What important fact has changed our view of history so that it led to a different conception of the Liturgical Year? I am sure I gave it away by that wording. That event is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ Our Lord, and his subsequent Death and Resurrection. History received a violent shock to itself. All human history is now oriented around two central foci. One foci is his Incarnation , and the changing of history itself so that salvation now becomes possible and the Kingdom of God has broken into human history, and the second foci is his Second Coming, in which history is wrapped up and we can shout, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Now, what does that do to our Liturgical Year?
Well, the general assumption is sometimes that Jewish and Christian feasts point forward. That is, they are types of something that is to be fulfilled. But, that is not strictly true. The feasts point to a person, the Person of Christ. They do not precisely point forward or backward in time per se; it only seems as though they do from out limited and finite viewpoint. Time is not involved, only the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Scott asked the question about why we do not keep the Old Testament feasts? Yes, because they are fulfilled, but more importantly because they do not point as clearly to the Person and work of Christ as the New Testament feasts. So what about the New Testament Feasts?
Well, let’s look at Christmas. On the one hand, it has been fulfilled. But, on the other hand, think about the effect of the Incarnation, particularly if one reads Orthodox theology. The Incarnation is a still ongoing event that will be ongoing for the rest of eternity. Our God has taken on human flesh and has taken that flesh up into the Trinity itself. St. Irenaeus said, “The Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” Christmas is not only the past remembrance of His birth, but the fact that His birth brought an ongoing and permanent change to humanity itself. As Athanasius said, we can become like God Himself, not in our essence, for that we cannot aspire to, but in his character and attributes. Blessed be Christmas! It looks not simply backwards, but Christmas is also a real and present reality in any person who comes into the Kingdom, and is a future reality to which we look forward in hope.
The rest of the Christian feasts also participate of the same style of thinking. They point to Christ, when He was here, as He works with us, and as He will be when He returns.
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