Feast of Moses
4 September 2008 - 5 אלול 5768 by Huw
ODAY IS THE Feast of the Prophet Moses (in the Eastern Rite). Earlier this week was the feast of Joshua. No - I don’t know why Joshua comes first. One of the things I love about the Eastern Calendar is the knowledge in the Church that the calendar doesn’t so much commemorate historic events as create a picture. From now until Christmas we will be celebrating feasts of the saints who came before Jesus as forerunners.
In a mild sense, liturgically, advent has started. (Although I’ve not seen Christmas stuff up in the stores yet, thank God!)
Yes, true. And, Mary will soon be born, 8 September.
The Eastern liturgical years wraps itself around Mary. Her birth is within days of the beginning of the Eastern Orthodox New Year. Her death is within days of the end of the liturgical year.
The Western liturgical year wraps itself around Christ. Advent both looks forward to the Second Coming, particularly during the first two weeks, and looks back at the First Coming, particularly during the second two weeks. The liturgical year ends on Christ the King Sunday. History is wrapped up, and our Lord is King.
Interesting POV. I’ve heard it explained that the Church put Mary’s story on the calendar such as it is to indicate that the Theotokos is also the Ecclesiatokos (pardon the neologism): Mary is the Church in Microcosm, Conceived in the Prophets, Birthing Christ to the World, and at our Falling Asleep we will rise…
The Eastern Christian year is no less Christocentric than the Western one. It’d be more accurate to say it wraps itself around the Incarnation: starting with Mary’s birth, God preparing the human stock from which he will take flesh and dwell among us; and ending with the Dormition, the end result of the Incarnation — the resurrection, ascension and glorification of those human beings who are in Christ. Mary is not a “special exception” — her fate is the fate meant for us all. This cycle shows to what great lengths God went to lay out this plan of salvation and what it’s intended result is in the end.
From the Roman Martyrology, for September 4:
“In monte Nebo, terræ Moab, sancti Móysis, legislatóris et Prophétæ.”
Hey Gregory, I would not have said that the Eastern liturgical year is any less Christocentric. But, I would differ with you mildly. I think you might be doing a bit of “force-fitting” to make the Birth of the Theotokos into the Incarnation and the Dormition into the end result of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is Christmas, and the end result of the Incarnation is the 50 day Passover to Resurrection to Ascension cycle.
It is, however, true that there are two cycles in both the Eastern and Western liturgical year, Mary’s cycle and Jesus’ cycle. They are intertwined and inter-related, but they are each have their own integrity and their own internal logic. That “Easterners” arrange it around Mary’s cycle and “Westerners” around Jesus’ cycle is not a comment on either Christology or Mariology.
Huw, this is all your fault! You are making me into a litugical geek. GRIN.
BJA: I didn’t realise that the Martyrology had that same “prophetic” foreshadow. Thanks!
Gregory and Fr E: I want to agree with you both… I think the Church’s calendar is neither Mario-Centric nor Christo-Centric. It is Salvatio-Centric. (I think I need to hang up my Neologism coiner now.)
The image painted is not a story of Jesus or Mary - or even of Feast days. I don’t like the Roman & Anglican Idea that there is a “Christmas” cycle and an “Easter” cycle either. It’s the *whole thing* that’s important. Yes, it starts in September with the “new year” and moves through the preparation to the Incarnation (which, of course, includes our Lady’s birth) and thence forward to Jesus’ life and death to our own Salvation imaged in the Dormition.
Remember: the Western feast of Christ the King is new (from the 1920s) so using that as part of the Calendar Icon can be distracting. But I do think the calendar, as painted by the Modern Tradition is more “Christo-Centric” than “Savatio-Centric” because it focuses nearly exclusively on Christmas and Easter, leaving the rest of the year as “common” or “ordinary” time or “time after Trinity/Pentecost” as if that part of the year was some how different. This is a very protestant attitude developed after the middle ages (if I’m reading my Eamon Duffy correctly).