Saints are Made in Ordinary Time(s)!
Today is the second Sunday in “Ordinary Time,” those 33 weeks of the year when the priest wears green vestments; and Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter are behind us…and before us again. Certainly, Christmas and Easter are the great, high, holy days of Christianity because of what they commemorate in the life of Jesus Christ, but I believe that saints are made in ordinary time.
Following Jesus and becoming like Him in every way is a very daily kind of work. We are all sinners, and so we only “practice” Christianity. We never become completely perfect until we get to Heaven. We say our prayers, read the Scriptures and we tell Jesus that we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis. Love is hard work, and it is daily work. Changing a baby’s diaper, cooking supper, cutting the grass, and going to work to provide for your family are all aspects of ordinary time in which we truly grow in holiness. As St. Therese of Lisieux reminds us, “I was not made to do great things, so I just do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”
Love is the most essential quality of God. Love is to will good to the other, and to provide that good if one is able. Love always costs something to the one who loves. Love always pushes us out of ourselves, and this is our destiny! This is what God put us here on earth to learn, so that we will one day be able to breath the oxygen of Heaven. You have heard me describe that oxygen before as C-2-H: two atoms of charity and one atom of humility in every molecule of the oxygen of Heaven!
Jesus spent 30 years in the ordinary time of Nazareth before He began to preach and teach. He lived with his parents, worked as a carpenter, worshipped at the local synagogue, and enjoyed the social interactions with family and friends. Jesus really “lived” his life while here on earth, laughing and working and helping the people around him. To engage with other people; to have time for others, to sincerely care about the people around you, is Christlikeness. Charity always pushes us out of ourselves. It pushes us to love God most of all, and then to love the people around us.
Jesus even went to weddings and enjoyed the wine always present at those ancient Jewish celebrations! Loving the people around us is always a part of the work of ordinary time. When Jesus is present, ordinary times become extraordinary. Relationships between people are ordered and holy, based on virtue. Jesus plus anything is always better than it was before. Water is turned into wine. Wine is turned into His Precious Blood.
Saints are made in Ordinary Time. Good news! We are in ordinary time right now. Am I the human person God made me to be? Am I yet the absolute best version of myself? We all answer the same. “Not yet. I’m glad it’s still ordinary time.”
Fr. Brett Brannen
Pastor