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Purely Christmas
With all of the excesses of the season, there is something to be said for having a bit of enlightened restraint. Our next Virtue of Christmas has a lot to do with one of the primary members of the Nativity Scene.
Chastity
Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
~Benjamin Franklin
As we’ve discussed among various other Christmas Virtues, moderation in all things is the real key to success in life. Physical intimacy is one of the great joys of life but the enjoyment of it can lead one to distraction. Some segments of the population believe that such enjoyment should only be indulged for expansion of the family, but Ben allowed that “health or offspring” were acceptable reasons to engage in such intimacy.
People have been known to misuse this type of enjoyment. Often, in tandem with extremes of drink, accidents happen either in the form of unintended pregnancy or simply the destruction of the reputation of one or both participants. Saving intimacy for personal relationships or even strictly for marriage will certainly prevent a lot of the problems that can come from one night stands or “playing the field“. Keep it personal and responsible, friends.
The Blessed Virgin Mary
The story of the Nativity depends not only on God’s redeeming grace but also on His willing servant, Mary. Through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, Mary underwent parthenogenesis to give birth to the savior.
38And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. ~Luke 1:38
As with most of God’s greatest works in our lives, it depends on a willing servant to be the eyes and ears and hands and feet of God among us. Much has been made of the purity of the Virgin Mary but in the end, her humility is what makes her most memorable because it is what made her the perfect mother for the Word made Flesh.
Saint Basil the Great
Today is the feast day of Saint Basil who is most well known for the cathedral that bears his name in Moscow. Initially, he pursued an academic and legal career. He was a prodigious intellect but his spiritual awakening came just in time to change his life and allow him to help shape the early church.
I had wasted much time on follies and spent nearly all of my youth in vain labors, and devotion to the teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish. Suddenly, I awoke as out of a deep sleep. I beheld the wonderful light of the Gospel truth, and I recognized the nothingness of the wisdom of the princes of this world. ~Basil of Caesarea
As a dedicated scholar and new convert to Christianity, Basil traveled the Levantine Coast down to Egypt and back to his homeland of Cappadocia (in Anatolia, now Turkey). He dove headlong into asceticism in emulation of his teachers but found that solitary living didn’t suit him.
Christianity is best practiced as a community, as he discovered.
20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
~Matthew 18:20
Eventually, Basil was called from his homeland of Cappadocia to serve in Caesarea as a deacon and presbyter with is best friend Gregory of Nazianzus. Basil eventually succeeded Eusebius as Bishop of Caesarea.
In this role, he demonstrated his Christian virtue most conspicuously. He organized soup kitchens and gave away much of his family fortune to help the poor in his diocese and to import food in the midst of a terrible famine. Basil preached modesty and did his best to convert the irreligious by setting a personal example. He participated in the Council of Constantinople and set the rules for a monastic order that is still the norm throughout the realms of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches.