Page Text: Where Religion, Philosophy and Demographics Meet
Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.
Friday, April 01, 2022
Three Feasts
A family in worship. (Attribution: https://lsa.umich.edu/histartvrc/news-events/all-news/search-news/a-new-discovery-in-the-michigan-sinai-archive.html)
Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God. -- Exodus 23:13-17
The second half of the book of Exodus is devoted to God speaking in majesty to Moses on the mountain for forty days, after the Israelites have escaped from slavery and are waiting, sometimes quietly, sometimes idolatrously, at the foot. And most of what God has to say from the ineffable cloud is about the right way to worship. Even the numerous chapters listing the proper fixings for the tabernacle, the curtains and basins and clips and priestly garments, are only an attempt to faithfully reproduce the vision of heavenly worship "as it has been shown you on the mountain", as God says over and over.
God prescribes three great feasts in the year: the feast of unleavened bread; the feast of harvest, celebrating the first fruits; and the feast of ingathering, celebrating the end of the harvest. The three-fold structure suggests the Trinity, and is reflected in the three major feasts the Church now celebrates: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread seems to me to correspond with Easter, and as such is the feast of the Son. It commemorates the sacrament of the Son: the Eucharist.
The Feast of Harvest, celebrating the first fruits, corresponds to Christmas, when the Father sends his first fruit, the Son. I think we can call Christmas the feast of the Father. The feast of the first fruits can also be linked to the sacrament of the Father: Baptism.
The Feast of Ingathering, when all the fruits are gathered in, corresponds to Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit. This feast also correlates with the feast of the Holy Spirit: Confirmation.
All worship springs from the pattern shown on the mountain, which is the ultimate reality of heaven. As we strive to worship in Spirit and in Truth, our feasts conform less to our earthly ideas of what worship looks like, and more and more participate in the heavenly worship, of which all our earthly ceremonies are only types.
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