acts 20:17-27; Psalm 68 sing to God, o kingdoms of the earth; John 17:1-11
Today we celebrate the feast of Pope John I (523-526).
In his 2nd year as Pope he commissioned a monk to compile a calendar of the saints. He produced an updated list of feast days for saints to be celebrated throughout the year.
He then examined the formula by which the days and months of the calendar were determined; Julius Caesar had devised a calendar 500 years earlier, with months determined by the moon and year measured by the sun. The monk suggested to the Pope that the calculation of the year be reconfigured.
Instead of having dates given ab urbe condita (from foundation of the city of Rome over a thousand years earlier), he suggested history and configuring of dates be marked not by the foundation of Rome but by the birth of Christ.
Thus, history would be read through the lens of salvation: before the birth of CHrist or after the birth also known as Anno Domini (the year of the Lord)
when the Pope gave his approval for the change by which time was measured, history itself was changed. Now at the center of history, at the center of the way we keep time was marked by the central reality of salvation history. The incarnation marked the beginning of a new city, the heavenly jerusalem, which was to denote our movement through history, and Rome was to become second fiddle.
We keep time no longer by man's achievements but by the workings of God in our time and space:anno domini
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