Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

Session 3 Keeping the Rhythm of the Spirit Living the Baptized Life in Christ through the Church Year

We Mark Time by Its Connection to the Christ Event: Jesus of Nazareth in Our World

Contemporary liturgical scholarship has pointed out that the focal point and source of the Christian year is the death and resurrection of Christ. Even the earliest Christians recognized that the death and resurrection of Jesus began the “new time.” The fact that two major events of the church took place during Jewish celebrations – Passover and Pentecost – helped the early Christians to associate themselves with the Jewish reckoning of time and yet dissociate themselves by recognizing that a new time had begun. Thus, like the Jews, the early Christians marked time but, unlike the Jews, they marked their time now by the events of the new age. The unique feature of the Christian conception of time is the major moment ( kairos ) through which all other kairoi and chronoi find their meaning. This unique moment is the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Thus, in Christianity, all time has a center. Paul developed this notion in his epistle to the Colossians declaring that Christ is the creator of all things (1:16), the one in whom all things hold together (1:17), and the one through whom all things are reconciled (1:20). Christ is the cosmic center of all history [italics mine]. Everything before Christ finds fulfillment in Christ. Everything since Christ finds its meaning by pointing back to Christ.

~ Robert Webber. The Services of the Christian Year . Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994. p. 79.

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I. The Evolution of the Church Year

We celebrate special days, set aside through tradition, hallowed over time, and appropriately celebrated and remembered by many faithful Christians in church every year. Think I’m talking about Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and other holy days of the Church Year? Guess again! I’m referring to Independence Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the myriad other secular holidays that many churches so eagerly celebrate (just insert Bastille Day, Australia Day, or any other holiday if you’re not from the USA). I see no problem in wanting to celebrate the special days of our countries; we are proud to be American, French, Australian, English, or whatever countries we hail from. I believe we should recognize and celebrate this.

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