Complex calendars
25/04/14 05:31
Over the years, faithful people have come up with all kinds of ways of marking the passage of days and seasons. Because we have different ways of counting and measuring, not all of our calendars line up the same way every year. Holidays like Lent and Easter move around the calendar, occurring on different days of the year and even in different months, depending on the lunar calendar as well as the solar calendar in the determination of dates. Sometimes the absurdity of alignment of the various days and dates helps us to remember that all of our ways of counting time are a bit arbitrary in the big picture of the universe. The common ways of measuring time have to do with the motion of the earth in relationship to other bodies in the universe. The ancients liked the phases of the moon as a way of counting the passage of the seasons. They were not, however unaware of the sun and how it appears to rise and set each day when one is on the surface of the earth.
20th century physics, including the work of Albert Einstein, helped us to begin to understand that time is not a fixed reality, but relative and appears to be different from different perspectives.
Given the long history of the church and the evolution of calendars and the understanding of ways to count days and years and the passage of time, it should not be surprising that the calendar of feast days and causes for celebrations can become convoluted and confused at times.
Today is a good example. April 25, 2014. In some Christian calendars it is noted as the feast day of Mark, the author of the gospel that is the second book in the order of most contemporary New Testaments, though scholars generally agree that it was the first of the four gospels to appear in written form. Very little is known of the author Mark. Tradition holds that the gospel was written for the faithful of Rome, but soon taken to Alexandra where a new church was founded by Mark before he was subsequently tortured and imprisoned. He died in prison.
The calendar of saints is, however, disrupted during the first eight days of Easter, also known as the Octave of Easter. In some traditions the feast of Easter is observed for eight days. Because Easter occurs at different days on the calendar various other festivals, such as the feast of the evangelist Mark are preempted some years and not in other years. Like I said, it is all very confusing. It seems to me that it isn’t that much of a stretch for a faithful person to observe both holidays on the same day. If we are celebrating the resurrection, why not celebrate one of the authors of resurrection stories at the same time?
In the Roman Catholic Church, the big talk this week is the canonization of popes John Paul II and John XXIII. The actual ceremonies naming the two popes as saints is set for this coming Sunday, the second Sunday of Easter. Millions of people are expected to travel to Rome for the celebrations and events are planned for other locations as well.
Celebrations will be muted in the alpine village of Cevo, Italy, where a 100-foot-tall cross collapsed during a ceremony being held in early celebration of Sunday’s celebrations. The cross had been erected to honor John Paul II. It was designed by sculptor Enrico Job and created for John Paul II’s visit to northern Italy in 1998. The cross was moved and installed in Cevo in 2005. The unusually-shaped cross cracked and fell to the ground yesterday crushing to death a 21-year-old man and injuring another. Authorities are still investigating the accident to determined the cause of the collapse and whether or not the fact that the victim had a mobility disorder might have been a factor in the tragedy.
The investigations can offer little consolation to the grieving family. For them, a grim new reality marks this season of the year and the memory of their son’s death will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Maybe that is how our calendars become so complex. We have a tendency to remember significant events. Over the generations the events stack up and align in different ways until our memories are so complex that no single individual can hold all of the memories and prayers in her or his consciousness.
For one family in our community today will be remembered as the day of the funeral of a bright young woman killed in a rock climbing accident. For another, it is the day of the family service for a middle-aged man who died of a sudden heart attack - the eve of his funeral service to be held tomorrow.The day will gain additional meanings for other families as it unfolds.
We all know that time has different qualities depending on the experiences we have had. Not all time has the same rate of passage from our perspective. An hour rocking a baby is qualitatively different than an hour waiting in a hospital emergency room. An hour with a beloved teacher is different than an hour sweating out a job interview. Time appears to pass at different rates depending on the activities in which we are engaged and the emotions we are experiencing.
So today, April 25, 2014, will have different meanings to different people. For the faithful it stands at the beginning of the season of Easter. We are only just beginning to comprehend the meaning of resurrection. It is a difficult concept to grasp and it takes time to come to grips with all that it entails.
One of the benefits of a few years of age and experience is that I have more patience with things that take more time. I don’t expect for the fullness of the resurrection to become completely clear. It takes years of practice and still new meanings emerge as we explore the depth-on-depth nature of the meanings of the triumph of life.
May we be open to God’s teaching as the season continues.
20th century physics, including the work of Albert Einstein, helped us to begin to understand that time is not a fixed reality, but relative and appears to be different from different perspectives.
Given the long history of the church and the evolution of calendars and the understanding of ways to count days and years and the passage of time, it should not be surprising that the calendar of feast days and causes for celebrations can become convoluted and confused at times.
Today is a good example. April 25, 2014. In some Christian calendars it is noted as the feast day of Mark, the author of the gospel that is the second book in the order of most contemporary New Testaments, though scholars generally agree that it was the first of the four gospels to appear in written form. Very little is known of the author Mark. Tradition holds that the gospel was written for the faithful of Rome, but soon taken to Alexandra where a new church was founded by Mark before he was subsequently tortured and imprisoned. He died in prison.
The calendar of saints is, however, disrupted during the first eight days of Easter, also known as the Octave of Easter. In some traditions the feast of Easter is observed for eight days. Because Easter occurs at different days on the calendar various other festivals, such as the feast of the evangelist Mark are preempted some years and not in other years. Like I said, it is all very confusing. It seems to me that it isn’t that much of a stretch for a faithful person to observe both holidays on the same day. If we are celebrating the resurrection, why not celebrate one of the authors of resurrection stories at the same time?
In the Roman Catholic Church, the big talk this week is the canonization of popes John Paul II and John XXIII. The actual ceremonies naming the two popes as saints is set for this coming Sunday, the second Sunday of Easter. Millions of people are expected to travel to Rome for the celebrations and events are planned for other locations as well.
Celebrations will be muted in the alpine village of Cevo, Italy, where a 100-foot-tall cross collapsed during a ceremony being held in early celebration of Sunday’s celebrations. The cross had been erected to honor John Paul II. It was designed by sculptor Enrico Job and created for John Paul II’s visit to northern Italy in 1998. The cross was moved and installed in Cevo in 2005. The unusually-shaped cross cracked and fell to the ground yesterday crushing to death a 21-year-old man and injuring another. Authorities are still investigating the accident to determined the cause of the collapse and whether or not the fact that the victim had a mobility disorder might have been a factor in the tragedy.
The investigations can offer little consolation to the grieving family. For them, a grim new reality marks this season of the year and the memory of their son’s death will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Maybe that is how our calendars become so complex. We have a tendency to remember significant events. Over the generations the events stack up and align in different ways until our memories are so complex that no single individual can hold all of the memories and prayers in her or his consciousness.
For one family in our community today will be remembered as the day of the funeral of a bright young woman killed in a rock climbing accident. For another, it is the day of the family service for a middle-aged man who died of a sudden heart attack - the eve of his funeral service to be held tomorrow.The day will gain additional meanings for other families as it unfolds.
We all know that time has different qualities depending on the experiences we have had. Not all time has the same rate of passage from our perspective. An hour rocking a baby is qualitatively different than an hour waiting in a hospital emergency room. An hour with a beloved teacher is different than an hour sweating out a job interview. Time appears to pass at different rates depending on the activities in which we are engaged and the emotions we are experiencing.
So today, April 25, 2014, will have different meanings to different people. For the faithful it stands at the beginning of the season of Easter. We are only just beginning to comprehend the meaning of resurrection. It is a difficult concept to grasp and it takes time to come to grips with all that it entails.
One of the benefits of a few years of age and experience is that I have more patience with things that take more time. I don’t expect for the fullness of the resurrection to become completely clear. It takes years of practice and still new meanings emerge as we explore the depth-on-depth nature of the meanings of the triumph of life.
May we be open to God’s teaching as the season continues.