OUR new year of 2003 AD is already taking on a defined shape, and typically some ‘newness’ is expected as a blind hope that things change for the better with the new calendar year.
Alternatively the efforts of 2002 in respect of the Brisbane archdiocesan synod will actively lead in the way of ‘newness’ in May 2003.
In the New Testament there are two Greek words for ‘new’, ie ‘neos’ and ‘kainos’. Jesus is described not as ‘neos’ in the sense of being new in relation to time. He is invariably described as ‘kainos’ in the sense of being qualitatively distinctive and different in ‘nature’.
‘Kainos’ is also contrasted with ‘palaios’. ‘Palaios’ is ‘old’ in the sense of prior service. ‘Kainos’ is ‘new’ in the sense of offering a new service.
Jesus’ commandment ‘to love as I have loved you’ in John 13:34-35 is described as ‘new’ despite the fact that such a commandment of love had been stated in Leviticus 19:18 centuries before.
For John, Jesus communicated a distinctive way of loving that was ‘kainos’. His message called for us to copy his life. His life was a new way of living and loving.
As we enter upon our new year of 2003 with falling Church affiliation, has Jesus’ life a message that remains ‘new’? The success of the archdiocesan synod will be measured against that question.
It is not a question of liberals versus conservatives nor any of those other comparisons.
As Matthew 13:52 says, a disciple of the kingdom will bring out of his treasure things both ‘kainos’ (new) and ‘palaios’ (old). If the synod remains at the level of merely contrasting the relative merits of the ‘kainos’ over against the ‘palaios’ then we are missing the essential message of the New Testament.
The challenge and excitement of the New Testament is that it chronicles ordinary men and women experiencing in Jesus’ person a ‘newness’ that was not just ‘neos’ but ‘kainos’. That newness catapulted those ordinary people into acts of personal heroism as they modelled themselves on Jesus.
Will the synod mean that for us? Will this will be a new (kainos) year like no other before and not just a new (neos) year?
VINCE HODGE
Paddington, Qld
