Jan 7 Cronan Beg 7th c

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you



January 7

Cronan Beg 7th c.

Cronan Beg, the little, was a bishop of Aendrum, County Down, Ireland. Go to County Down to get the few more details we have about this seventh century leader of our Celtic Catholic Church.

Cronan Beg is mentioned in connection with the controversy of 640. You think that something that took place almost fifteen hundred years ago is relevant to us today? Sometimes we think that something that happens fifteen days ago isn’t relevant any more. Still, there is a place for continuity, precedent, tradition.

When should we celebrate Easter? [maybe the question isn’t relevant any more – though it still separates Roman from Greek Catholics. Not to mention the quibbles that might arise were our secular calendar to dictate religious celebrations.] In a universal Church, we should all celebrate together – what we celebrate should be unified. Not that I am proposing a universal feast for Cronan Beg. Let’s agree that we should all celebrate Easter on the same day.

After six hundred years of one Christianity, we were ok with local decisions about when to celebrate Easter. Different traditions used different methods to arrive at a date. One commonality was that our bishops agreed that it was an ecclesiastical decision, not an astronomical one.

As our Church grew, we also tended to be less tolerant of diversity within our practices. That alone is a controversy worthy of weighing in on. Jeeze, if we cannot agree on when Easter happened? When Easter should be celebrated? These are two very different questions. How to answer them take us through very different sciences. What must we agree upon in order to say I am Catholic? Obviously, the date for Easter is not one of them, now is it? Ask our Greek brethren.

The Irish bishops arrived at an Easter date differently than our Bishop of Rome proselytized for our universal Church. The differences caused a clash between the Irish and English bishops. Go figure, a conflict between the Irish and the English?! The English were closely linked to Rome, having been converted in large part by St George, a Roman soldier. You’d think with Ireland being converted by the son of a Roman counselor, we’d have similar alignment. Patrick came to convert the Irish to the Christian God and Jesus Christ on our terms, not Rome’s.

In the noble tradition of conflict between the Irish and English, the clash between bishops of which date to use for Easter, and, thus, which bishops should have precedence over whom, the disagreements got out of hand. In a flash of accommodation, a conclave of Irish and English bishops agreed to submit their disagreement to the Bishop of Rome. Their letter was answered by the bureaucrats in Rome in the eight month hiatus between popes. The answer came back, surprise of surprises, directing the bishops to adopt the Roman calendar for the celebration of Easter.

Still, not every Irish Bishop jumped on board with the English and the Romans. Cronan Beg apparently shrugged his shoulders and asked like Rodney King, why can’t we just all get along? Or something like that.

Which are battles worth fighting? Which fights do we take to the mat? How do we decide? How do we concede? Not a matter of losing but of loving. Loving Christ. Loving one another.

I love you,
Dad
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