Our Holy Father Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople (390).
Polyeleos Feast.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11; John 10:9-16.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”
In the Christian East, there are but three saints who have the title Theologian: the Apostle John the Theologian, Symeon the New Theologian, and Gregory the Theologian who was also Bishop of Nazianzus and whom we commemorate today (and again on January 30 with Basil the Great and John Chrysostom).
St. Gregory the Theologian is given this title because of his great contributions to early Christian Theology, especially to the area of Trinitarian Theology. Consider this sticheron from Vespers last night:
By your words of wisdom, Gregory the theologian,* you have glorified Him who is worshipped in Trinity:* the consubstantial Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!* You have withered the vanity of false philosophers,* boldly proclaiming the truth with your godly preaching.
It is God who enlightened St. Gregory the Theologian with this knowledge, and it is St. Gregory himself who, in humility and prayerfulness, shared these great teachings with the Church. Today’s epistle reading reminds us that each of us has received spiritual gifts by the grace of the Spirit that we are 1) to discern with all humility and in prayer and 2) to share with the Body of Christ. These are not simply gifts given to us by God for our own benefit and growth in grace. Rather, they are granted to us that we may share them and in sharing them, bring others to a fuller understanding of and love for God. As St. Gregory the Theologian’s own brothers, St. Basil the Great says,
Since no one has the capacity to receive all spiritual gifts, but the grace of the Spirit is given proportionately to the faith of each, when one is living in community with others, the grace privately bestowed on each individual becomes the common possession of the others… One who receives any of these gifts does not possess it for his own sake but rather for the sake of others.