What themes run throughout the Church calendar?

First: Praise. For every occasion, there are various praises and Church Hymns that lift up the heart to experience the gospel of Christ, to experience the life of heavenly joy, and to discover the theological meaning behind the occasion through which the soul is edified and the image of God in our inner person is nurtured through the Holy Spirit.

Second: Continuous renewal. Life in Christ Jesus is called a new creation in the image of the Creator, as the apostle says, “[You] have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:10). And of heaven, we read, “Behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17; cf. Rev. 21:5). The goal of the Church calendar is to renew the heart daily through the fiery work of the Holy Spirit. Every day, the believer feels as though it is his first time to stand in heaven praising God and learning of His divine mysteries.

Third: Understanding that our days are the days of the Lord.⁶¹³ In Origen’s commentary on the verse, “So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua” (Judg. 2:7), he invites us to explore whether our days are the days of Joshua, days of the Lord Jesus⁶¹⁴ — or whether they are days of the devil or days of love for the world. Because the true believer experiences the work of the Holy Trinity, all his days are transformed; indeed, every breath of his life is for the Lord and all his days become days of the Lord. How much more does this apply to Sunday which is actually known as ‘the Lord’s Day,’ or to feast days?

Here we experience the words of the apostle: “Beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). The scholar Origen says, “it is necessary to understand that every single one of us proves to himself that he is either in good days or in bad, and proves that he possesses either ‘the days of Jesus,’ that is, the days of the just, or the days of the wicked. For if we comprehend ‘the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world’ (John 1:9) and we offer our souls to it in order to be enlightened, or if ‘the sun of justice’ (Mal. 4:2) rises up within us and ‘illuminates the world’ of our soul, then we also possess the ‘days of Jesus’ Christ, the days of salvation.”[ 615]

The characteristics of days of the Lord — especially the celebration of feasts and Church occasions — are as follows:

• a. We experience the vision of Him who is enthroned. Our perception is always seeking the vision of heaven and fellowship with the heavenly hosts in praise. May our days be days of the Lord, so that our depths may be elevated to heaven.

613 See Origen, Homilies on Judges 1 (FOTC 119:39ff).

614

Editor’s Note: in Hebrew and Arabic, the names ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jesus’ are slight variations on the same name.

615 Origen, Homilies on Judges 1 (FOTC 119:39–40).

• b. Our days are marked by an abundance of great peace , but evil days destroy peace. The Lord is the King of Peace (cf. Heb. 7:2). When our days become days of the Lord, He fills our depths with His peace, even in the midst of hardships. The scholar Origen says, “do you want to learn from the prophet who they are who possess ‘an abundance of peace’? Hear how he says in the Psalms: There is ‘great peace for those who love your name, and there is no stumbling-block for them’ (Ps. 118:165 LXX; 119:165).”⁶¹⁶

• c. Our days are marked by great and perpetual light , but days of evil are marked by a deceptive light. Origen distinguishes between true light and deceptive light as follows:

• i. True light raises the heart to that which is heavenly, inspiring a yearning for heavenly life; but deceptive light binds a person to transitory things of the world such as riches, glory, and honor, deceiving him that such things are permanent.

• ii. There is no fellowship between Christ and Satan. The believer must choose whether his days will belong to the Lord or to the enemy of good.

• iii. He whose days are days of the Lord does not find his happiness in transitory pleasures but in bright light.

• iv. He whose days are days of the Lord, enjoys the divine light of truth, not the light that conveys falsehood.

• v. Prayer, the encounter with the Lord of Glory, Jesus, is the way to experience the true light.

• d. Days of the Lord are connected with His word, His wisdom, or the divine commandment . The hearts of the apostles and spiritual leaders were occupied with helping us to experience the sweetness and effectiveness of the commandment through divine grace, so that we may receive the divine light, be enlightened and taste days of the Lord.

• e. The days of the Lord prolong the days of the elders . Origen speaks of the visit of St. Mary to the house of the as yet unborn fetus of John the Baptist [Luke 1:38–45] who nonetheless witnessed to Christ with splendor — though he was just a six-month old fetus — and is thus considered to be greater than the chief priests and priests who did not care to meet the baby Jesus. In the eyes of God, the days of John the fetus are longer than the years lived by those rulers who failed to fulfil their mission as preachers of divine truth. The days of the saints are called long because they are precious days of love. Every breath taken in such a life is priceless. As for the wicked,

616 Origen, Homilies on Judges 1 (FOTC 119:42).

whose love has grown cold, their days are short, trivial, and fleeting. Of these it was said, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).

• f. He whose days are days of the Lord knows the day of salvation through the cross . All the works of God are great and excellent, but the mystery of their greatness lies in their connection to the Day of Redemption or the Cross.