Hi, hope all goes well. And here we are at the end of another week. It is like that old soap opera in TV that opens up, “Like sand through an hour glass, so go the days of our lives.”
It would seem that we are stuck in this thing we call “Ordinary Time.” But the truth is , this time we call ordinary is anything but ordinary. It is during this time between the great celebration of Christmas and Easter that we have the time to reflect and begin to live our what we have celebrated. We need to remember that these great celebration are given us that we may begin to reform our lives and truly begin to live the Christian life every day and not just two days a year.
We can do all the reading we want about Jesus, the babe of Bethlehem angels singing “Glory to God in the highest” and the lowly shepherds coming to the birth place to pay homage to the “New born King of the Jews.” Or we can decide what it is that we are going to give up for Lent, and what we are going to serve at our Easter meal. But surly, we have to understand that these feasts are more than family gatherings, and presents under a tree.
N. T. Wright, an Anglian Bishop and English New Testament scholar says, “Jesus’s death was seen by Jesus himself . . .as the ultimate means by which God”s kingdom was established. The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God’s kingdom would come on earth as in heaven.”
Though these happy and blessed days have come down to us from a great long tradition, they are reminders of who and what we are, or should be.
C. S. Lewis wrote, “Jesus came not to make bad people better, but dead souls alive.”
As we walk through these ordinary days towards another one of these great feasts, may our souls become more alive to be ready to encounter the Lord, not in the number of Christmas cards or presents we get but rather that we are ready to “put on Christ” and begin to come to a deeper understanding of what it is we are celebrating!!
Peace and All Good,Fr. Vinnie, osf
and the Bros and Srs of the Franciscan House of Payer.
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