Augustin Sokolovski
Brothers and sisters,
“God in Jesus Christ made Himself temporary in order to free us from time,” wrote Saint Augustine (354-430). Today we have come to pray before the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Living in a global world, we, Orthodox Christians of the 21st century, know that different nations and continents celebrate the New Year in different times. So, in the history of the Church, the New Year has not always been celebrated in the same way.
Currently, in liturgical books and the liturgical calendar, the New Year begins on September 1. This is still the case in the Orthodox Church and even among Roman Catholics. Once upon a time, the New Year coincided with the beginning of spring, began on the Annunciation. There were other dates. Easter is also a New Year, perhaps the most important one. After all, it is with the Resurrection of Christ that all previous history, in modern terms, is rebooted. In the language of theology, the history of the world rushes to its fulfillment, for there is nothing more that can prevent it from ending immediately, except for the salvation of those people who will have to be saved." To complete the number of Angels lost after the fall of demons," as St. Augustine and the tradition of the doctrine of Predestination to Salvation associated with him would say.
New Year is always a farewell and always a greeting. We say goodbye to those who left us in the past year and who are no longer with us. So that this mournful "they are no longer with us" does not become an indication of the future, we entrust our departed to the prayers of the saints and the mercy of God.
We go into the New Year with the saints. There are many well-known virtues. These are mercy, love, generosity. But there are virtues of a different kind, at the same time practical and speculative, for which the Lord also abundantly rewards with grace. One of such virtues is to remember as many saints as possible, to know by heart the days of their memory; so that time becomes not just a list of numbers and days, but a gracious and grateful recollection of holiness.
We leave for the New Year saying goodbye and greeting. We welcome everything that the Lord has to give us in the coming time. We ask that this not be too sorrowful. We ask for more joy because we are people and we want to be like our God, and God is joy, bliss and happiness. God is the future of man, so we ask Him to approach us with this side of Him, not in punishment for the past, but in blessing the future. Bless us, O God, our God, o our beautiful far away!