www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Why is the Calendar Controversy such an Emotional Subject?

I have written "amen" because I agree with my brothers in Christ (Fr Serge, AMM, and others) for a preference of the Julian calendar. and in turn you castigate me. Why must you be so angry?

Can't say I ever understood it either. Seems as from a common sense point of view, Easter should always come after Passover (I'm Byzantine Catholic).

...and additionally, I think Catholics should celebrate Passover as well.

The criteria set forth by the Council of Nicaea assured that the celebration of Pascha would always come after the time when Passover should have taken place, regardless of when the Jewish authorities indicated they would celebrate it.

HOWEVER, that is not the subject of this thread.


And this is another subject entirely!

Stormshadow, you are free to start as many new threads as you like, but it is a discourtesy to jump into a thread and change the subject right off the bat!


Peace,
Deacon Richard

c) those who follow the Gregorian Calendar are likely to feel that the very existence of communities and individuals who maintain the Julian Calendar are a constant reproach to the Gregorian Calendar and those who use it.

Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.

So when he had washed their feet (and) put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Maybe I am in the extreme minority, but I just accept "some do X, others do Y, and God be praised we aren't all doing Z!" It just does not bother some of us.

Exactly. As for the calendar issue being an emotional subject, I don't care about it. It's important to someone, but not important to me at all.

most people who are religious in the first place have an emotional investment, so to speak, in matters which are directly related to their own religious experience

Guys,

I don't have any problem with this, but I want to emphasize the importance of recognizing the fact that some people feel differently.

There is an apparent discrepancy in the Evangelists' accounts, between John's Gospel on the one hand, and what on the other Mathew, Mark and Luke tell us.

According to John, Jesus died on the Cross at the very moment when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. The death of Jesus and the sacrifice of the lambs coincided.However, this means that he must have died the day before Easter and could not, therefore, have celebrated the Passover meal in person - this, at any rate, is how it appears.

According to the three Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper of Jesus was instead a Passover meal into whose traditional form he integrated the innovation of the gift of his Body and Blood.

This contradiction seemed unsolvable until a few years ago. The majority of exegetes were of the opinion that John was reluctant to tell us the true historical date of Jesus' death, but rather chose a symbolic date to highlight the deeper truth: Jesus is the new, true Lamb who poured out his Blood for us all.

In the meantime, the discovery of the [Dead Sea] Scrolls at Qumran has led us to a possible and convincing solution which, although it is not yet accepted by everyone, is a highly plausible hypothesis. We can now say that John's account is historically precise.

Jesus truly shed his blood on the eve of Easter at the time of the immolation of the lambs. In all likelihood, however, he celebrated the Passover with his disciples in accordance with the Qumran calendar, hence, at least one day earlier; he celebrated it without a lamb, like the Qumran community which did not recognize Herod's temple and was waiting for the new temple.

c) those who follow the Gregorian Calendar are likely to feel that the very existence of communities and individuals who maintain the Julian Calendar are a constant reproach to the Gregorian Calendar and those who use it.

I disagree entirely. Most Latins I know (and who know about the subject) couldn't care less. In fact there are some of us who actually enjoy the two different Easters (when they happen) so we can actually attend both Roman & Byzantine Rite Easter Vigils.