BFF (BEST FRIENDS FOREVER)

BFF (BEST FRIENDS FOREVER)
Homily for the Memorial of Saints Basil and Gregory,
02 Jan 2024, Jn 1:19-28

Today is the memorial of two great saints who became the best of friends—Basil of Caesarea and Gregory Nazianzen. They both became bishops and doctors of the Church; they were also both defenders of the Christian faith in the fourth century against the Arian heresy, and participants in the Council of Constantinople that revised the Nicene Creed.
But for today, I want to focus my reflection on the beautiful friendship that developed between these two great figures of the Church. I also want to draw a parallelism between their friendship and the relationship between Jesus and John, as hinted at in today’s Gospel.
If these two friends, Basil and Gregory, had lived in our day and age, people would probably have regarded their friendship with suspicion and perhaps maliciously insinuated that they were more than friends, that they were probably lovers. Listen to a homily preached by Gregory in today’s office of the readings where he speaks about his friendship with Basil:
“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.”
In the paragraph that follows, Gregory narrates that it was their common pursuit of learning that brought them very close to each other. Although they were both such great intellectuals and theologians, Gregory says “…between us there was no envy.” They must have taken very seriously the admonition of St. Paul in chapter 2 of his letter to the Philippians about KENOSIS, or the emptying of self. Remember that part in v.3 where Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfishness