We are into ‘Ordinary’ Time. It is a call to smile while we do ‘ordinary’ things…like the laundry, the shopping, filling up the car, and brushing our teeth. Why a knowing little smile? Because the Word who married our humanness thought it important enough to spend thirty years doing those ordinary things with great love. Those ordinary things were the bulk of his human life, as it is with ours. Reflecting on this gives a whole new meaning to what we consider the hum-drum. And so, the knowing little smile as we intentionally pour all our love into the day-to-day.
If we think of it, the liturgy of these weeks unwraps this like an extended flashlight beam, starting quite focused and then ever expanding. The child in the manger is the focus, seen first by Mary and Joseph. Then the expansion starts: the shepherds, then the Magi; Simeon and Anna and John and the Jews at the Baptism; then comes the apostles at the wedding of Cana, and finally the Purification in the Temple. Once the Light is out there, who knows where it will reach…! Maybe to you…maybe to me down the years.
The Light is loose in the world. What does it do? First, it cleanses…it purifies. Then it finds a home deep within us and shines. Yes, even biologically we ‘glow.’ Our magnetic field can be picked up by sensitive instruments. So maybe we need to intentionally ‘light up’ each morning with that knowing little smile. For we have a guest, we are never alone. That Guest radiates risen life. Though it is veiled by our own physicality, what if we just made a point of ‘putting it on’ when we dress to remind ourselves that we are so loved? So, smile as you look in the mirror. Take on your ordinary day in an extra-ordinary way!
Out there, it’s another grey wintry day…
But not in here.
You’re here with me.
So, I smile as I look in the mirror.
Nothing is going to happen to me today
that you and I together can’t handle.
Your love lights me up…
You are the wind-beneath-my-wings…
With you my heart sings!
Sonshine…!
Even if out there… it’s just another grey winter day.
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