, Macrina, Naucratius, Peter, and Gregory – all five are canonized saints!  That, I suppose, is what happens when your grandmother is a martyr, your parents are known for their piety, and your children, after plenty of soul-searching, devote their lives to Christ.  That, by the way, is the goal for all parents and grandparents reading this!

But what about Gregory Nazianzen?  Why do we celebrate him along with St. Basil the Great?  Shouldn’t Basil be linked with his brother, or sister, or grandmother in the panoply of the saints?  Why share a feast day with his boyhood friend Gregory?  Gregory, many years later, was preaching at the funeral of Basil, after a lifelong friendship, and lifelong work defending the faith, and explained it thus:

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. … 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. … 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. … our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians. [Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 43, Funeral Oration for Basil the Great, PG 36, 514-423]

I quote him at this length (and encourage you to read the entire homily linked above) because we live in a world of superficial friendships!  I don’t say that lightly!  But, of your friends, which ones would you say you “love” with a fiery, deep, tenacious love?  We hesitate to do so because our world tells us that love is something romantic or sexual … and that’s a lie.  Yes, love can be expressed by romantic or sexual actions, but love, at its core – by definition – is to will the good of another person, and the greater the good we sacrifice ourselves in order to establish in their lives, the greater the love and the deeper the friendship.  How did these two men love each other?  By studying about God together.  By seeking His face side by side.  By preaching and teaching Who He is, together, no matter the consequences.   By encouraging each other in the search for virtue, for valor, for veracity.  This is the basis for true friendship, desiring eternal goods for the other person: faith, hope, love.

If we’re in a friendship to get something less than these, or to give to the other person something less than these, we should not expect that friendship to carry us to heaven.  Of course, every one of our friendships do not need to be of this sort, but some do.  The voyage to God is not a single-player game.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin wanted to write about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy this week.  As he began to tell Basil and Gregory’s story, he realized that his own notion of the corporal and spiritual works as done for somebody, way over there, was off the mark.  These actions – (to super-summarize) of admonishing, instructing, forgiving, comforting, praying, feeding, sheltering, visiting, and burying – are ones we must do for our family and friends, for only then can we extend our love to the stranger afar.

As the Church continues her celebration of the Christmas Octave, she observes this Sunday as the Feast of the Holy Family.  This feast day highlights the fact that the Savior of the world chose to enter into our existence within the context of a family.  The example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph invites us to see the ideal when it comes to family life, offering all families a model to imitate.

In his beautiful document on Christian Families, Familiaris Consortio, Pope St. John Paul II offers the following charge: “family, become what you are.” He goes on to explain that “the family has the mission to become more and more what it is, that is to say, a community of life and love.” (17)  The Holy Family lived this community of life and love in the most perfect way, and so offers us the closest glimpse of how the family is called to be an icon of the Trinity, the communion of persons in perfection.

No family will ever match the level of love that existed in the Holy Family, much less the love that exists in the Trinity.  Nevertheless, each family should have it as their goal to become a more vivid image of the Trinity in the witness of their family lives.  One of the ways of moving in that direction is to take time to reflect on the example of the Holy Family, noticing the love, respect, humility, and joy they lived.

Another means of growing in love in the family is through prayer.  When a family prays together, they are inviting the Lord, who is a communion of persons, into the community of persons that exists in each family.  One prayer I find particularly helpful for families to pray together is the Glory Be.

When we pray this prayer, we invoke the three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We give them glory for the perfect union of love that exists among them.  But we can also pray this prayer as a petition, asking that the love in our families will more perfectly imitate the love in the Trinity, so that our families become a “little Trinity.”

Perhaps this prayer can be our go-to prayer especially when we have struggles in our families.  Our first thought might not be to give glory to God when we encounter trials, but it is very appropriate to do so.  The Trinity desires to enter into our lives, no matter how messy they are.  All three persons want to redeem whatever is broken in our families, and so giving glory to God in anticipation of that gift is pleasing to God and it renews our sense of hope that we do not have to remain in the mess, but that God offers us a way out.

On this Holy Family Sunday, I want to express my gratitude to all of you who are a part of this parish family.  Just as a regular family has the mission of being a community of life and love, so too does our parish family have that same mission.  It is my prayer that in the year ahead, our family will become more who we are as an icon of the Trinity through our deepened commitment to our love of God and one another.  Merry Christmas!

Father Alford    

Feast Day: December 29^th

When Thomas Becket was martyred by the knights of Henry II, a young monk, Thomas Grim, was at his side.  Surviving being struck by the same sword-blow that first felled the holy Archbishop, he wrote this firsthand account of the bloody evening, and gives us an intimate glimpse of his virtue and courage:

80. After the monks took [Thomas] through the doors of the church, the four aforementioned knights followed behind with a rapid pace. A certain subdeacon, Hugh the Evil-clerk, named for his wicked offense and armed with their malice, went with them showing no reverence for either God or the saints because by following them he condoned their deed. When the holy archbishop entered the cathedral the monks who were glorifying God abandoned vespers – which they had begun to celebrate for God – and ran to their father whom they had heard was dead but they saw alive and unharmed. They hastened to close the doors of the church in order to bar the enemies from slaughtering the bishop, but the wondrous athlete turned toward them and ordered that the doors be opened. “It is not proper,” he said, “that a house of prayer, a church of Christ, be made a fortress since although it is not shut up, it serves as a fortification for his people; we will triumph over the enemy through suffering rather than by fighting – and we come to suffer, not to resist.“

Without delay the sacrilegious men entered the house of peace and reconciliation with swords drawn; indeed the sight alone as well as the rattle of arms inflicted not a small amount of horror on those who watched. And those knights who approached the confused and disordered people who had been observing vespers but, by now, had run toward the lethal spectacle exclaimed in a rage: “Where is Thomas Becket, traitor of the king and kingdom?” No one responded and instantly they cried out more loudly, “Where is the archbishop?” Unshaken he replied to this voice as it is written, “The righteous will be like a bold lion and free from fear,” he descended from the steps to which he had been taken by the monks who were fearful of the knights and said in an adequately audible voice, “Here I am, not a traitor of the king but a priest; why do you seek me?” And [Thomas], who had previously told them that he had no fear of them added, “Here I am ready to suffer in the name of He who redeemed me with His blood; God forbid that I should flee on account of your swords or that I should depart from righteousness.“

With these words – at the foot of a pillar – he turned to the right. On one side was the altar of the blessed mother of God, on the other the altar of the holy confessor Benedict – through whose example and prayers he had been crucified to the world and his lusts; he endured whatever the murderers did to him with such constancy of the soul that he seemed as if he were not of flesh. The murderers pursued him and asked, “Absolve and restore to communion those you have excommunicated and return to office those who have been suspended.” To these words [Thomas] replied, “No penance has been made, so I will not absolve them.” “Then you,” they said, “will now die and will suffer what you have earned.” “And I,” he said, “am prepared to die for my Lord, so that in my blood the church will attain liberty and peace; but in the name of Almighty God I forbid that you hurt my men, either cleric or layman, in any way.” The glorious martyr acted conscientiously with foresight for his men and prudently on his own behalf, so that no one near him would be hurt as he hastened toward Christ. It was fitting that the soldier of the Lord and the martyr of the Savior adhered to His words when he was sought by the impious, “If it is me you seek, let them leave.“

In this article, I don’t have enough room to include Grim’s entire account, but he records the Archbishop’s final words in paragraph 82. “…with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, “For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death.“”

Thomas Grim, Vita S. Thomae, Cantuariensis Archepiscopi et Martyris (from James Robertson, Materials for the Life of Thomas Becket, London, Rolls Series, 1875-1885. Vol. 2 of 7. Translated by Dawn Marie Hayes and found on the Internet Medieval Source Book.  Want more?  Scan the QR code for the rest of the account (be warned, his death is brutally recounted):

– Fr. Dominic Rankin recently got together with the five other priests who make up his fraternal support group.  Along with praying, eating, enjoying each other’s company, and hearing about the ups and downs while following the Lord, we also had an Advent gift-exchange.  Unwrapping one of the gifts I was given, one of the other guys exclaimed “is that a sword?!”  No, I am not the happy owner of a sword, but I do now have a fine kitchen knife that will help tremendously in meal-prep in the rectory!