Coffee with Sister Vassa

 

THE LIGHT OF HUMAN BEINGS

There’s so much to write about today: It’s New Year’s Day; it’s also the NC (meaning New Calendar and not North Carolina, just so you know)-feasts of The Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great; it’s the OC day before the Forefeast of Nativity and Holy Martyr Bonifatius; and it’s a Wednesday. All faith-invigorating topics, particularly on New Year’s Day. But I’ll reflect just on the faith-inspiring coincidence that we are beginning this year on a Wednesday, called “the fourth day” in Hebrew and Greek, which signifies the Fourth Day of creation, when God created and put into motion the planets and the stars. He thus formed and put into motion what is known as “time.” And “God saw that it was good.” 

The forward motion of time, which we celebrate on New Year’s, was “good” in God’s eyes from the beginning. His only-begotten Son reaffirmed this goodness of our time, by stepping into it; by becoming One of us via a Virgin Birth, and walking through it His way, the Way of the Cross. We celebrate both these central mysteries of Christianity every Wednesday, which in our Byzantine liturgical tradition is the day of the Cross and of the Theotokos, with the liturgical hymns thematizing specifically the “stavro-theotokial” topic of her standing next to the Cross. We thus celebrate every Wednesday the “goodness” of God-given time in light of the Cross, and in light of the reality of all of us, as the Mother-Church (signified by the Mother of God), standing near the Cross and participating in her lament. It is a lament that is always leading us to the joy of new life, as the Cross leads to Resurrection. Christ Himself consoles us from His Cross, as in the hymn we chant on Holy Saturday: “Do not lament me, O Mother…, for I shall rise…” I’m reminded also of Bob Dylan’s prophetic song, “It’s alright, Ma, I’m only dying…”

We’re not closing our eyes to the dark reality of Christ being crucified in our world, also in our time, as we stay close by the side of His Cross. But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,” (Jn 1:5) is the Great Fact in this human-divine drama, in which we are called to be receiving and emanating this invincible Light. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of human beings.” (Jn 1:4) Let me not miss out on shining the Light onto the darkness today, is my New Years Day resolution (because New Year’s resolutions for the whole year don’t work for me). Thank You, God. Let there be light!

Happy New Year, dear Friends!