With the Feast of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, we bask for a week in the glow of Christmas. Then with the Baptism of John, we enter the public life of Jesus, and a quite lengthy Ordinary Time this year. Ash Wednesday is not until March 2, so we have about eight weeks to watch Someone who is going to model for us how to be authentically human.
If we listen with our hearts to the scriptures we will observe this Human One, this Son of Man, doing a lot of the things we find ourselves doing. He talks with people, travels, eats, sleeps, puts up with difficulties, and with difficult people. It’s not what he does but how he does it that we need check out. He is constantly aware of who he is. He is Abba’s Beloved. This gives him a context to view everything going on around him.
Maybe that’s the clue for us as we listen to the readings of these weeks. Christmas has told us who we are…we too are the Beloved. What would happen if we thought of that and smiled each time we looked in the mirror…no matter what we are seeing there? Then we too will talk with others, move about from place to place, put up with our own difficulties, and difficulties with others. Sound familiar? Yes, we too have our ‘ordinary’ time.
Yes, it is Ordinary, this time…
But You were not ‘ordinary’ nor am I.
You are the Father’s Beloved, and (can I believe it?) so am I.
No comments:
Post a Comment