We’re reading the First Letter of John at the end of the Christmas season.The letter challenges some early Christians who thought it was completely beneath God’s nature to assume our lowly humanity and so they claimed Jesus was not truly divine; the Word did not become flesh. Mary could not possibly be “Mother of God.” Maybe God could come in a perfect world, but not the world of “now.”

John’s letter insists on the mystery of the Incarnation. That mystery happens, not just when Mary accepts the angel’s invitation, not just at the birth of Christ and the events that took place around it. That mystery happens now..

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

“We are God’s children now,” in our time and place. We live the mystery of the Incarnation, like the mystery of his death and resurrection, now in our time and place. Its a challenging mystery for the time and place that’s ours now, that can seem so unworthy of God’s presence.  

The saints help us appreciatete the mystery of the Incarnation because they lived that mystery in their time and place. This week in the Christmas season we celebrate a number of saints. St.Basil the Great  and St. Gregory Nazianzen, 4th century Christian bishops.  St. Elizabeth Seton and St. John Neumann, from the early years in our American church. On January 5, the Passionists remember St. Charles Houben, CP.

St. Basil the Great was a learned teacher, a brilliant philosopher and theologian who   knew the philosophers and sciences of his day. He also was a man of action. He founded religious communities, hospitals, homes for the poor. He was an outstanding bishop of church in Asia Minor, known throughout the Christian world.

But the church then was tightly controlled by an emperor who believed and demanded others  believe what the Letter of John condemned– that Jesus was a godly man, but not God. Basil, a strong believer in the divinity of Christ, was not afraid to confront those who said otherwise, even the powerful political establishment . 

His letters reveal how he struggled with the now of his times and place. He was falsely accused, undermined, threatened with exile. He bemoaned the division of Christians caused by too many controversies. He was hurt by suspicions of his own orthodoxy. He felt alone and outnumbered.

Each of the saints we celebrate this week did what he did. They lived the mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus, inseparable from the mystery of his death and resurrection, in their own time and place. They proclaimed the gospel they received – the Word became flesh.