{"id":103218,"date":"2023-12-25T18:02:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T01:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103218"},"modified":"2023-12-25T18:02:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T01:02:05","slug":"new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/12\/new-beginnings.html","title":{"rendered":"New Beginnings?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Skellig Michael, located some eighteen miles off the coast of Ireland, and this pathway to its summit, should strike some \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans as a bit familiar.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christmas is winding down. \u00a0In certain areas of the globe, indeed, the Christmas holiday is already receding into the past \u2014 and a time that is often associated with resolutions for the future is rapidly approaching.<\/p>\n

Many of you, no doubt, follow the same brilliant labor-saving technique that I do: \u00a0I simply dust the previous year\u2019s list of unfulfilled resolutions off and then recycle them yet again. \u00a0For those, however, who may perhaps aspire to a bit more, I share this column, which I published in the Deseret News<\/em> back on 31 December 2020 when we were beginning to emerge from the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic:<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than resolutions: How religious holidays, traditions prompt remembering, reflection: Reflection, coupled with the notion of new beginnings, is at the very core of many religious beliefs and practices, including during Easter, Passover, Christmas, Ramadan, Yom Kippur and the sacrament.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with so much else this year, celebrations of New Year 2021 will be different. Perhaps, since our typical New Year celebration is almost precisely opposite what it ought to be, they\u2019ll be even better.<\/p>\n

At a season when many formulate personal resolutions for the next 12 months, overeating and raucously partying until almost morning provide little opportunity for taking stock or for reflection.\u00a0And sleeping into the forenoon, perhaps cognitively impaired by a hangover, probably doesn\u2019t advance most New Year\u2019s resolutions very well.<\/p>\n

But, despite all the obstacles that we\u2019ve erected against it, the turning of the year does afford a reasonably good occasion for remembrance, for reflection on the events, achievements, and failures of the preceding 12 months, and for learning from them.\u00a0Moreover, such reflection, coupled with the notion of new beginnings, is at the very core of many religious beliefs and practices.<\/p>\n

In the annual ritual of the Passover seder, for example, observant Jewish families reenact the meal that their ancestors consumed in Egypt and reflect upon the Exodus of the Children of Israel from their slavery in the Nile Valley.<\/p>\n

At Easter time, devout Christians meditate on the even greater deliverance that Christ provided, through his atonement and resurrection on a Passover weekend, from the bondage of sin and death.<\/p>\n

In the liturgy of the Mass, also known as the eucharist, communion, or, among Latter-day Saints, the sacrament, believers reenact the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples (Matthew 26:17-30<\/a>; Mark 14:12-26<\/a>; Luke 22:7-39<\/a>; John 13:1<\/a>-17:26; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26<\/a>) \u2014 which was itself a celebration of the Jewish Passover \u2014 and commemorate his sacrificial death and atonement on their behalf.\u00a0The heart of weekly worship in many Christian denominations, it is an occasion for meditation, reflection, and, for Latter-day Saints, for covenant-renewal and recommitment not unlike their temple worship.\u00a0And not unlike the serious resolutions of an ideal New Year\u2019s holiday.<\/p>\n

The righteous kings among the ancient Jaredites, a non-Hebraic people who left the Old World for the New centuries before the institution of the Passover and the Israelite escape from Egypt, were those who \u201cremembered the great things that the Lord had done\u201d for their ancestors in bringing them across the sea and who passed those memories on to the next generation (Ether 6:30<\/a>; 7:27<\/a>; 10:2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Christmas, beneath all of the glitter and commercialism, believers remember the coming of God in the flesh.\u00a0As one carol, \u201cThe Wexford Carol,\u201d exhorts us, \u201cGood people all, this Christmas-time, consider well and bear in mind\u00a0what our good God for us has done,\u00a0in sending His beloved Son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, handcart treks have become almost a rite of passage for youthful church members.\u00a0These experiences are not designed merely to satisfy antiquarian interest or to have a fun outdoor adventure.\u00a0Rather, the intent is to connect both the youth and their elders to the heroic sacrifices of their pioneer predecessors (especially in the Martin and Willie handcart companies), to help participants to identify with their spiritual ancestors and to emulate their religious commitment.<\/p>\n

During Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, pious Jews humbly remember the nomadic lives of their ancestors and solemnly repent of their shortcomings.<\/p>\n

In Islam, daily dawn-to-dusk fasting during the lunar month of Ramadan commemorates Muhammad\u2019s first revelation.\u00a0Devout Muslims commonly read the entire Quran over Ramadan\u2019s 29 or 30 days; all Arabic editions of the Quran are marked into 30 equal portions for precisely this purpose.<\/p>\n

Every year, too, Shiite Muslims (especially in Iran) commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s grandson Husayn in a \u201cpassion play\u201d known as \u201cta\u2019zieh \u201c(or \u201cta\u2019ziya\u201d).\u00a0The term \u201cpassion play\u201d points unavoidably to its counterparts in the Christian tradition \u2014 the most famous of them being the \u201cPassionspiele\u201d at Oberammergau in Bavaria, which have been performed roughly every 10 years since 1634.\u00a0(See the previous column \u201cFour centuries of Christian devotion in a small Bavarian town<\/a>\u201d on\u00a0www.deseret.com<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n "

Commonly, to recall and lament the suffering of Husayn and his family, the observances of ta\u2019ziya include self-flagellation, which is also practiced by the famous Christian flagellant \u201cPenitentes\u201d of New Mexico and elsewhere.\u00a0(See \u201cChimay\u00f3, the \u2018Lourdes of America<\/a>\u2019\u201d on www.deseret.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Such looking backward is grounded in hope for a new and better future life, most clearly represented in Christianity by the symbolic rebirth of baptism, which prefigures the greater rebirth of resurrection after death.<\/p>\n

(For brief related comments on \u201cThe acts of remembering and forgetting,\u201d drawing particularly on the groundbreaking work of Louis Midgley, see this previous column on www.deseret.com<\/a>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>

The island of Skellig Michael (or \u201cSceilig Mhich\u00edl\u201d), where an Irish (Celtic) monastery flourished between the 6th-8th century and the 12th*
*(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, while Christmas remains on our minds \u2014 and perhaps, for a few hours more, on our calendar \u2014 we won\u2019t be injured at all if we continue to think about it. \u00a0Here is a good piece from the editors of the Deseret News<\/em> that I commend to your notice: \u00a0\u201cOpinion: \u2018He appeared and the soul felt its worth\u2019:\u00a0The James Webb Telescope has shown the world a glimpse into endless and spectacular creation. The question is, do puny humans on a tiny speck of a planet really matter?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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