During Advent, we opened our hearts to be ready to receive Jesus. We followed devotions that would help us grow ever closer to Him. After the world-changing, calendar-defining, cosmos-altering birth of Jesus, we flocked to Church to receive Jesus in a deeper way at Christmas. Now it is more than a week past Christmas. People are packing away the ornaments and taking down their Christmas trees, even though the Christmas season has another week to go before the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord transitions us into Ordinary Time again. So today we are challenged to “remain in” Jesus (1 John 2:27) rather than packing Him away until next Advent.
We are still celebrating the saving power of God in the coming of Christ. The Psalm for today (Psalm 22) sings the joyful song of praise for all that the Lord has done. Yet, despite the fact that the Lord has made his salvation known to all the nations, not all the ends of the earth acknowledge having seen the saving power of God. All the ends of the earth just celebrated Christmas but not everyone declares Jesus Christ as Lord. Does this give us reason to doubt the words of the Bible? Does it give us reason to deny Jesus as the Christ?
Not for those who are strong in faith. Despite living in a world of disbelievers, we are called to have confidence. We are called to remain in Christ, to continue to look for his second coming and to make way for him in our lives and the world. For it is through us that God’s wondrous deeds are done, through us that God’s justice is revealed. It is through us that all the ends of the earth will see the saving power of God.
It is important, I think, that even though the secular celebration of Christmas is over, the celebration of the Christ in our lives should be even more confident and obvious to all the ends of the earth. It is even more important that all we received from Christ’s coming remains in us. The tree is still up at my home and at my church. I don’t take down my lights nor put away my nativity scenes until the Epiphany season is past. All through January, I have holiday gatherings in my home, sometimes by phone, sometimes by video calls. They are less hurried now, and more reflective without the stresses of the secular Christmas.
The gifts I gave and received five Christmases ago are largely forgotten but the wondrous deeds that God has done are still proclaiming our salvation. I give thanks at this time for all the people of faith who gave gifts that witness to God’s kindness and faithfulness to all the ends of the earth. Gifts that truly keep on giving.
The worst possible condition for a human being is not to remain in Jesus after having truly received Him. “When men have fled a polluted world by recognizing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are caught up and overcome in pollution once again, their last condition is worse than their first. It would have been better for them not to have recognized the road to holiness than to have turned their backs on the holy law handed on to them, once they had known it” (2 Peter 2:20-21).
Scripture reveals to us that it is possible to lose our faith and “fall away from [our] sincere and complete devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Therefore, beg the Lord for the grace to always “remain in Him” (1 John 2:28). In this last week of the Christmas season, don’t discard Jesus along with the wrapping paper. Worship Him with the wise men and women of all ages. “If what you heard from the beginning does remain in your hearts, then you in turn will remain in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24).
Today’s Saints
St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen are linked in this feast day, as they were in life. They were schoolmates, co-defenders of the orthodox teaching on Trinity, and dear friends. Both served as bishops, and both suffered hostility from the politically powerful Arians who did not accept the divinity of Christ. That heresy continues to plague our Church even today, nearly 1700 years later. As a bishop, Basil the Great fed the poor, addressed the destitute and the marginalized, and created a hospital for the sick; he was “truly one of the Fathers of the Church’s social doctrine” (Pope Benedict XVI). Gregory Nazianzen, a lover of solitude and philosophical contemplation, delivered majestic oration on the Trinity that earned him the title “The Theologian.” Both men developed and solidified the Trinitarian formulations of the Church in the face of Arian heresy. The Church’s theological reflection on the Trinity is unthinkable without their contribution.
In 379 Gregory preached at Basil’s funeral: “Do you, Basil, there also welcome me in your dwelling, when I have departed this life, that we may live together and gaze more directly and perfectly at the Holy and Blessed Trinity? Thus, we shall attain the fruition of our desire and receive the reward of the battles we have fought, and the attacks we have resisted.” Basil died in 379 and Gregory in 390.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!