Today the Church gives us two great saints together:
Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen.

They were friends.
They prayed together.
They studied together.
And they defended the faith together at a time when the Church was deeply divided about who Christ really is.

That matters, because today’s readings are about truth —
not truth as opinion,
but truth as something received, guarded, and handed on.

St John speaks very plainly in the first reading.

“Who is the liar?
The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.”

That is strong language.
But it is not harsh — it is precise.

John is protecting something essential:
if we lose the truth about Christ, we lose salvation itself.

Christian faith is not a general belief in God.
It is faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made flesh.

To deny who He is
is not a small mistake.
It breaks the whole Gospel.

That is why John urges us to remain in what we have received.

Faith is not invented.
It is entrusted.

This is exactly what Basil and Gregory did.

They lived at a time when many people spoke about Christ —
but not all spoke the truth about Him.

Some said He was less than God.
Some said He was a great teacher, but not truly divine.

Basil and Gregory resisted this — not out of stubbornness,
but out of love for souls.

They knew that if Christ is not truly God,
then He cannot truly save.

So they defended the Church’s faith in the Trinity —
one God in three Persons —
with courage, learning, and deep prayer.

They remind us that theology is not academic decoration.
It serves salvation.

The Gospel gives us John the Baptist.

People question him closely:

“Are you the Christ?”
“Are you Elijah?”
“Are you the prophet?”

John’s answers are clear:

“I am not.”

He does not exaggerate his role.
He does not claim authority that is not his.

He knows who he is —
and more importantly,
he knows who Christ is.

“There stands among you one whom you do not know.”

That line should stop us.

Christ can be present —
and still ignored.

This is the common thread today.

St John urges us to remain in the truth.
Basil and Gregory defend that truth.
John the Baptist points away from himself toward Christ.

True faith does not inflate us.
It humbles us.

It teaches us to say:

Christ must increase.
I must decrease.

That is how truth leads us to God.

At the beginning of a new year, this matters.

We live in a world that is comfortable with spiritual language
but uneasy with truth.

We are encouraged to soften doctrine,
to keep belief vague,
to avoid clarity.

But the Church does not exist to blur the truth.
She exists to hand it on faithfully.

And each of us is called to remain in what we have received —
in prayer, in the sacraments,
and in the truth about Christ.

Saints Basil and Gregory remind us that friendship, learning, and courage
can serve the Gospel powerfully
when they are rooted in truth.

St John reminds us that remaining in Christ
is the only safe place for the soul.

And John the Baptist reminds us
that our task is not to be the light,
but to point to Him.

May we begin this year remaining in the truth,
loving Christ as He truly is,
and allowing Him to take His proper place in our lives.