The beginning of Ordinary Time is not ordinary. In the Collect of the Mass this week, the Church prays, “Attend to the pleas of your people with heavenly care. . .” and then we hear readings about the Prophet Samuel’s miraculous birth or, as in this year, readings from the Letter to the Hebrews. Neither of these could be considered “ordinary,” as this week the Christmas epiphany continues to unfold:

Monday: “He spoke to us through the Son” (Heb 1:2).
Tuesday: “He is not ashamed to call them ‘brothers’” (Heb 2:11).
Wednesday: “He had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way” (Heb 2:17).
Thursday: “We have become partners of Christ” (Heb 3:14).
Friday: “Let us strive to enter into that rest” (Heb 4:11).
Saturday: “Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help” (Heb 4:16).

Here in the very first week of Ordinary Time, we have gone through the entire message of salvation. God has revealed himself to man (Monday). We have sinned, and yet he is not ashamed of us (Tuesday). God took flesh (Wednesday). He has established his Church (Thursday). He has called us to heaven and given us the means to arrive there (Friday). And lest we fear the way, we are promised that by his grace, through his Church, all people can receive mercy (Saturday).

Meanwhile, in the Gospels, we hear from the beginning of Mark, where we do not read an infancy narrative, but rather see Jesus quickly leading us to the Cross:

Monday: “This is the time of fulfillment” (Mark 1:15).
Tuesday: “He taught them as one having authority” (Mark 1:22).
Wednesday: “For this purpose I have come” (Mark 1:38).
Thursday: “I do will it. Be made clean” (Mark 1:41).
Friday: “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5).
Saturday: “Follow me” (Mark 2:14).

Again, this first “ordinary” week has laid out the whole path before us. Jesus states plainly that the time for action is now (Monday). He begins to manifest himself as the only Son of God, Truth himself (Tuesday). He has come for our salvation (Wednesday). He not only heals the body (Thursday) but also the soul (Friday). And, touching our hearts, with a voice so close to us that although we cannot hear his words, we feel his intense desire as he says, “Follow me” (Saturday).

If there is something ordinary about this time, let it be this: God has touched the ordinary, entering in and transforming it. He has promised himself “as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm” (Heb 6:19). He has made his promise firm, building his Church “upon a rock” (Matt 16:18) to whom God gave “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:19), asking that the apostles “do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). This is God’s ordinary plan for our salvation, that we might know him (see John 17:3) through the preaching of the Church (see John 17:20-21 and Rom 10:14-15), and that once we know him, love him, and “enter into that rest” (Heb 4:11).

✠

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)