DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Matthew 5:14-19 (1/30) Three Great Hierarchs: Basil,
Gregory, and John Chrysostom
The Three Great Hierarchs: St. Matthew 5:14-19,
especially vs. 19, “...whoever
does and teaches them [the least of these commandments], he shall be
called great in the Kingdom of heaven.” This single Feast Day in honor of Basil
the Great (d. AD 379), Gregory the Theologian (d. AD 389), and John Chrysostom
(d. AD 407), came about at the end of the Eleventh Century by the intervention
of the three Saints themselves - to stop arguments among the pious corcerning which one of the Saints was of greater rank than
the others. Each Saint already had
a day of commemoration in January: Basil - 1st, Gregory - 25th , John Chrysostom - 27th ; yet
the arguments went on. Then, the
three Saints appeared to the Bishop of Euchaita, John
Mauropos, in a dream, and told him that before
God’s Throne they all stood in equal honor. Further, they advised Bishop John to
compile a common service for the three of them, which he did. The date of the 30th of
January was set for the common Feast, using the passage from St. Matthew
5:14-19 for the Gospel.
These verses from St. Matthew’s account
of the Lord Jesus’ teaching capture the qualities of these three great
hierarchs that make them Saints worthy of veneration as gleaming examples of
God’s capacity to take humble men and transform them into spiritual
giants. In Christ, they are
“the light of the world” (vs. 14), “light to all who are in
the house” of God, the Church (vs. 15), and worthy to be called
“great in the Kingdom of heaven” (vs. 19).
This world is a very dark place, sotted with atrocities, cruelty, ignorance, and “full
of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness” (Rom. 1:29). This persistent condition is cause enough for weeping before the God of Heaven Who
revealed Himself in blinding Light and beauty and love and goodness in Jesus
Christ. He came into this dark den
of iniquity and death and united Himself to us to provide an on-going Communion
in which you and I may be filled with His light, illumined and
enlightened. Open your heart! He encourages us to cast off the
darkness of our hearts and “take light from the Light that can never be
overtaken by night.”
Here’s the point: some of us have run to
Him and received light into the blind eyes of our hearts and “followed
Jesus on the road” (Mk. 10:52).
Basil and Gregory both had the best of pagan and Christian education,
but chose the Light. John Chrysostom
studied under the great pagan orator, Libanus, but
chose the Light. Thereafter, the
Light of Christ shone so brilliantly from the three great hierarchs that men
all over the world have honored them, studied their works, and sought their
prayers that Christ might illumine them as He had these illustrious
Saints. Indeed, through Christ and
in Christ they “are the light of the world” (Mt. 5:14).
Most certainly they have given “light to
all who are in the house” (vs. 15) of the Church especially. The Liturgies of St. Basil and St. John
Chrysostom are the regular means by which, to this day, the Church celebrates
the Mystery of Christ in praise and thanksgiving to God, partaking of Christ
the Light in His Light-giving Body and Blood. As for Gregory, in AD 381 his efforts at
the Council of Constantinople established the Nicene Creed as a beacon of the
Light of Truth concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and the All-Holy Trinity.
By what Basil, Gregory, and John accomplished
and taught, they must “be called great in the Kingdom of heaven”
(vs. 19). “With what
beautiful songs shall we clothe those God-mantled ones, who are heavenly
initiates, preachers of Orthodoxy, and heads of those who discourse in theology? Basil the great revealer of divine
things, Gregory the divine Theologian, and the venerable, golden-tongued John,
have been worthily glorified by God the Trinity, Possessor of the Great
Mercy.”
Let us all now extol those vessels of
light, those radiant lightening bolts, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian,
and John Chrysostom, that God may pour His Light upon us.
Return
to the January Calendar