New Year's Day and The Eighth Day, A.D. 2009

Happy New Year!


The Eighth Day of Christmas
as
1--Feast: our Namesake
2--Parousia: Maranatha!
3--Mystagogy: "Christ's Peace" & Theosis
4--Beatitude: Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Big Question:
Why does The Circumcision on the Eighth Day of Christmas
become the beginning of the New Year, Anno Domini 2009 ?

Short Answer:
Because the Public Naming of Jesus
-- the Incarnate Lord of History --
precisely in the blood-letting of circumcision,
a "cutting the Covenant" which
changes all history by fulfilling history itself.

Ps 143.11
For your Name's sake,
Lord, save my life; in your justice save my soul from distress.
Por amor a tu Nombre,
SEÑOR, vivifícame; por tu justicia, saca mi alma de la angustia.


Gospels of Matthew and Luke:
But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). [Mt 1.20-23, cf Isaiah 7.14]
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the Name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. [Lk 2.21]

1
The 8th Day as Feast
of The Circumcision and the Naming of the Lord:

The Feast Day in Christian Tradition

Many people, Christian or not, use the western calendar’s New Year’s Day on 1 January as a time of taking stock, evaluating decisions, and making resolutions. It’s also the Church feast day commemorating the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.

Gloria in excelsis Deo,

The Feast in Culture: Mere Comments

And that is the deep meaning of those glorious lists of "begats" which tin-eared modern exegetes assign to some plodding "Priestly" author, not seeing the connection with the redemption foretold. See comments on the Feast as a theme of "Sir Gawain and the Green Night":
...the poem begins and ends with a New Year's Feast -- and for the author and his audience, that was none other than the feast of the Circumcision. The author is careful, throughout the poem, to note the passage of the seasons in terms also of the passage of feasts in the life of the Church~

See also this sermon on The Circumcision offered by Fr. Robert Hart.
Jesus, Y’Shua, is a Hebrew name that means Salvation. . . .

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ~

Happy New Year!


2
The 8th Day as Parousia in the Scripture and Liturgy of the Church:

The Eighth Day: the Peace of the New Jerusalem

The Eighth Day in Liturgy: Epiclesis and "Maranatha" in the Early Church.

Happy New Year!

3
The 8th Day as Mystagogy in Liturgy
of Theosis and the Eschaton:

Mystagogy, Theosis, Eschaton

OrthodoxWiki basics and resource links.

manger and circumcision, Cross and Eucharist

the Mystery of Bethlehem as the "House of Bread" for Eucharist,
the Manger as "feeding trough" for all creation,
the Circumcision as a typos of the Cross.

The 8th Day and the 8 Weeks:
The Orthodox Churches of the Middle East prepare for The Nativity over 8 Weeks.
This Oriental Advent is mystagogically reflected in the Feast of The Circumscision on the Eighth Day of the Nativity.
The Church's Liturgical Feast makes sacramentally present
the "cutting of the Covenant" and the public naming of the infant "Jesus" -- as do the initial Sundays of the Eight Weeks of Preparation for the Nativity:

Sanctification of the Church: Koodhosh Eetho

Dedication of the Church: Hoodhosh Eetho

The above 2 Sundays begin the Church's New Year on the Liturgical Calendar.
The theological and liturgical "ordo" of the Church's Calendar thus reveal,
as if an epihpany of The Eigthth Day of the Nativity,
a "theological anthropology" of this day as Sanctification and Dedication:
the beginning of a New Covenant and a New History for all the world, for all creation.
Happy New Year!

4
The Eighth Day of Christmas
and
the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel:

The Eight Beatitudes in Spirituality

The Works of Mercy as a share in the Peace which comes "not of this world."

The Eight Beatitudes in Scripture Commentary

A briefing of textual attentions.

Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.
Happy New Year!


NEXT:
On The 12th Day of Christmas

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Jordan Waters
in the Rites of Theophany
-- January 6, 2009 --
a sacramental "crossing over" into The New Jerusalem
and mystically attends us to The New Aeon.

Blessings to all in 2009, the New Year of Our Lord,
Fr. Michael Durka +