Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34
Being Ordinary in “Ordinary Time” of the Church
The partying and festivities are over, it’s time to start working again, no wonder it is called the “Ordinary Time”: it will take a while before (Extra-Ordinary Time or Festive Time) Easter and Christmas come around again and, then, we can party and celebrate. Even at that, my favorite part of partying and celebration is not the clean-up after the party, like the sweeping and rearrangement of the house after Christmas or wedding. I would rather be the guest the travels back to town and leave behind the cleaning for village dwellers to deal with. Alternatively, I will rather attend another person’s party than invite people to mine, and deal with cleaning up afterwards – how lazy I am! Well Ordinary Time is for lazy people like me to learn to be hardworking. What is the solution: should we stop partying? By no means, life will be too boring!
There is a solution – I need to grow up! The traditional African solution to a lazy man’s life is to give him a wife – responsibility brings about industriousness, especially the arrival of a wife and children. A married man gets a new name – husband; a married woman’s status changes – she becomes a wife; husband and wife go on to increase their responsibilities and status – they become Dad and Mom. If you add uncles, in-laws, etc, the list of responsibilities becomes really long. Only grown-ups – adults – delight in work and take pride in new adventures called marriage, parenthood, etc., they accept the normality or ordinariness of life!
In this season called “Ordinary Time,” the Catholic Church welcomes you and me to adulthood and the responsibilities that go with it. Today is the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, the first Sunday was last Sunday, the Epiphany of the Lord —the public manifestation of God to the whole world! Analogously, welcome to the meaning of the Epiphany of the Lord, as well as your role in it — a point from which you become an adult before the world and before God, the moment when God considers you worthy of being entrusted with responsibility. Last week, the Magi returned to their home countries announcing the good news of salvation, it is now your turn and mine to announce the good news to the whole world. At his baptism, Jesus got a new name: my Son, the beloved! After his baptism, Jesus started doing God’s will, God’s work of spreading the good news of salvation. Now, our first reading begins to add up – “The Lord said to me: You are my servan . . . through whom I shall show my glory” (Isaiah 49:3): being a servant equals new job – Christian job! But where will the Lord see me and employ me as his servant? Who told him that I need a job, anyway? What a rude awakening after the festivities of Christmas, now I will be given a job; a new name indeed!
The moment we step forward or our parents make the conscious choice of presenting us for baptism, we encounter the Lord who gives us a new name and identity. We do not need to ask him to give us a new name, the very act of baptism gives us a new name – we are anointed with the oil of Chrism to become Christ-like. And to be Christ-like is to begin to live like Christ—do the will of God, the job of godly life. Our new name is actually a job—we become employees or servants of God through baptism, and every employee has working hours assigned to him/her. In Catholic parlance, the “Ordinary Time,” begun by the Baptism of the Lord/Epiphany, last Sunday, is every Christian’s working hour, not to say office hour.
Just as God called Paul and Sosthenes in our second reading today, he calls you and me to be his servants to announce the good news of salvation through our lifestyles. It is important to preach with our lives because God needs testimonies from us. Take the example of John-the-Baptist in today’s gospel. John testifies about Jesus Christ. In other words, we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ; we do not imitate any human being, but Jesus Christ alone. At least, for this week, let us imitate the mercy and compassion of Jesus of whom John-the-Baptist testifies—”Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) May we show forth God’s mercy this week. Amen!