Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
On Christmas Eve I stopped at a CVS to pick up some last minute items. When I entered the store I stopped dead in my tracks. It was only Dec. 24 and the CVS was decked out for Valentine's Day. Heart shaped candy boxes and valentine greeting cards as far as the eye could see--- and not a sprig of holly or a single candy cane in sight. Elevator music supplanted Christmas carols, even Santa displaced by Cupid. Of course, I had to remind myself, our consumerist culture doesn't follow the liturgical year of the Catholic Church.
Yesterday was the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, officially ending Christmastime. Today is the first day of Ordinary Time, the appropriate day to ask the question, “How was your Christmas?” Sadly our society prefers to ask that question on Dec. 26, when Catholics just begin the yuletide.
As we begin Ordinary Time, Jesus takes center stage upon the arrest of John the Baptist. Mainline Protestant and Catholic scripture scholars think that Jesus initially headed south from Galilee to Judea (70 miles on foot) upon hearing rumblings of a wild apocalyptic prophet roaring about at the Jordan. “People went out to John from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan” (Matt 3:5).
John's fire and brimstone warned of “God's great cosmic clean up”--- the dreaded end times, the messianic age about to burst on the scene when the unrighteous would get their comeuppance. But now Jesus highlights a Kingdom not awaited for on the horizon but a messianic age already “in our midst”---for those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The Kingdom of God is in the here and now and that's the good news proclaimed today. Ordinary Time? There is nothing “ordinary” about that!
Some folks think that “Ordinary Time” means the blase, the ho-hum time of the liturgical year. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my view the better name for this season is “Ordinal Time”---that is, the order of the days. Not “the boring days” are here again.
For Christians no day can be “ordinary.” Everyday is infused with Easter. Every chapter, every verse, every line, every word of the New Testament is written in light of Easter. Yes, even Christmas and Lent itself are kept because of Easter. “We are Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” (St. Augustine).
Afro-American mystic Howard Thurman's well loved poem is most suitable for today:
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings are home in their palaces,
When shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release captives,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among peoples,
To make music in the heart.
Nothing “ordinary” about that!
Timothy J. Cronin