This week, the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church returns us to “Ordinary Time”, a time when we “count” the weeks, one after another. Today, for instance, is the Monday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time. But in English, “ordinary” has another meaning. Using this meaning of “ordinary” might seem a bit peculiar, since the word “ordinary” is associated with things that are unimportant, insignificant, or just downright boring. The Church couldn’t possibly mean these types of things when speaking of the liturgy, or a season of liturgies, within the year.
So where does reflection on this alternate meaning of Ordinary Time lead us?
Well, the first answer is very practical. In light of the coming of God at the birth, His presentation, and baptism of Jesus that we have just celebrated, we are now entering a period without any major events being celebrated. After so many powerful feast days, the Church now returns to a season of “typical” Sundays and to a “normal” pace in the liturgy.
With this observation stated clearly, someone could innocently inquire about the focus of the Ordinary Time Masses. What does the Church give to believers who attend the liturgy during this season? This question might even be asked by those who regularly attend Mass but have never really paid attention to the different seasons or to the shift in the various emphases of the seasons.
During Ordinary Time, the Church’s prayers and selections of readings from the Sacred Scriptures have believers accompany the Lord Jesus in his public ministry and the Apostles as they venture out of their locked room to evangelize the world. The Church selects healings, signs, and essential teachings from the life of Jesus Christ so that followers can be reminded, reaffirmed, consoled, and challenged in how they are living the Christian way of life. Through Ordinary Time, the community of disciples are once again told by the Lord to forgive, accept others generously, be healed, and serve as instruments of healing, seek peace, live humbly, pray and trust in God’s care for them.
With this understanding, an awareness beyond the practical can quickly be grasped: that Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary. The purpose and benefits of this season are rather extraordinary, indispensable, and fundamental to our following of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the season is one of the sources from which our Christian lives are fed and upon which our celebration of the high feasts is grounded.
If we don’t know the way of Jesus Christ, how we can celebrate it? Ordinary Time, therefore, is the continuous echo of the Lord in the life of the church and in the hearts of those who love and follow him. In approaching Ordinary Time in this way, some helpful spiritual lessons can be discerned from the season. As the Church slows its pace and returns to the public ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ, Christian believers (and all people of good will) can see in this an invitation to slow the pace of their own lives, refocus attention on loved ones, evaluate personal convictions, and assess where their lives are going and what changes they’d like to make.
Ordinary Time can serve as a welcome signpost along the path of our discipleship and of our lives. It can be an opportunity for us to put urgent things in check, so that they don’t dominate our existence, and a sacred time for us renew and cherish important things so that our lives can flourish, and we can enrich the lives of others.
This examination of discipleship and of life, and the resolutions drawn from it, is a favorable chance to live in the present moment. Ordinary Time exemplifies the old Jesuit motto: Age quod agis, “Do what you’re doing.” Don’t worry about tomorrow, or yesterday. Don’t worry about this afternoon or this morning. Live here, live now. Focus on what you are doing. Ordinary Time stresses that God is the Eternal Now. It humbles us with the lesson that we are most with God when we are in the present moment.
Open your heart to the Lord. Don’t let it be closed, not hard, not without faith, not perverted, not deceived by sin. Live your life today in the presence of the Lord. Let your heart be open, firm in the faith, led by the Lord. Let us ask the Lord for the grace that we need to live our lives in the now.
As we enter Ordinary Time, we can take that question, “How is my today?” and let it assist us in walking with Jesus Christ, evaluating our lives, slowing our pace, and seeking God and our neighbor with greater sincerity.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!