Living by the Calendar

 

Emphasizing religious rather than secular feasts

04/29/2026

John 10:22-30 The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

Do you live by the calendar? What I mean is are you counting the days till the next holiday or vacation? I know I did as a school kid: we got out for a couple of days at Easter and the next break will be summer vacation. You may have already made plans for Memorial Day, then the 4th of July, and don’t forget Labor Day will come soon after that, and Thanksgiving is not far behind! Sometimes the holidays on the secular calendar dominate our lives and so we live from holiday to holiday.

Today’s gospel from John 10 begins by mentioning one of the holidays on the Jewish calendar, namely, the Feast of the Dedication. We read: “The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter.” Now, what did the feast of the Dedication commemorate? Back in 164 B.C. the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes had desecrated the Jerusalem Temple and altar, and the Maccabees had led a revolt to expel the Greeks and rededicate the Temple for sacred purposes. It is also called the feast of lights or Hanukkah because the Temple’s seven-candle menorah was relit.

In a sense, the Jews also lived by their calendar: not from secular holiday to holiday but from religious holy day to holy day. How so? Well, they celebrate three major pilgrim feasts in which they had to travel like pilgrims from wherever they lived to Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. But in addition to these major pilgrim feasts they also observed minor feasts like Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and today’s feast of Dedication. Just like school children in America go from Spring Break to summer vacation, so the Jews lived by their calendar from holy day to holy day.

Being aware of these milestone feasts is especially important as you read the gospel of John. Why? Because in a sense John’s gospel also lives by the calendar and details events of Jesus’ life occurring during different feasts. John makes a point to explain to the reader (you and I) it was Passover, or it was Tabernacles, or today, it is the Dedication. But for John, Jesus did not come simply to celebrate the Jewish feasts, he came to replace them with himself. Henceforth, these feasts would not point to past events – like the Exodus, or the law at Mt. Sinai – but to what Jesus has done and continues to do today and forever.

My friends, I think we Catholic Christians should also live by the calendar. Now I don’t meant jumping from holiday to holiday – Memorial Day to July 4th – but from holy day to holy day. It’s kind of funny but I guess Roman Catholics, like ancient Jews also have 3 pilgrim feast when they travel to the temple (the church) each year, namely, Ash Wednesday, Easter, and Christmas. That’s the only days of the year some Catholics darken the doors of a church. But the same Catholics would never miss a celebration on the secular calendar. How ironic that holidays are sacred and holy days are optional.

On the feast of the Dedication, the Jews celebrated the expulsion of secular powers that had desecrated the sacred temple and the Greeks had actually made it a gymnasium. In other words, the Greeks wanted to replace the sacred with the secular, while the feast of the Dedication observed the opposite: the Jews replacing the secular with the sacred. Now, please don’t misunderstand my point. I am not advocating for prayer in public schools or placing the 10 Commandments in every public school classroom. The public domain should be free from any particular religious expression or dominance, which is the gist of the First Amendment.

What I am urging, however, is that our hearts should be the home of prayer and where we place the 10 Commandments. And our lives should reflect the priorities in our hearts. I couldn’t disagree more with people who say, “I don’t have time to go to church.” That statement is simply not true. We always make time for what is important to us. People should rather say – if they are honest – “Going to church is not important enough for me to make time for it.” We all live by the calendar. We jump from holiday to holiday, or from holy day to holy day. It’s just a matter of what’s important to us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!