Editorial

WHAT'S OUR TASK IN NEW MILLINNIUM? IT'S GOD'S WORLD, AND FUTURE IS UP TO HIM

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Jan. 1, 2000, will be a significant date. We passed from year 1998 to 1999 with a familiar ease. When we hang our year 2000 calendars on Jan. 1, we will probably step back and ponder what is happening. We are convinced that there is still some confusion about the new millennium when we hear comments such as: It is really difficult to understand, especially the Y2K thing. Most of us are surely beyond that point, but a new millennium can provoke some profound thoughts.

The beginning of the year 2000 is anticipated by some with dread when, as they believe God will terminate time on Earth as he ravages our planet. After that only the heavenly kingdom will remain. Others will pause on Jan. 1 to thank God for 2000 years of blessing his people with his loving kindness. Some have even observed three years of prayer focusing on the Son Jesus, on the Holy Spirit of God, and on the Heavenly Father, asking for a special spiritual insight that will enable them to pass joyfully and hopefully from the final day of 1999 to the year 2000.

Time is God's gift to us, and many civilizations have measured it and observed it in relationship with the stars and planets of the universe. Days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries and millenniums. In the distant past calendars were instruments that helped civic leaders to plan activities, to observe civic and cultural events and rites, and to keep a record of what had transpired. We might think that there have always been universal calendars to measure time and to regulate human activity. Various calendars have come and gone, none as well established and as widely used as the calendar of Julius Caesar as revised by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, known as the Julian Calendar.

It has never been possible to establish an acceptable beginning date of the new Christian Era, so it has not been possible to assign specific dates for major events such as the birth of Jesus Christ. This scandal continues to provoke reproaches that Christians do not know the exact date of Jesus' birth.

That being true, it is still not possible to identify with certainty the beginning and end of years, centuries and millenniums. Even today, it is seriously suggested that the third millennium may have begun four years ago. This historical difficulty should not dampen our enthusiasm for celebrating the beginning of the third millennium on Jan. 1, according to our calendar. This issue will probably always remain tentative.

There is an interesting interplay between important events in the history of the Roman Empire and the simultaneous growth and influence of Christianity. Our current political sensitivities cause us to feel uncomfortable with the intertwining of matters of church and state. We read in the second chapter of the gospel according to Luke: "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child."

The church found it acceptable to record the account of the birth of Jesus in the context of Roman history, even in the Sacred Scripture, while some short years later a Roman caesar could humble himself to declare that a new era began with the birth of Jesus, and that the year of his birth should be known as the first year of the Lord.

We have become accustomed to the designation of years as, for example A.D. 1999, from the two Latin words Anno Domini, meaning "year of the Lord." So we may speak formally of the coming new year as the 2,000th year of the Lord.

It is noteworthy that while the Julian calendar is widely accepted, it is not used universally. Noteworthy, because Jesus, by uniting himself to our humanity by his birth into the world, made all people one in the family of God. But all people did not enter freely into that unity. However, there are recurring outbreaks of speculation about a one-world society, in spite of failed attempts to bring it about.

During the past 1,000 years, the tendency of the three major religions of the world Judaism, Christianity and Islam has been increasing fragmentation and division, not unity and love of God. True, often the cause of tension has been political, not religious. The term "revealed religion" is given to Judaism and Christianity because they were called into being by God with the assistance of man. A certain divine plan to benefit all God's people seems to be implied.

Judaism is the oldest religion revealed by God. We read about its origins in the book of Genesis. God called Abram (later called Abraham) to be the first of the patriarchs, before Isaac and Jacob, to lead his people, Israel. The account in Genesis cannot be termed history in the strict sense, but the era of the patriarchs is generally placed in the second millennium B.C. (2000-1500). Abraham was the first person to know God as the "one true God," pre-existent and transcendent. God created all that exists. To him is owed worship and obedience.

Christianity is evolved from Judaism, and Jesus is the fullness of its revelation. Jesus is the great prophet promised by Judaism. While Judaism promised salvation for the Jews, Christianity promises salvation to every person. By becoming man, the Son of God, Jesus, united himself with every human person. Man embraces that unity through faith in God, and love of God and neighbor. The promise of salvation by God runs through the entire history of God's relationship with his people.

Islam is the religion of the Prophet Mohammed and his followers. In certain regions, the followers of Islam are called Moslems or Muslims. Islam believes in the one true God who made himself known through the Prophet Mohammed. The basis of Islamic belief is the Koran, the created word of God which Islamics believe was revealed to Mohammed by the Angel Gabriel over a period of years. Some texts of the Koran resemble Jewish and Christian Scriptures in content and language, and are a basis for mutual recognition.

A Paulist father, Alvin Illig, a renowned scholar in the fields of evangelization and ecumenism, saw the strongest bond of unity between Judaism, Christianity and Islam to be belief in one Creator God who is to be worshiped and obeyed. Jews call him Yahweh. Christians call him Lord God. Islamics call him Allah, and all know him as the God of Abraham. Incidentally, God confided to Moses that his name is I AM, that is, being without beginning or end. These three religions share some basic beliefs while differing in others. Father Illig maintained that if the total membership of these three religions were added to non-members who are however ethically and morally influenced by cultures, at the heart of which is Judaism, Christianity and Islamism, they would total about 85 percent of world population.

This is a compelling statistic at a time when there is renewed consideration of a world society of all humanity. Putting aside all consideration of monumental obstacles to the establishment of a world society such as intense ethnic loyalty, the rejection of a native language, the support of an intensely embraced national, religious, political culture, an alternative plan for a world-society might be considered, Father Illig suggested. A manmade world society could come about only by imposing harsh, unjust, destructive requirements on every person. History records the failure of such measures in the past.

There is an alternative, which is to recognize and embrace an existing world order of mankind bound together by God's creative love. It might be objected that Judaism dates from about 2500 B.C., Christianity was founded in the year A.D. 1, and Islam dates from about A.D. 622. And it can be justly observed that love and peace have generally not characterized their religious inter-relationships. The question has often been asked through the centuries: Is God and his religion for mankind not powerful enough to bring about a world order of love and peace? It is not a matter of a lack of power of the Creator God, but the abuse of power given to his sons and daughters to whom he gave the freedom to reject their God and to disobey his commands. Jews, Christians and Islamics, and also those who profess not to know the love of God, must all acknowledge that we have sinned against the wisdom of God by which he enables us to live a life of even worldwide love, justice and peace.

A review of the second millennium which is coming to a close reveals that this has been a long period of fragmentation and division in Judaism, Christianity and Islamism with a resulting chaos within our religions and in world society. The solution to this monumental problem is not to discard God's plan. If people of religion have failed so badly while at least professing faith in the God of Abraham, what tragic failure might one expect when God's people attempt to form a world-society of love, justice and peace employing only the merely human powers they possess.

As we enter the third millennium on Jan. 1, the 2,000th year of the Lord, we might be overawed by the challenge of establishing a new world order. If we presumptuously think that we are charged with that responsibility we are mistaken. It is God's world. Since he created it and us in it, he is also able to renew it and renew us in the process if we are open to conversion of heart. Our contribution to a new world order is to live faithfully in accordance with the wisdom of God and so enter into union with all of his people through a life of faith and love. We recall that St. Paul said we are all ambassadors of God, suggesting to us a New Year resolution.

Have a happy new year! A blessed new millennium!

Monsignor Joseph Gosche of Cape Girardeau is a retired Roman Catholic priest and former pastor of St. Mary Cathedral.