Happy New Year’s Day
New Year’s - - Why is it on January the First?
Written by Dan McDonald
Ushering in New Year’s at Times Square,
New York, New York.
What made Pope Gregory, creator of
our modern Western calendar choose January the first as the day to change from
an old year to a new year in our Western calendar? An older calendar had New Year’s Day in March. That is why our calendar’s numbered months of
the year are: Septem (7) Octo (8) Novem (9) and Decem (10);
even though respectfully these are actually the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and
twelfth months of the year. Why would a
Pope move the beginning of a new year from March to January? Why would he put the New Year’s celebration
in Christmastide, so much in the middle of the twelve days of Christmas? By putting New Year’s Day on January the
first, Pope Gregory put New Year’s Day on what was then and in some traditions
still is the eighth day of Christmas. I
suspect that Gregory recognized the great event that took place on the eighth
day of Christ’s life and its profound implications for the whole world.
St.
Luke’s Gospel account tells us without the bloody details what happened on the
eighth day. “And at the end of eight
days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21) The eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life was the
day appointed by the Scriptures for a Jewish boy’s circumcision. That was the day when a Jewish boy was
officially named and through circumcision was initiated into the covenant which
God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The sign of circumcision was connected to the promise that through
Abraham’s seed the nations would be blessed.
Luke points out, in accordance with Jewish law and custom, that Mary’s
child was named “Jesus” when he was circumcised. Before he was circumcised he may have been
called “Jesus” by his parents, but until he was circumcised he was without a
name in God’s covenant. So on the eighth
day of his young life, our Lord Jesus was brought to be circumcised and he was formally
made one with the people of God in the covenant God had made with Israel. As he entered that covenant he was given the
name angels had revealed to his mother and his guardian Joseph. He was given the name Jesus for he would save
his people from their sins.
Jewish boy
presented for circumcision (bris)
From a
Christian perspective when Jesus was presented by Joseph and Mary and placed
under the law through circumcision, the great transition between covenants
began to take place. Jesus was born and on
the eighth day placed within the Old Covenant, under the Law, so that he might
through his obedience to the point of death on the cross, fulfill the Old
Covenant and thereby become the foundation for the New Covenant. The day that Jesus was initiated into the Old
Covenant was the day that the transition from the Old covenant to New began. He was the one who would fulfill the Old
Covenant and therefore the one who would be the cornerstone and foundation of
the New.
Jesus
came to save us from our sins. The Law,
St. Paul told us had no power to perfect a man.
It could show by its statutes and by the spirit of it that we fell short
of the Law and the righteousness of God, but it did not have the power to
transform those of us who had become sinners to turn around and become
righteous or holy. The Law was like a
bathroom scale. It can tell me what I
weigh, but it cannot make me either skinny or fat. The end of the Law, according to the Apostle
Paul, was Jesus. The Greek word was “Telos.” The sort of end described in the Book of
Romans was the end as a goal, the finish line; the proper destination. The law’s goal was Christ. The Law looked over every man and woman born
and found none that fulfilled it. But
then on the eighth day, Mary and Joseph brought their child to be
circumcised. He began that day to
fulfill the Law and the Old Covenant, and in fulfilling it he became worthy of
becoming our Savior, our salvation, and the foundation for a new covenant wherein
He became the cornerstone and foundation for a new covenant wherein we are
granted forgiveness of sins and perfection of righteousness and the fruit of
the Spirit in him. That was what began
to take shape on the eighth day of Christ’s young life.
I
think that is why Pope Gregory moved New Year’s Day to be recognized on the
eighth day of Christmas. The day Christ
entered the covenant God made with his people, we began to move from the old to
the new; from a Law that condemned us for our sins to a Law that celebrated our
fullness of salvation in the glorious Savior who came on our behalf. Thus the first of January celebrates the
changing not only of one calendar year to the next, but of an old covenant to a
new, and of humanity’s condemnation to humanity’s eternal hope. On that day, as the young Jesus was circumcised
his name was announced as “Jesus”. His
parents, and perhaps no one else that day, understood the implications of that
name. He was Jesus who would save his
people from their sins. This eighth day
of Christmas is indeed a wonderful day to celebrate the coming of a New Year.
Our Lord
Alpha and
Omega
Our Origin and
Our Destiny
Our Past
healed + our future sealed
So I
say to you
HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment