Most religions have an alternative calendar by which they live apart from the one they follow as citizens of the world. This calendar remembers important dates, persons and stories from the religion’s tradition and history that gives believers an identity and unites them as a community. The Christian community has just celebrated the festival of Pentecost which ends the Easter season. The feast as the name suggests takes place 50 days after Easter and often at the same time as the Jewish festival of Shavuot that takes place 50 days after Pesach. This year it’s different and doesn’t take place until June 11th because the Jewish religious calendar is based on a lunar calendar which gives an extra lunar month every two or three years so that the long-term average year length closely approximates to the actual length of the solar year which forms the secular and civic calendar. For the Christian churches that have a set liturgical form of worship according to the Roman Rite it is now ordinary time. Liturgically this means the time that falls outside the two great seasons of Christmastide and Eastertide, or their respective preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. It is defined as the common season which does not belong to a proper season.
The word ordinary suggests something rather dull and commonplace, with the need for festivals to break the monotony of it. But the interval between feasts and festivals is an opportunity for believers to live out the lessons learned and to keep alive the values of their faith. In a way the joy and celebrations of festivals and the ordinary times are two sides of the same coin. As I write this the Buddhist community are celebrating Vesak which commemorates both the birth and death of the Buddha as well as his enlightenment. By remembering these significant events Buddhists re-member themselves as part of the Buddhist community and commit themselves to living his Dharma. The last words of the Buddha, according to the tradition were ‘work hard to gain your own salvation’, often explained as meaning do not rely on the person of the historical Buddha but find salvation by following the path to enlightenment, a path set out by the Buddha. In the ordinary and in between times Buddhists are keeping alive the person of the Buddha and his wise message by the way they live and the example they give in living out the values of Buddhism. The authenticity of the Buddha and his teaching is judged by the example of his followers, and it is ordinary time that gives them the opportunity to do this. And if they do this well the Buddha will continue to exist, not, as Tich Nhat Hanh would say, in a historical form but as a living Buddha, always available through his teaching.
This is also true for Christianity. The major festivals of Christmas and Easter keep alive the memory of Jesus and celebrating them renews and confirms believers in their membership of the Christian community. They keep alive a way of life that is to be lived out in ordinary time and in the ordinary events of life. In so far as Christians do this, they make Christianity and the life and message of Jesus credible. The recent feast of Pentecost underlines this. This is the festival that remembers how the followers of Jesus, discouraged by his death, no longer having his physical presence amongst them are transformed from fearful men and women to people ready to face the world and share the message and way of life they had learned from Jesus. The images of wind and tongues of fire are used in the scriptures to illustrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, a Spirit which they identified as God’s Spirit and the one that had energised Jesus so that he was understood to be still with them, not in a historical or physical sense but in a spiritual and real sense. The historical Jesus had become what Christianity calls the Risen Jesus or the Cosmic Christ, associated with the power and energy that had created the universe. Inspired by the Holy Spirit Christians now have the power to live lives of love, reconciliation, openness, generosity, courage, representing in their own daily lives the qualities that Jesus displayed in his. And the authenticity of Jesus’ life and teaching is judged by how they do this.
There would have been a time when Christians thought that the Holy Spirit was given only to them as followers of Jesus but in this age we now recognise the presence of the Spirit in all people who are made in the image and likeness of God and animated by God’s spirit whether they choose to live by that Spirit or not. It is a power that we all have to live a good and wholesome life, contributing to the common good of all including the cosmos in which we all live and in which we are all interconnected. It is a power that gives hope at a time when the future of humanity and our planet is in crisis. It is a power and a presence that transforms what we have called ordinary time into something sacred and grace filled. If only we had the eyes to see it!
The word ordinary suggests something rather dull and commonplace, with the need for festivals to break the monotony of it. But the interval between feasts and festivals is an opportunity for believers to live out the lessons learned and to keep alive the values of their faith. In a way the joy and celebrations of festivals and the ordinary times are two sides of the same coin. As I write this the Buddhist community are celebrating Vesak which commemorates both the birth and death of the Buddha as well as his enlightenment. By remembering these significant events Buddhists re-member themselves as part of the Buddhist community and commit themselves to living his Dharma. The last words of the Buddha, according to the tradition were ‘work hard to gain your own salvation’, often explained as meaning do not rely on the person of the historical Buddha but find salvation by following the path to enlightenment, a path set out by the Buddha. In the ordinary and in between times Buddhists are keeping alive the person of the Buddha and his wise message by the way they live and the example they give in living out the values of Buddhism. The authenticity of the Buddha and his teaching is judged by the example of his followers, and it is ordinary time that gives them the opportunity to do this. And if they do this well the Buddha will continue to exist, not, as Tich Nhat Hanh would say, in a historical form but as a living Buddha, always available through his teaching.
This is also true for Christianity. The major festivals of Christmas and Easter keep alive the memory of Jesus and celebrating them renews and confirms believers in their membership of the Christian community. They keep alive a way of life that is to be lived out in ordinary time and in the ordinary events of life. In so far as Christians do this, they make Christianity and the life and message of Jesus credible. The recent feast of Pentecost underlines this. This is the festival that remembers how the followers of Jesus, discouraged by his death, no longer having his physical presence amongst them are transformed from fearful men and women to people ready to face the world and share the message and way of life they had learned from Jesus. The images of wind and tongues of fire are used in the scriptures to illustrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, a Spirit which they identified as God’s Spirit and the one that had energised Jesus so that he was understood to be still with them, not in a historical or physical sense but in a spiritual and real sense. The historical Jesus had become what Christianity calls the Risen Jesus or the Cosmic Christ, associated with the power and energy that had created the universe. Inspired by the Holy Spirit Christians now have the power to live lives of love, reconciliation, openness, generosity, courage, representing in their own daily lives the qualities that Jesus displayed in his. And the authenticity of Jesus’ life and teaching is judged by how they do this.
There would have been a time when Christians thought that the Holy Spirit was given only to them as followers of Jesus but in this age we now recognise the presence of the Spirit in all people who are made in the image and likeness of God and animated by God’s spirit whether they choose to live by that Spirit or not. It is a power that we all have to live a good and wholesome life, contributing to the common good of all including the cosmos in which we all live and in which we are all interconnected. It is a power that gives hope at a time when the future of humanity and our planet is in crisis. It is a power and a presence that transforms what we have called ordinary time into something sacred and grace filled. If only we had the eyes to see it!
RSS Feed
