On this first day of January 2015 two very different traditions collide—a day for looking ahead at the next 12 months and making resolutions about what we might achieve, in contrast to a day of celebration of the life and teachings of St. Basil the Great and the giving of gifts in the Greek Orthodox tradition. With St. Basil, we are very much in the present moment, aware of how we have been blessed by God and how we might share that blessing with others. With the practice of making resolutions to begin 2015, we are looking ahead at what we might achieve in the future with the help of the Lord. How can we learn with the Lord to focus on the present moment and still plan for the future?

St. Basil the Great, born about the year 330, wanted to be a hermit, to live on his own in the desert with the Lord; and he developed a monastic rule which remains one of the basic rules for monasteries in the Eastern Church. St. Basil also wrote the extended liturgy that we celebrate today and ten times a year, including Sundays during Lent and at Pascha and several major festivals. However, St. Basil’s own hopes of a monastic life lived out in isolation were thwarted, first by his bishop, Eusebius of Caesarea in Cappadocia (in modern-day Turkey) who needed St. Basil’s help to defend Orthodox teachings, and then by his appointment to succeed Bishop Eusebius as Bishop of Caesarea for the next ten years until St. Basil died about the year 379.

St. Basil has been described as “eloquent, learned, statesmanlike, and possessed of great personal holiness.” He was also a fighter for what he believed, “sensitive and pugnacious,” with an unusual talent for both theology and organisation. The end of the Arian controversy in 381/2 at the Council of Constantinople has been described as “a tribute” to his vision and leadership.

The words of St. Basil, in The Treatise On the Holy Spirit, offer sound advice for us today. “We stand in the arena to fight for our common heritage,” wrote St. Basil, “for the treasure of the sound faith, derived from our Fathers. Grieve with us, all you who love the brethren, at the shutting of the mouths of our men of true religion, and at the opening of the bold and blasphemous lips of all who utter unrighteousness against God. The pillars and foundation of the truth are scattered abroad. We, whose insignificance has allowed of our being overlooked, are deprived of our right and free speech. . . . Do not think only of your being yourselves moored in a safe haven, where the grace of God gives you shelter from the tempest of the winds of wickedness. Reach out a helping hand to the churches that are being buffeted by the storm, lest if they are abandoned, they suffer complete shipwreck of the faith.”

That’s us today, here at St. Aidan’s—“moored in a safe haven” yet at the same time confronted with the reality that “the pillars and foundation of the truth are [being] scattered abroad;” and, therefore, we need to “reach out a helping hand” to many individuals and churches lest “they suffer complete shipwreck of the faith.” How can we “moored in [our] safe haven” reach out to help those people and churches of faith who need our help now?

I do not have a full answer: the problem is beyond my spiritual and practical competence. However, I am attracted to St. Basil’s emphasis on the importance of angels in our lives. In On the Psalms, St. Basil wrote, “No man will see God’s face and live; it is the angels of the ‘little ones’ in the Church”—that is, the devout children—“who ‘continually behold the face of the Father in heaven.’ Thus it is impossible for us now to be capable of the sight of His glorious appearance, because we are ‘encompassed by the weakness’ of the flesh: but the angels, having no covering like our flesh, have nothing to hinder them from gazing at the face of God’s glory. And so we also, when we become sons of the resurrection, shall be counted worthy to know God face to face. Then the righteous will be counted worthy of the ‘joy of the sight of His countenance.’”

St. Basil is reflecting on the future, when we each die and have the opportunity to become sons and daughters of the resurrection, and can then gaze at “the face of God’s glory.” The Biblical reference is to the book of Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 28: “You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with your presence.” Those words from Acts are a rough translation of the final verses of Psalm 16: “I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices . . . You will make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

In my limited vision of both the present moment and the future, that appears to me to be our objective in both the present and the future—to experience the Lord making known to each of us “the path of life”—“the ways of life”—that we may each experience “the fullness of joy”—the presence of God in our lives.

I do not at this time have that depth of oneness with God. Perhaps I will not achieve such unity with God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit until I die. But I am impatient. Perhaps you too are impatient to come closer to the Lord, but not sure how it can be done.

St. Basil offers us a big challenge—to become like the angels of the little children and seek “to know God face to face.” What is it that the angels offer to us that might enable us—empower us—to reach out and in some way touch God in this life? I believe that what we seek is to hear and appreciate The Heavenly Choir—the harmony and the calmness that comes with being alone with God, while being aware of the presence and needs of others. We may well often wander in search of such harmony and calmness in our own lives and not find it. However, if we are patient with ourselves and with God, we can, to a considerable extent—not entirely, but to a considerable extent—sing along with the angels and as St. Basil phrases the angelic experience, “gaze at the face of God’s glory.”

We may well fail. We may not experience the fullness of God’s glory in this life. Very few people have shared with the angels such a powerful presence of God before death. However, in the striving, in the waiting, with an openness to seek God’s purpose in our lives, the distinction between the present moment and planning for the future dissolves. We simply rest in God with faith, listen for The Angelic Choir, and are carried by the harmony and calmness of the angels into God’s purposes for each of our lives, now and in the year to come. In a very real sense, St. Basil achieved that unity with the Angelic Choir that he sought for himself and for us. May the presence of the Angelic Choir in our lives—whether we hear that Choir or not—empower us to know God and to reach out and help others.

And so we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen

Deacon Emmanuel Kahn