Doctors of the Church: St. Basil the Great

Next up on our list is one of the great Cappadocian Fathers, St. Basil the Great (not pronounced like the herb, by the way). He was born in Pontus (northern Turkey) around the year 330. Some people love to call their parents or their siblings saints, but in Basil’s case, that wasn’t an exaggeration! His grandfather was a martyr for the faith, both of his parents were saints (St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia), and four other siblings were saints, including St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Macrina.

St. Basil was blessed by the generosity of his parents to give him the best teachers money could buy in Athens and Constantinople, but he didn’t use his education very well in his early life. He spent much of his youth in a life of dissipation, and as St. Basil himself writes, “I wept many tears over my miserable life” before turning to the Gospel. He found conversion of heart through the work of his sister, St. Macrina, and eventually studied to become a priest before being named bishop of Caesarea (in Turkey) in 370.

Before being named a bishop, St. Basil focused much of his life on the ideals of monasticism. At the time, monastic orders tended to be much more closed off (cloistered), in order to focus on their prayer and intercession for the Church. But Basil’s monks were much different in that they served the local Church. They balanced solitude, prayer, and meditation with service to the community, as they ran hospitals, schools, and shelters for the poor. St. Basil wrote extensively on the meaning behind monastic life, and painted a beautiful picture of what it truly means to be both a monk and a Christian.

St. Basil was also very devoted to the liturgy, and gave us a Eucharistic prayer (anaphora in Greek) that is used even today in many Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. One of his major works, On Baptism (not the most original title), articulated the dignity of this great sacrament, as well as its connection to the Eucharist. Basil asserted that we need the Eucharist, which nourishes us and revitalizes what was given at Baptism.

The most important contribution to theology by this Doctor of the Church was his work On the Holy Spirit, written against the Pneumatomachians. These guys had taken a page out of the Arians’ book (except in their name, which is obviously much more difficult to write and say). In the same way that the Arians taught that the Son was a creation, and therefore not divine, the Pneumatomachians taught that the Holy Spirit wasn’t God either! They believed that when Jesus says he will “send the Spirit,” he implies that the Spirit is somehow subservient and lesser than the Father and Son. However, St. Basil argued that the Holy Spirit is totally inseparable and utterly incapable of being divided from the Father and the Son. In everything that they do, the Holy Spirit is there – one in essence, one in power, one in action.

Tune in next week for another Cappadocian Father and Doctor of the Church!

Doctors of the Church: St. Cyril of Jerusalem

For our next Doctor of the Church, we head back east. St. Cyril of Jerusalem was born around 315 near (you guessed it) Jerusalem. Not much is known about the personal details of his life, but like many of the Doctors, he was very well-read, familiar with the Greek philosophers, early Church Fathers, and Scriptures.

St. Cyril succeeded another saint, St. Maximus, as bishop of Jerusalem around the year 348. It’s fair to say there was an air of uncertainty and distrust surrounding Cyril. The Church in Jerusalem was heavily divided between the Arian Christians and the Nicene Christians (those who professed the Church’s teaching from the Council of Nicaea), and nobody knew what side Cyril was on. He was ordained by Acacius, an Arian sympathizer, who probably thought he was getting Cyril as a new ally. Others thought he had sold out to the Arians in order to obtain his post. Throughout his episcopacy, people doubted his orthodoxy and fidelity.

Probably the greatest proof of this comes from his being exiled three times – once by the priests of Jerusalem, once by Acacius, and once by the Emperor Valens. I’m starting to wonder if exile is a requirement to become a Doctor of the Church! He was finally able to return to Jerusalem in 378, and he participated in the 2^nd Council of Constantinople (382), where he was finally heralded as a hero of orthodoxy after helping to confirm the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which we now pray every Sunday at Mass.

While certainly important in the battle against Arianism, Cyril is perhaps best known for his desire to teach the faith, especially to those becoming new Christians. Of his many teachings, we have 24 well-preserved catechetical homilies, letters, and lectures. The first few are a “protocatechesis” to welcome the “candidates for illumination,” those catechumens preparing for baptism. He continues with an ongoing catechesis explaining the faith of the Church and why we should watch out for those pesky Arians.

The final and greatest part of his catechetical lectures were his “mystagogical catecheses,” a beautiful explanation of the sacraments to the recently baptized, explaining the mysteries they had just experienced. Included in these lectures are a commentary on the rites of baptism (which gives us a neat view into what the liturgy of the 4^th century looked like!), a teaching on the oil of Sacred Chrism, an explanation of the Our Father, and a beautiful catechesis on the Eucharist. The last of these is very clear and articulate, showing us that the Church’s teaching on the Body and Blood of the Lord was held even in the earliest days of the Church!

As we conclude, I invite you to reflect on these words of St. Cyril on baptism, that first and foundational sacrament that gives birth to our Christian lives: “At the self-same moment [your baptism], you were both dying and being born; and that water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother…For you…the time to die goes hand in hand with the time to be born.” Let us ask God for the grace to continue to live out our baptism by dying to ourselves and being reborn in the Father’s love!

Doctors of the Church: St. Hilary of Poitiers

Mosaic of St. Hilary from the Cathedral of Monreale, completed in 1185

So far, we’ve been focusing mainly on the Doctors of the Eastern Church, that part of the Roman Empire along the Mediterranean coast from Greece down to Egypt. Many, if not most, of the early Doctors come from this area, but today’s Doctor is the first (chronologically) to come from the Western Church.

St. Hilary (his Latin name is Hilarius, hahaha!) was born in Poitiers in what is today west-central France around 310. He belonged to a very influential pagan family, which provided him with a great education, particularly in the area of Greek philosophy. Hilary studied many of the works of Plato and his successors, and it was in reading Plato that he was drawn to Christianity. He was baptized around 345 at the age of 35, and only eight years later, was ordained and elected bishop of Poitiers.

As you remember, Arianism was rampant around this time, particularly in the Western Church, and even good bishops were becoming convinced of this Arian theology, creating a lot of division within the Church. St. Hilary called a synod of the bishops of Gaul (modern-day France) in order to discuss things and bring about some unity. Ironically, despite his calling the synod, it ended with some of the Arian bishops colluding with the emperor to exile Hilary!

He was banished to Phrygia (in modern-day Turkey), where he suffered greatly. But despite his distance from his home and his diocese, Hilary continued to love his people and serve them from afar. He spent much of his time writing commentaries on the Gospels and Psalms, and in fact, his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew is the oldest-known commentary on that Gospel in Latin.

It was also during this time that he wrote his greatest work, entitled De Trinitate (On the Trinity), which revolved around our baptismal profession of faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Hilary wrote a collection of twelve books, in which he first outlined his own journey of faith, especially through philosophy and Scripture, before providing a defense of the Church’s teaching on the Trinity, addressing many of the Arian arguments based in Scripture. He pointed out that while most of the time we think of the Son of God being connected mainly to the New Testament, the mystery of Christ is very clearly present in the Old Testament as well. Hilary outlined the way in which the Scriptures speak to different aspects of Christ. For example, some passages emphasize Jesus as God, while others focus on his humanity. And yet, while there are many emphases at different points, all Scripture gives testimony that Jesus is truly divine.

Hilary returned to Poitiers four years later, and worked tirelessly for the fidelity and unity of his diocese and the bishops of Gaul. After many years of faithful ministry, St. Hilary went to his reward around the year 367. Even as we reflect on Scripture today, let us remember the contributions of St. Hilary of Poitiers, and the fidelity and courage that made him a great teacher of the faith!

Doctors of the Church: St. Ephrem the Syrian

Our next saint and Doctor of the Church is one of my personal favorites, St. Ephrem the Syrian. He was born around 306 in Nisibis, which would have been on the southern border of present-day Turkey. Not much is known about his family or young life. Some traditions hold that his parents were both Christians and part of the growing Christian community in Syria, while others say that his father was a pagan priest.

We do know that St. Ephrem served as a deacon in the Church in Edessa. In one of his writings, Ephrem stated that if his bishop was the “shepherd,” then he was the “herdsman” of the flock. He showed a great desire to serve the Church in cooperation with the bishop, even as our deacons at Ascension do today. There is some question whether he at any time lived as a monk, but one thing that is certain is that he lived the monastic virtues of chastity and poverty.

St. Ephrem is a different sort of Doctor of the Church. As we remember that “doctor” primarily means “teacher,” it is very easy to infer that the Doctors were predominantly focused on writing tracts and treatises on doctrine. Ephrem was certainly very knowledgeable and orthodox in his theology, but his primary means of propagating it was through beauty. Certainly, some of his works are commentaries and treatises, as we would expect, but most of his works consist of poetry and hymns. In fact, St. Ephrem even used to write his homilies in verse, and sing them to his congregation (and you thought my homilies could be long!). Thus, Ephrem is fittingly nicknamed the “Harp of the Spirit.”

St. Ephrem’s poetry and hymns are very strong in Incarnational and Marian theology. Proponents of Arianism (which, you might recall, was very influential at the time) would deny Jesus’ divinity, and thus would deny Mary’s dignity as the Mother of God. One collection of Ephrem’s works, therefore, was called the Hymns against the Heresies, in which he would draw from hymns and tunes used by the various heretical sects and change the words to preach orthodoxy! It’s along the same lines as “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” being drawn from the tune for “God Save the Queen,” but about theology!

Many of his writings against these heresies were very strong in praise of Mary, because praise of Mary is first and foremost praise of Christ. In one of his hymns, St. Ephrem comes very close to articulating the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which doesn’t seem like a big deal until you consider that it was 1500 years before the doctrine was solemnly declared by Pope Pius IX in 1854!

St. Ephrem certainly helps us grow in our appreciation for the beauty of our faith and the beauty of truth. As we draw to a close, I invite you to reflect on one of his hymns on the Nativity of Jesus:

“The belly of your Mother changed the order of things, O you who order all! Rich he went in, he came out poor: the High One went into her [Mary], he came out lowly. Brightness went into her and clothed himself, and came forth a despised form. He that gives food to all went in, and knew hunger. He who gives drink to all went in, and knew thirst. Naked and bare came forth from her the Clother of all things [in beauty].”

Doctors of the Church: St. Athanasius

One of my favorite icons of St. Athanasius at the Council of Nicaea, and yes, that is Arius he is standing on!

It’s appropriate that the first Doctor of the Church in this series is arguably one of the greatest – St. Athanasius of Alexandria. He was born around 296 in Alexandria to a Christian family, and would have been about 7 years old when the co-emperors Diocletian and Maximian began the fiercest persecution in Church history.

Athanasius wanted to be a priest from an early age, so much so that there is a story of him as a boy pretending to be a bishop and baptizing his pagan friends in the sea. When the bishop found out and reasoned that the baptisms might actually be valid (hey, there’s water, intention, and the right words!), he told Athanasius that he probably shouldn’t be stealth-baptizing his friends! Not bad evangelization for a kid!

A very well educated young man, Athanasius became secretary to Bishop Alexander before being ordained a priest, and eventually named Bishop of Alexandria himself. Even as a bishop with many responsibilities in one of the greatest cities in the world, Athanasius was a great teacher and a holy man, even developing a relationship with the desert monk St. Anthony. Athanasius’ respect for monasticism and the ideals of St. Anthony continued to guide him the rest of his life.

I mentioned about the growing threat of Arianism in my last column, and perhaps what Athanasius is best known for is being the greatest defender of the Church’s teaching against this heresy in his generation. He wrote and preached fervently against Arianism through most of his priesthood, and was especially influential at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD). Athanasius and Santa Claus (St. Nicholas of Myra) led the defense of the Church and worked tirelessly against Arius and his followers. When the Council came to an end, he thought the fight was over.

But in truth, that battle had just begun for Athanasius. Some of his well-connected enemies (who also happened to be admirers of Arius), convinced the Emperor Constantine to exile Athanasius to Germany, which was about as far from Alexandria as one could get at the time. Athanasius returned in 338 only to be banished again…and again…and again – five times altogether! All the while, he was preaching and teaching the truth that we take for granted today. Eventually, this holy servant of the truth returned to Alexandria and spent his final years cleaning up what had been done in his absence, until he died in 373. His relics had been reposed in Venice, but in 1973, Pope Paul VI donated some of them to the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, and they are preserved in Cairo today.

St. Athanasius was a prolific preacher and writer, even in exile, and his teaching has certainly impacted us today. At the Council of Nicaea, he was partly responsible for the development of the Greek term “homoousios,” now known to us as “consubstantial,” used to describe the fact that the persons of the Trinity share the same substance, or being. They are three distinct persons, but one supreme Godhead. This teaching is wonderfully summed up in the “Shield of Athanasius,” seen below. Even though Athanasius probably didn’t design the image itself, it is a great tribute to his gift of explaining our understanding of God!

Doctors of the Church: Know Your Enemy

Jolly Old St. Nicholas…Smacking Arius!

Before I actually write about the Doctors of the Church, I think it’s important to realize what they were up against!

I can imagine that the faith journey of the Early Church might have been similar to many of us as we grew up. The experience I have of children learning their faith is that from Kindergarten through 2^nd grade, they are content to just believe – “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” as the song goes. But as children get older, they start to wonder “why?” and “how?” In the same way, we can probably imagine the excitement of the Early Church hearing this Good News preached by the apostles and witnesses to the Resurrection, but after the initial fervor, they want to know how all this is possible? How is Jesus both God and man? What’s the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

St. Paul wrote to Timothy, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” And that’s exactly what happened! While many remained true to the faith, others wandered from the teaching of the apostles into heresy. Keep in mind, “heresy” isn’t a word used lightly, and it’s more than just making a mistake or having questions about the faith. Heretics are those who, when faced with authentic teaching, refuse to be corrected.

Certainly one of the greatest heresies in the history of the Church was Arianism, which takes its name from Arius, a priest from Alexandria born around 256. We don’t know much about him (none of his writings survived), but what we do know is that he was magnetic. He was tall and dignified, charming, and had an aura of intellectual superiority. He was also by all accounts a very good preacher, speaking intelligently with a melodious voice.

Arius and his followers taught that Christ was the greatest and first of God’s creatures…but he wasn’t God. To the Arians, the Son was created – there was a time when there was no second person of the Holy Trinity. Even in the Scriptures, when Jesus is called the “Son of God,” Arius would say that it is because he somehow participated in or was adopted by the Father, but was still of a lower status than the Father.

Now obviously, this is not what we believe. We understand, and have always taught, that the Son is God, one in being (consubstantial) and co-eternal with the Father, meaning that he’s God, and always has been. But lots of people bought into Arius and his teaching, and saw it as a little easier to grasp. That included Emperors, bishops, priests, and even a majority of the Church at one point. As St. Jerome wrote, “The whole world woke up one morning, lamenting and marveling to find itself Arian.”

But truth isn’t decided by a majority vote, and the Holy Spirit continued to guide the Church, even in those difficult times. In a sense, heresy is medicinal to the Church, in that it forces us to look seriously at what we believe and how we articulate it. And as we’ll see, articulating the Church’s teaching is the forte of our Doctors!

Doctors of the Church: Introduction

I had a few lists of saints I was considering for this next series, including some great obscure saints (and you know of my love for obscure saints…), but I settled on the Doctors of the Church. When I was younger, I used to think that as “Doctors,” they were the ones people went to for some kind of healing – you know, like St. Luke! He was a physician, right? That’s how we use the word “doctor” today, at least since the 1700’s. But the word actually comes from the Latin word docere, meaning “to teach.”

With the rise of the medieval university system, “doctors” were those considered to be experts in their fields. That’s still very true today: the Doctoral degree is the highest degree of learning, above the Masters and Bachelors degrees. So when we speak of the Doctors of the Church, what we’re really talking about are those who are the greatest teachers of the faith – those who teach us about God and about ourselves in relationship to God through their writings and homilies.

Cardinal Francis George, the former cardinal archbishop of Chicago, wrote that there were four questions the Doctors of the Church strove to answer. The first is “Who is Jesus Christ?”, the question asked in the earliest days of the Church, and notably answered by Sts. Augustine, Basil, Ambrose, and Jerome.

The second is “How do we know Christ?” Great Doctors such as Sts. Augustine and Gregory the Great tried to throw philosophy and reason into the equation to better know Jesus.

The third question is “How do we act as Christ’s disciples?” Once we come to some level of understanding of the first two questions, we begin to wonder about ourselves. Our faith is a relationship, after all, and it takes two to tango, right? Saints like St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas addressed the questions “Who are we?” and “How has God created us?”

Lastly, the fourth question is “How are we in Christ?” Here, we are trying to bring together what we know of God and what we know of ourselves to see what our relationship with God should be like and what prayer should look like. Saints who addressed this question were great spiritual masters like Sts. John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Ávila, and Thérèse of Lisieux.

Originally, there were only eight Doctors: four in the West (Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome), and four in the East (Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nanzianzen, and John Chrysostom). But as time passed, it became apparent that some saints deserved to find a place among this ancient rank, and now the pope makes a formal declaration to add saints to the list of Doctors. This has happened as recently as 2015 with Pope Francis!

My goal over the next few weeks (and weeks, and weeks) will be to write a little about the Doctors themselves – their stories, their lives, and their contributions – but also a little about the times they lived in, and the challenges they faced. As Cardinal George wrote, “The mission of the Church in every age is to introduce the world to Christ, its savior. The Church cannot accomplish her mission without learned men and women who are saints of God. These are the Doctors of the Church.”

Homily From the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Homily From the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Most Holy Trinity: A Homily and a Few Resources

 

 

Trinity by Andrei Rublev

Above is my homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity!  This was a doctrine that faced a lot of resistance from a varieties of heresies in the Early Church, but was ultimately solidified by several ecumenical councils.  Below, you will find a little diagram I created to point out some common Trinitarian heresies and the erroneous understandings of God that are behind them.

Heresy	Description	Other Notes
Modalism (Sabellianism)	Taught that the three persons of the Trinity as different forms or “modes” of the Godhead. Adherants believed that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not distinct personalities, but different modes of God’s self-revelation. A typical modalist approach is to regard God as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Spirit in sanctification.	Condemned by Tertullian in Adversus Praxeam as well as in the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople I and Constantinople II.
Arianism	Taught that Christ was the first and greatest of God’s creatures but denied his fully divine status. Taught that Christ was created, and thus a status lower than the Father. Macedonianism was essentially the same teaching about the Holy Spirit.	Truly one of the greatest struggles of the Early Church. Condemned by the First Council of Nicaea in 325, yielding the Nicaean Creed. Macedonianism was condemned at the First Council of Constantinople.
Partialism	Taught that Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are components of the one God. This led them to believe that each of the persons of the Trinity is only part God, only becoming fully God when they come together.	I couldn’t find a specific council, but trust me, it’s condemned!
Tritheism	Taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three independent divine beings; three separate gods who share the ‘same substance’. This is a common mistake because of misunderstanding of the use of the term ‘persons’ in defining the Trinity.
Docetism	Taught that Jesus Christ was a purely divine being who only had the “appearance” of being human. Regarding his suffering, some versions taught that Jesus’ divinity abandoned or left him upon the cross while other claimed that he only appeared to suffer (much like he only appeared to be human)	Condemned at many of the first ecumenical councils.
Adoptionism	Taught that Jesus was born totally human and only later was “adopted” – either at his baptism or at his resurrection – by God in a special way.	The founder (Theodotus of Byzantium) was excommunicated by Pope Victor I and the heresy was condemned at the Synod of Antioch in 268.
Nestorianism	Taught that Jesus Christ was a conjuction between the flesh and the Word, a human person joined with a divine person.	Condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and again at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

So where does that leave us?  There’s a lot here about what we don’t believe.  What about what we do believe as Catholic Christians?  Here’s the text of the Athanasian Creed, written by the great St. Athanasius and presented to Pope Julius I as he was returning from exile.

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but one uncreated; and one infinite. So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty. So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord; the Son Lord; and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords; but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by the catholic religion; to say, There are three Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of none; neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created; but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten; but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid; the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation; that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Substance [Essence] of the Father; begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance [Essence] of his Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who although he is God and Man; yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood by God. One altogether; not by confusion of Substance [Essence]; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the God the Father Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies; And shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire. This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Did you get all that?  Not to worry, because we also have the “Shield of Athanasius” or the “Shield of the Trinity” to explain at least the first paragraph of the creed written above.  It’s simple, but incredibly important, and worth memorizing!