Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost: the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, and through them, to the entire world. In Orthodoxy, when we commemorate these biblical events, we do not simply remember them as happening in the past, but we celebrate that they are happening now. The rational for this stems from a distinction which the Greeks make between “Chronos” time and “Kairos” time.
In our modern world and culture, we tend to focus upon time as being chronological (Chronos); the kind we measure using clocks and calendars, like a river which continually flows forward and never backwards. Thus, in a sense, what is past is gone forever.
The Greeks, however, believed in time as also being Kairos: repeatable again and again. Therefore, important biblical events and feasts can not only be remembered, but in ritual they can be made present. A sacred or significant event of the past can be repeated and its original meaning made accessible under the special, intentional circumstances.
The Kairos of Orthodox worship is most clearly evident in the celebration of the Eucharist, for it is based upon a past event, Christ’s famous Last Supper with His disciples in the Upper Room prior to His Passion. Thus, an ancient historic event in which certain foods were eating, certain prayers were said, and certain specific words were uttered is manifested in a contemporary setting, as if it were happening today. So even though two thousand years have passed, all that chronological time and distance cannot prevent us from experiencing a supremely holy event; to the sacred reality that was revealed there and then.
It must be noted, however, that Kairos time leaves little room for change or innovation, for it is the re-celebration of a specific event in time. And repeating things in the same way as were done, helps to build continuity, develop solidarity with generations past, and the idea of community with fellow Orthodox Christians throughout the world because each parish is celebrating the same thing in the same way and in the same manner!
Fr. John
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