Why am I MJ one-note on lectionaries? Because most of us who use lectionaries are like fish in water ... it is so familiar we don't see it.
Why are liturgical dates important? Because they are our most natural topics. Consider the Orthodox list of Sundays: Presentation of Our Lord, Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, Sunday of the Prodigal Son .. In one way, the liturgical date is simply a name for a pericope or, more accurately, a set of pericopes.
In addition to naming the pericopes, it also situates the passage in Christian life. For example, the Sunday of the Man Born Blind appears near the end of Lent, the season in which candidates for baptism are given their final preparation. So when I see in passage in this context:
- I know that many centuries of Christians have found this passage to contain teachings essential to entering the Church.
- I know that the passages read with it have a shorter history of serving a scripture-interprets-scripture function.
- I know that many generations of Christians have ruminated over these passages as they prepare to welcome new members into the Church, prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord, and remember their own baptism any number of years ago.
- I know that Christians across centuries and continents have found this particular reading(s) useful for growing in faith - growing in a spiral of reviewing the same passages with some frequency and adding to my knowledge of the passage(s) with different commentary (homily) and different circumstances of life.
- I engage in participatory exegesis - joining fellow Christians reading the same passages in similar circumstances learning from those who go before me, those living with me and leaving a deposit of faith for those yet to come. In the Orthodox tradition the learning of the Early Church Fathers is especially emphasized.
- And, speaking from a Western perspective dating back to the Reformation, I hear the passages knowing that I can discuss the Scripture with people who attend other parishes (Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran historically) knowing that they heard the same passages in the same context. (Note: the number of churches using the same passages has increased but with varying degrees of similar context).
That is why liturgical date is important as a name for a topic, or more accurately, constellation of topics. It not only defines the topic; it also ties it to two millennia of Christian experience, practical knowledge and wisdom.
That is why I am "MJ one note" on the topic of having liturgical date recognized a primary topical key.
