Extraordinary Time — Each Day in the Lord
The Third Millennium is going quickly. We are already midway almost through the sixth month of Anno Domini, viz., Year of the Lord Jesus, 2013.
Each year, the Church makes a tremendous linguistic blunder by talking about various “Sundays in Ordinary or Ordinal Time.” While we are not focusing on either Advent-Christmas-Epiphany or Lent-Easter-Pentecost specifically, it hardly makes the time ordinary.
What the liturgical calendar means is “time marked by ordinal numbers”. It is meant to help us correlate the readings and prayers of each Sunday’s liturgy when we are not focusing on specific aspects of the salvation which Jesus won for us.
Seen this way, we should refer to the 8th, 9th, 10th Sundays in Ordinal Time. However, why not call the Sunday in a way which makes it more intelligible and the wekly Sunday celebration an “Extraordinary Time” As Pope John Paul told us, “Every Sunday is Easter Sunday”, because every Sunday we celebrate the Easter victory that Jesus has won for us!
You and I live in the Third Millenium of the New Testament. The New Testament did not stop when the last book of the Christian Bible was written. It continues even today. Hence, we are hardly living in “Ordinary” Time, rather it is “Extraordinary” Time. No time is ever ordinary because God is always with us, even as we wait for God to come again and again and again. As Jesus says, “Thy Kingdom come” and paradoxically, “The Kingdom of God is within you now!”
In addition every year is a “year od the Lord.” “AD” means “in Anno Domini”, in the year of the Lord (Jesus). Why not begin writing the letters AD after the year each time when you write the date. It would be a consciousness raiser, not only for you, but people who read what you wrote?
That way, you constantly remind yourself and others that Jesus Christ is the Center of History, as far as you are concerned. It is a silent and subtle form of evangelization. Not just the year 2013, rather it is the Year of the Lord Jesus, 2013!
Just as every Sunday or week is extraordinary, even if ordinal, so also, every year is a “Year of the Lord.”
A few times, we have spoken of the idea of “reflective religion”. Every moment is a religious moment because God is always willing and loving and calling us into life, love and light. However, God understands that we are busy people. Still, like any of us, God likes to be remembered now and then in the course of the day.
Examples of built-in moments in the day for reflective religion would be to pause at the start of each new day and simply, thank God for it. It is only when you get older that you realize what the gift of each day is. Then, too, as we start each day, remember once again, remember to say thank you to God for the gift of the day gone by. At the start of each of our three squares each day, remember to say thank you to God for the gift of food and make the resolve that you would do what you can to share your abundant table with folks less fortunate than we. Teach you children that food is a gift, not to be wasted. Whether at home or dining out, remember to pause and make the sign of the cross at the beginning of each meal.
Another prime time for “reflective religion” is our weekly gathering for the Sunday Eucharist (TXG). Our parish community is a community of house churches (at your address). To bolster one another’s faith and hope by our gathering as a church. The gathering for the Sunday Eucharist also bolsters the faith of your own house church when you gather with other house churches weekly. In addition, folks driving by 29 Cox Avenue on Sunday mornings know that there is a group of families at prayer and are edified by what they see going on here. (Maybe, not so edifying if it is when 1030 Mass is breaking!) The maintenance of so many at the weekly kaffeeklatches in Wallace Hall also are opportunities for reflective reflection when we realize that we are gathered in solidarity because of Jesus, the One sent by YHWH into the world to guide us on the journey of life. Indeed, to do so makes every Sunday “Extraordinary” and every year a “year of the Lord”. It is an easy and logical jump to see clearly that each day is a “Day of the Lord”. As Sister Mary Rose teaches us, “God comes first everyday — even on Sundays, even on summer Sundays.”
Our superficial culture has lost a sense of the “eternal in the temporal”, the “infinite in the finite”, the “sacred in the secular”, the “mystery in your history. Fr Richard Rohr tells us that our faith in the God of Jesus Christ teaches us, “Matter really matters”.
Our culture needs people like you and family who take Jesus seriously to remind us morphic resonance, (values are caught, not taught). Our culture is broken, honest people realize so. The system is imploding. Is it God’s Will? Our periodic timeouts remind us that we are still living in the New Testament. No Sunday is ordinary; no day is ordinary; no life is ordinary.
Stopping periodically during the course of a busy day is a useful “attitude adjustment” session, even for thirty seconds. Some set their watches to beep at the start of each hour so that they are reminded hourly that God is with them (and us too).
“Emmanuel” means God is with us. Stopping periodically during the course of each day is an opportunity to acknowledge the Hidden God of Jesus Christ present in all reality. Everyday is extraordinary. In Christ Jesus, let us be aware in mindfulness of the ongoing Presence of God in You.
060913AD jfq
