With Easter very near now,
I think this a good time to denounce talk of fixing the date of Easter. I would rain imprecations upon those
proposing such an enormity, but Good Friday has helped me to be charitable. Yes, the Lord uses the church calendar
to work miracles.
Speaking of which, this
Good Friday is one illustration of why fixing Easter is such a bad idea. The rare correspondence of Good Friday
with the normal date for the Feast of the Annunciation has inspired much worthy
contemplation through the centuries, including from the Bede and John
Donne. And yesterday I mentioned
less worthy (but fun!) speculations of the apocalyptically minded.
We’ve been fortunate to
experience this conjunction twice, in 2005 and this year. But it will not occur again until 2157
. . . or never if the liturgical vandals have their way.
And this potential loss
would be just a part of the loss of tradition, the loss of links with the
church through the ages should we fix the date of Easter.
In a wonderful post on the
conjunction of Good Friday and Annunciation, A Clerk in Oxford contemplates
this loss well:
As a medievalist, I found the discussion
of the question of fixing a date for Easter a few months ago rather
depressing. If there were any theological arguments under consideration, no one
seemed to think it worthwhile to articulate them publicly; discussion focused
mostly on solving the non-existent problem that some people (schools, maybe?)
apparently find a movable date for Easter a bit inconvenient. I've never in my
life heard anyone complain
about being inconvenienced by the date of Easter, so I really struggle to
imagine who considers this a pressing issue. And for that, churches would break
with nearly two thousand years of tradition, a complex system worked out with
great care and thought and invested over centuries with profound meaning. The fixed dates proposed for Easter
are in April, so never again would Good Friday fall on the feast of the
Annunciation. So much loss for so little gain!
Indeed. May one of the lessons of this Easter
be that it does not need to be fixed!
May all my readers have a
glorious Easter.
2 comments:
Who has expressed a desire to fix the date of Easter? Civil authorities? Lazy ecclesiastical authorities? I have not heard this proposal seriously put forth by anyone, so I don't know who is doing so.
A fair question. The current Lord of Canterbury seems to be among those who are pushing this enormity.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12102278/Easter-date-to-be-fixed-within-next-five-to-10-years.html
wannabe
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