January: Day 10: Teaching 2: Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa

January: Day 10: Teaching 2:
Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa
 
(We Must Value the Holy Orthodox Faith)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, glorified today by the Church, was the younger brother of Basil the Great (born around 332) and, like him, was raised by his parents in the spirit of Christian piety. Appointed Bishop in Nyssa (of Cappadocia) in 372, Gregory became a "zealous defender of Orthodoxy" and a strict denouncer of Arianism, which is what aroused the slander of the Arians against him. Thus, they accused him of embezzling church funds and considered his consecration as a bishop illegal. The Arian bishops condemned Gregory to exile, in which he spent about three years and returned only after the death of Emperor Valens, after the persecution of the Orthodox had ceased.

The life of Saint Gregory was spent in constant labor. In 381 and 382 he defended the Orthodox teaching on the Holy Spirit against heretics; in 394 he established peace between two Arabian bishops who were disputing the see. When Gregory was not traveling, he tirelessly cared for his flock: he would preach to them for several days in a row, write discourses on the books of the Old and New Testaments, and care for the sick and the poor.

II. Saint Gregory, a zealous defender of Orthodoxy, teaches us, brethren, to cherish our Orthodox faith, for our first and highest good on earth is, indisputably, our holy, patristic, Orthodox faith.

Man can be looked at from two sides: as a being higher than all on earth by his nature, and as a being more unfortunate than all on earth by his fall. And the correct view of man must necessarily embrace him from both these sides.

a) What good can be called the first for man, as the most excellent of all earth-born beings? The first good for us can only be that which satisfies the highest needs of our being. What are these needs? Without a doubt, these are not bodily needs: for these needs are also present in the lower animals. This means that sensual goods are not of great value for us as people. Certainly not spiritual needs either, which are also common to us with all animals, although they are at a higher level in us than in them; therefore, spiritual goods - knowledge, art, and the like - are still not the highest goods for us as people. No, we have needs, or, more correctly, we have one spiritual need, which not a single lower animal has, which belongs to us properly as people, exalted above all earthly creatures, and is common to us with the incorporeal, most perfect spirits. This is the need for mysterious communion and union with God Himself (John 17:21), in whose image we are created; the need for life in God, by God and for God (Rom. 6:10), whose grace is as necessary for our spirit as air and food are for the body, knowledge and law for the soul. There cannot be a higher need than this, not only in us, but in all created beings. And this highest need of our nature is fully satisfied by the God-given faith of Christ. Here the All-good Lover of Mankind Himself calls us into a grace-filled union with Himself, Himself shows us all the necessary means for this, Himself together with the Heavenly Father comes to us and creates in us for Himself an abode (John 14:23), so that a Christian who truly believes and “abides in love” truly “abides in God, and God abides in him” (John 4:16), “no longer lives for himself, but Christ lives in him” (Gal. 2:20). This highest need of ours is satisfied only by it alone – the Orthodox faith of Christ, namely – the faith that was brought to earth by the Son of God, the true Savior of men, preached at the beginning by His Holy Apostles, and since then it has been observed and preached, in all its purity, by His Orthodox Church: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). Christ Himself, our Lord, testified: “Without Me you can do nothing: if any man abide not in Me, he shall be cast out” (John 15:5, 6). And where the truth of Christ has been changed and disfigured by human errors, can one assert without contradiction that there too the true faith of Christ, when Christ is one, the truth is also one, and between truth and error there can be no communion? From this it follows that the Orthodox faith for us, as people, is not only the first and highest good, but also the only good. Only it alone elevates us to the level of people, and gives us the opportunity to live a truly human life; only it alone truly distinguishes us from the lower animals, and makes us like the most perfect spirits; only it alone makes us children of God, partakers of the Divine nature.

b) If we now look at ourselves as beings most unfortunate of all on earth because of our fall into sin, we will again see that in this respect not only our first, but even our only good is the same Orthodox faith of Christ. For what are these misfortunes of ours? That our sins have infinitely angered our Creator and are separating us from Him; that they have deeply damaged and are continually damaging more and more all the powers of our being; that they have deprived us of eternal blessedness and are preparing eternal destruction for us; in short: all our misfortunes are in the sins themselves, and everything else necessarily follows from them. Who among us does not know, brethren, that it is only the faith of Christ, the Orthodox faith, that frees us from these misfortunes? In her most holy mysteries, she cleanses us from all sins; and in purifying, she at the same time reconciles us to God and makes us His sons. He regenerates, renews and sanctifies our entire nature, imparts to us all the grace-filled gifts for our subsequent success in piety, for our gradual ascent from strength to strength, from glory to glory. Eternal torment is then no longer for us, if we remain true Christians until our very death; no, – thrones on high, heavenly crowns, eternal glory and blessedness with Christ: this is our lot! O merciful God! Not only do You, by Your infinite grace, free us from the greatest calamities, pluck us out of the very abyss of hell, but You also grant us such blessings, set us to such heights that we would not even dare to think of. So much is the faith of Christ priceless for us, sinners! And let us not forget that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” except the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12); consequently, there is no other way to salvation than the true, uncorrupted faith of Christ, i.e., the Orthodox faith; consequently, there is no other guide to salvation than the true Church of Christ, i.e. the Orthodox Church.

III. It is time, brethren, for us to learn at last those most important lessons which are contained in the truth we have examined.

The Orthodox faith is the first good for us. Thus, first of all and above all, let us glorify and thank the Author of all blessings, God, for having honored us from our very birth to know this treasure and to use it.

The Orthodox faith is the first good for us. Let us guard this good more than all our good, guard it with zealous and tireless care. Let us be zealous for the holy faith as our pious ancestors were once zealous for it, who constantly placed it above all else, did not agree to betray it for any treasures in the world, on the contrary, in cases of need, they themselves sacrificed, out of devotion to it, all their wealth, joyfully underwent persecution and suffering for it, joyfully tasted death itself, and thus preserved for us the ancient Orthodoxy in all its purity and salvific value, and bequeathed it to us as the most precious heritage. Amen. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.