Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. The testimony John gave when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, this is John the Baptist, to ask, who are you? Was the absolute statement, I am not the Messiah. They questioned John further. Who then?
Elijah? I am not Elijah, John answered. Well then, are you a prophet? No, John said. Then finally, they said to him, tell us who you are so that we can give some answer to those who sent us.
What do you have to say for yourself? John said, quoting the prophet Isaiah, I am a voice in the desert crying out, make straight the way of the lord. Those whom the Pharisees had sent proceeded then to to question John further. If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the prophet, why then do you baptize? John answered, I baptize with water.
There is one among you whom you do not recognize, recognize, the one who is to come after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. All of this happened in Bethany, across the Jordan where John was baptizing, and this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. I am going to devote my well chosen remarks this morning to the these two saints whose feast we are celebrating.
They were friends. That is Saint Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzin. Now the reason these men of course, their importance doesn't depend on what I'm going to say here this morning. First of all, they lived in the fourth century AD. And the second point is they lived in the East.
They were Greek speaking. Now and that's the point I wanna make this morning. We forget that the church of Jesus Christ did not originate in Rome. It didn't originate with the Latin language. It didn't originate with Latin theologians.
It didn't originate with Latin saints. The church of Jesus Christ came out of Palestine, Palestine, and then it moved up into Asia Minor, which is today Turkey, that huge track of land opposite Macedonia. I don't know what it's called now. And then you have the straight there, the straight of Bosphorus, then you have Constantinople, which is now Istanbul, and then coming down on the other coast, you have Greece, Macedonia and then Greece. Now that and then across the Mediterranean, you have Egypt and Alexandria.
Now this is the geo the geographical area where the church of Jesus Christ began. Such cities as Constantinople, Athens, Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea in Palestine, Alexandria of effort these are the big these are the the key cities. In this same century, you have these very three very important councils. You have the council of of Constantinople. You have the council of Ephesus, which was so important for the feast we celebrated yesterday, and then you have the the the council of Chalcedon.
All of these all of these are in the in the same are in the fourth century, and it is all Greek. But meanwhile, the holy father is over in Rome. That's an important point to remember. These councils were being held in Asia Minor. They're on the Western Coast of Asia Minor, today is Turkey.
Ephesus is down in the in the Southwest corner. Constantinople is up in or Istanbul is up in the farther north, and and they're not too far apart, you know, as mileage goes today. And then in between there, you have Ephesus, Chalcedon, Nicaea, and Constantinople. They're all strung across that coast of Asia Minor, all on the sea coast. Now here is where the first council of the church took place, and it was all in Greek.
And this is a frightfully important thing to remember. The the the church the fur the early the primitive church of Jesus Christ was Greek speaking. They you were dealing with Greeks. You were dealing with men with a long tradition going back going back from Aristotle to Plato to Socrates and all the the Greek philosophers that came after Aristotle, they were they were philosophical minded people. They were inquirers.
They were pursuers of the truth. They delighted in abstract arguments. Plato's Republic came out of Athens. Didn't come from Rome. No utopias came out of Rome.
Very little that is original came out of Rome. So this is, you see, we today forget this, that the roots of Christ Church are Greek. And this century, this century of of Basil, this century of Gregory Nazziangio were was a frightfully important century. Because here, you had these tremendous questions as who and what is Jesus Christ, and how do you make sense out of it? How do you put together a concept of the infinite god with a baby born of a virgin Jewish girl?
How do you put that together? And are they together? Well, you read the New Testament, which was in Greek, and what do you see? You see here attributes you see attributes of divinity and attributes of humanity, and you attribute attribute them to Jesus Christ, this baby born of a virgin. How do you do this?
How do you make sense out of it? How do you keep it from being absurd? Well, a great writer, GK Chesterton, Gilbert Keith Chesterton in the twentieth century said, a mystery is not a muddle. A mystery is not a muddle. A mystery is not an absurdity.
Now these men, these two men were whose feasts were celebrated today were tremendously illustrious. We know a lot about them. These are not vague figures like Saint Agnes or or or Saint Christopher. These men left almost libraries. They were active.
They came from prominent families, both of them. And they were friends. And if you wanna see struggle, if you wanna see confusion, if you wanna see the truth of Jesus Christ on the verge of being destroyed and lost, read these lives. Of course, we won't. I know because in most instances, you you you don't have any books available that would give you a biography of these two men.
But what these it's just simply fascinating, the story of how the truth, in spite of being a minority, in spite of being persecuted, and I don't mean by by pagans, I mean by Christians. Because you have Nestorianism, you have Arianism, you have all of these heresies, and they all revolve around who and what is Jesus Christ. Who and what is Jesus Christ? Remember, we did this creed we recite, the Nicene Creed. That comes out of the fourth century and is Greek.
It comes from Nicea. And so these men are these men are giants in in our in the in the church of Jesus Christ. These men are monuments of learning, of creative thought, of of of of simulating, if you can use that word, the intellect and the and the background and the culture and the philosophy, if you wish to use that word, of of the Greek speaking world all there in the East to this to these new truths. These this is new. The incarnation of god happened only once.
And poor human beings in the poverty of their powers, they try to make some sense out of it. When we speak of Nestorius and Arian and Arian and Arian and we think of them a bunch of villains, they weren't villains. They were stumbling human beings picking their way in a difficult way. But the fascinating thing for me is is how the hand of Rome, this Latin speaking man over there in Italy, is reaching all the way out to Asia Minor. And how when you have these councils in the fourth century, you fee you you still you you have the authority of Rome there.
The pope wasn't present, but it was referred back to him. It's it's a fascinating story. And above all, what intrigues me is the way these great heroes of the authentic doctrine of Jesus Christ, how in most instances, they were a minority party. They, from a human point of view, they seemed to be absolutely helpless and hopeless. And yet who prevailed?
Who prevailed? Where no one today talks about Saint Nestorius or Saint Donatus or Saint Arius that I know of, not at all. And yet these were the dominant men. Remember Ambrose over in Milan, he's having trouble. And and Ambrose was a great patron of Saint Basil and Saint Gregory.
He knew their writings. The world was not at all as separated as we think it it was. Because here's Ambrose up in the Northern part of Italy. Here you have and this is over in Asia Minor, and Ambrose and Jerome and Saint Augustine over at Hippo. They're all involved in these controversies.
It's a tremendous story. It's a tremendous story. I don't wanna give the impression that Augustine did not speak Greek or didn't read Greek as far as we know. He only could get at us through translations. Jerome spoke he was perfectly fluent in Greek.
And so today, I wanna leave this impression of the unity of Christ Church, except it ain't so unified. Because the whole sweep, when you go from Turkey, when you go from Greece and go north into that whole vast area of Russia, that all that area is Greek Orthodox, separated from Rome, and has been from about the sixth century AD. Absolutely Catholic. All the sacraments are valid. Their priesthood should be valid, and that church is suffering tremendous persecution and has since 1914, but it is separated from Rome.
That is a tremendous chasm. But at this period of history, it was not divided. Not actually. Not not practically. In language, in culture, in outlook, yes, it was divided.
Yes, it was. No question about it. And it was very difficult for these Latins and the Romans to get these philosophical concepts of the Greeks, like apostasy and substantia. Can you equate those two words with well, it's a very complex, confusing situation, Believe me. But let us realize that out of it came the Christ church of Jesus Christ solid and firm.
Solid and firm. Not without turbulence, not without tumult, not without confusion, not without being apparently on the verge of destruction. Remember, Ambrose up in Milan was a single voice almost against Darius. And the I mean, Arians. Everything seemed to be against him, and he holed up in his cathedral, which became a fortress.
Actually, I mean, this wasn't just a battle of words. And so today, we think of these men, let us pledge our you can see so much of the liturgy has lost we used to have a lot of touches of the Greek. We we've lost them all. The only thing remains is the Kyrie, and that's that's not used very much. But the church of Jesus Christ started in the East.
It's a it started with the Greeks, Greek speaking. It started with a great dose of Greek philosophy, and and we these are the realities of life. And I think the only thing we one of the things we should do is to pray for its unity and to pray for our brethren in the Greek Orthodox Church of Russia. Don't think that church is destroyed. Remember, in Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's day, it was called holy Russia.
The faith is still there. There are have been many martyrs in Russia, and they are our brethren. We are united. If not completely, we are united in faith and trust and hope and love in Jesus Christ and in the community of saints, at least two of them, Basil and Gregory. In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit.
Amen.