Sunday, January 17, 2021 (Ord 2) 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42
They used to write songs about being an average guy or an ordinary girl but nowadays no one wants to be considered ordinary. People act like everyone has to be special or the best or extraordinary, if not, then something must be wrong.
But that is not true. While there definitely are some superstar elite athletes out there the vast majority, of the rest of us, are just ordinary people who enjoy playing or even watching sports. The same is true in music, in science, in mathematics, in medicine, in art, and in so many other categories.
The vast majority of people in the world are ordinary, every day, people. And they, we, are the ones who truly make the world go round. We are now in what our Liturgical Calendar calls the season of Ordinary Time and, unfortunately, some people take that to mean that it is unimportant.
After all, it isn’t as exciting as Christmas with all the bright lights, music, parties, pageants, Christmas cards and decorations, Midnight Mass, and some of the other extraordinary things we do to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus.
It isn’t as solemn and sobering as the Season of Lent, with our concentration on penance and forgiveness, giving and helping those in need, fish fries, Stations of the Cross, Good Friday, and getting Ashes on our heads.
It isn’t as glorious as our Easter Season with our Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses, bringing people into the Church and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, Easter outfits, Easter Eggs and Candy, Easter parades, Easter lilies, Easter baskets, Easter bonnets, and Easter pictures.
But Ordinary Time does have its place. It is a time when we get to reflect upon the very ordinary ways that God enters into our lives to make our lives extraordinary.
To most of the people of Jesus’ time Jesus, no doubt, looked like an ordinary Jewish man. Unlike, the paintings of later years, Jesus did not walk around with a big halo or even beautiful glowing white garments (except at the transfiguration).
In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist has to point Jesus out, to John’s disciples, as someone special, “the Lamb of God”, because if John hadn’t done that Jesus probably would have walked on by unnoticed. At this point, in time, Jesus did not have big crowds following him around, yet, because of his miracles.
Jesus appeared to be just an ordinary guy but, as we know, appearances can be deceiving. The same is true of Ordinary Time. If we let it, it can go by, with little notice, between the other extraordinary Liturgical Seasons but it does not have to. Even what appears to be “Ordinary Time” is full of extraordinary gifts and blessings from the Lord that we only have to look for to appreciate.
Most people have heard the phrase: “You can’t see the forest for the trees”, where we miss the big picture because we are often too focused on the details. In a different way we, occasionally, might be too focused on the overall picture and, subsequently, miss out on the individual blessings that touch our ordinary lives in extraordinary ways even in a time and a season that we label “Ordinary”.