Now that the Christmas season has concluded with the celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord, we return to what is known as Ordinary Time in the Church’s Liturgical Calendar. I have never really liked that expression “ordinary time”. I can’t help but think to myself, how can the Christ events that we celebrate in liturgy ever be considered ordinary? On the other hand, Ordinary Time every year leads us on a gospel journey with Jesus – a journey through his public ministry to his death and resurrection. This liturgical journey also symbolizes our life’s journey as Christians. Maybe it’s through the ordinary that we come to experience the extraordinary.
In the Gospels we read how Jesus was about to begin his public life. Choosing His disciples would be very important. He approached Simon and Andrew and later James and John with an unusual offer. Here was a stranger asking these hardy fishermen to leave everything and follow Him. Instead of catching fish, they would become fishers of men. This was unheard of. This was a shocking offer from a relatively unknown individual whom they hardly knew.

Leave your nets and boat, leave your jobs and family and follow me.

How would any of us react to an offer like this? Their answer could have been “Are you kidding me I have obligations and responsibilities, a home and a family, I can’t do that.” But no, they accepted the offer sight unseen. They left their nets and boats and followed Him. Happily for them and for us they accepted the challenge. Was it a risk? It was a huge risk. But their acceptance was a great example of what happens when we put our faith and trust in God. As it turned out, it was the greatest offer ever made to any individual or group of individuals. But once again, what would we have done? Would we have accepted the call without question? There was no resume, no performance history, no background of achievement and there were no guarantees whatsoever. But these men had a special quality. They had faith in this unknown carpenter from Nazareth.

Our Lord is making the same offer to us today that He made to Simon Peter and the other apostles over 2000 years ago. He has made this simple proposal to millions and probably billions of people like us over the centuries. His proposal is, “Come, follow me.”
By the waters of Baptism we became alive in the Lord, Jesus Christ. All of us are called, just like Jesus disciples, and all of us are gifted but not all in the same way. These gifts are given to us for our benefit and for the benefit of all of God’s holy people. We all have gifts to give and the Church awaits each of our gifts. It can be said Baptism is the beginning of our public ministry and our discipleship expressed through the use of our gifts, and an ongoing expression of our faith and commitment to Jesus.
Jesus continues to call us and to work His saving acts in our midst occasionally in extraordinary ways. Most often though, Jesus’ saving acts are found in the quiet events of mundane, everyday living. Maybe that’s why we call it “ordinary time”. Day in and day out, Jesus is there for us. Without fanfare and in the quiet of our hearts, He works with us. He calls us. We are therefore challenged every day to recognize these saving acts in the ordinary events of our day to day lives and to know of His presence so that we can come to believe even more fully that Jesus is the very center of our being , and then to publicly proclaim this and answer his call to discipleship.
In this way Ordinary Time becomes not so ordinary after all.

Deacon Ed