Syro-Malabar calendar elevates summer feasts

The Catholic Register, 29 July 2020

The Syro-Malabar calendar reminds the faithful that the ordinary story of salvation remains extraordinary for all time.

Our calendar of liturgical seasons is rather bare compared to some of our sister Catholic Churches. That is never more evident than in our long season of “Ordinary Time,” an uninspired translation of a banal original (in Latin, “Sundays of the Year”).

Ordinary Time takes up most of the calendar, falling in two parts: after the Christmas season until Lent, and after Pentecost until Advent. Before the liturgical reform of the 1960s, there was no Ordinary Time. Sundays were counted as “Sundays after Epiphany” or “Sundays after Pentecost.” That had the advantage of anchoring the “ordinary” Sundays to the great feasts by which Christians keep time.

Even that older Roman tradition, though, is not as rich as some of the Eastern liturgical traditions. Last winter I was blessed to visit Kerala, the southern Indian state which is home to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Their calendar has nine seasons instead of our four, and it is especially rich at this time of year, in the prominence given to the feast of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6).

The first four Syro-Malabar seasons are roughly comparable to the Roman seasons that we follow: Annunciation (which corresponds to our Advent and Christmas), Epiphany, Great Fast (Lent), Resurrection (Easter).

The next five seasons replace our Ordinary Time: Apostles, Summer, Elijah-Cross, Moses, Dedication of the Church.

The season of Apostles begins with Pentecost and commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the early Church. It includes the solemn feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29). It is followed by Summer, or perhaps better translated as “harvest time.” This season marks the work of the apostles and the fruit born from their missionary activity.

Perhaps the most interesting are the seasons of Elijah-Cross and Moses, sometimes understood together as a single period. The season points to the second coming and the final victory of Christ crucified. The central feast of the season is the Triumph of the Cross (Sept. 14).

In both the Syro-Malabar calendar and the Roman calendar, the feasts of the Transfiguration and Triumph of the Cross are 40 days apart, similar to the other great “forties” in the calendar — Christmas to the Presentation (Feb. 2), Lent and Easter to Ascension Thursday.

The Transfiguration, which we celebrate in a few days time, has a greater prominence in the East. The Syro-Malanakara Church, for example, has a season of Transfiguration. The Syro-Malabar calendar understands the Transfiguration as being more than a moment to strengthen the apostles for the Passion to come. It points far beyond, to the end of history and the Lord’s return in glory. The “completion” of the Transfiguration 40 days later with the Triumph of the Cross means that the cross, too, is a moment of glory.

Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus at the Transfiguration. The seasons of Elijah-Cross and Moses thus remind the Church of the long preparation for the coming of Jesus in the history of the Chosen People, and that we are awaiting His return in glory.

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