Today, the universal Church celebrates the memory of the Three Luminaries: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. These great Fathers, though each has his own radiance and his separate feast, were nonetheless gathered by the wisdom of the Church into a single day, the thirtieth of January, after a dispute had arisen among the faithful over which of them was the greatest.
This dispute may seem, at first glance, a trivial or even amusing matter, for it reveals the human soul's inclination to partialities and factions. But at depth, it is a proof of the faithful's longing to conform to holiness, and their desire to imitate the greatest of those whom the Church has brought forth.
Yet the honouring of the saints is not by taking their side, but by taking the side of holiness itself. These men did not pursue personal glory, but spent themselves for the unity of the Church and the radiance of the divine light in the world. So if we wish truly to honour them, let us walk in their footsteps — not as those who quarrel over which of them is the more exalted, but as those who thirst for the life they carried in their hearts and passed on to us.
Glory, then, to God, who is glorified in His saints, who became a light for the world.