Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church

Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church

The First Letter of St. John tells us that we need to confess who Jesus is.  That is, we truly must acknowledge who He is; that He is the Christ.  When we do, we will have God the Father with us as well.  If we deny Christ, then we will not have God with us.  John the Baptist, as we hear in the Gospel, is a big voice in telling others about Christ.  In a way, today's Gospel sounds almost like a TV advertisement for the next show: "Stay Tuned!"  Jesus is coming!  I'm just baptizing with water.  He's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Today's saints also taught about who Christ is for all of us.  Both St. Basil and St. Gregory fought against Arianism, which was a heresy of the early Church that denied the Divinity of Christ.  Many Church leaders, including Basil and Gregory, had to work very hard to teach that Christ was the Son of God and therefore was of the same substance (literally made of the same "stuff") as the Father.  They weren't martyred, but they had their own struggles try to convince people of this.  My point is, they worked to confess who Jesus is as well.