THIS IS OUR TIME.
January 19 2020: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
A Spanish proverb says, “Don't worry if people call you
ordinary – worry only if you are too much ordinary.” Another proverb adds, “The
highest art is the art of living an ordinary life in an extraordinary manner.”
“Behold, the Lamb of God…” For a Christian, all starts at
the Baptism. It is from the Baptism we acquire our identify and also the
mission attached to that identify. We celebrated last Sunday the Baptism of the
Lord marking the end of the Christmas Time. On the other hand, the feast of the
Baptism of the Lord also marks the beginning of Ordinary Time. Through it, we are
plunged in what will be the ordinary life of Jesus, his public ministry. It
marks also for us, his disciples, the ordinary of our life, the moments in
which we are called to witness of our faith and of our belonging to Christ. Rightly,
in the liturgy, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord symbols as well the first
Sunday of the Ordinary Time. It gives all the meaning of this ordinary that we
are called to live in an extraordinary way, day after day.
Before going further, let us see what does the ordinary time
stand for? The ordinary time is ordinary only by its calling. Actually, it is
the time in which we are invited, as Christ followers, to deepen our
relationship with the Lord through a life based on Faith, Hope and Charity. During
this time, through our faith we are urged to surrender ourselves and all that
we have or do, to God’s plan and his will, just as our Lord Jesus did. It is a
time to give primacy to God’s will, placing our lives into his hands. A time of
complete abandon of oneself to God. This actually is not an ordinary, but
extraordinary task, knowing that the ordinary of mankind is to have hold or
control of anything. Then, through hope, to look always forward toward the future
with positivity. Hope is the virtue of the pilgrim. With hope, life becomes an
adventure with a unique destination, God. We are assured that God will be
always there to embrace us at the end of our course, just as runners who look
towards the finishing line. Hope and Faith will be incomplete if they are not fed
upon love, also called charity. Through this time, we realize that the only way
to respond positively to God’s love is to love back others and be able to do to
them as God does to us. Here is the ordinary of Christian life, our daily
mission, our real vocation. In the development of this time, we are assured of
one companion, Jesus himself, as our ordinary teacher.
The word of God, in this Second Sunday of the Ordinary Time
takes us to the central message of this time: to witness of our faith.
Isaiah, in the first reading, talking of the servant of God
shows him as chosen to be a light in the world. These words to Israel are, as
addressed to you and me. The Lord says to Israel, "It is too little… for
you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the
survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation
may reach to the ends of the earth." He is like telling you and me that it
is too little to call ourselves Christians and to bear his name. He wants us to
share that name in our daily life, to witness of him through our life to all
those we encounter. It is only in our ordinary that we can witness of the
Lord's name, be a light that brings people to him.
We are all called, from our Baptism, to be salt and light of
the world (Matthew 5:14). Paul, in his greetings, his opening remarks to the
Corinthians emphasizes that aspect of the call. He says, "Paul, called to
be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." Like the apostle Paul,
we are each of us called by God to witness of him and be instruments of his
peace and love into the world.
In the Gospel of John, we are like brought back with John
the Baptist giving witness of what he saw at the baptism of the Lord, and how,
through the power of the Holy Spirit, all started there for Jesus. Jesus was
publicly revealed to John and to all at his baptism. That opened him to his
daily and ordinary mission as the Messiah. If for our Lord Jesus Christ that
baptismal bath marked the beginning, for us the more, we are challenged to see
in our Baptism the obligation to take our part in the daily life of our
societies and countries.
The ordinary of our life is our work place, the
place to testify of Jesus as John the Baptist did. The difference between us
and John is that he testified of someone he knew not beforehand. We instead,
are called to witness of someone we know and who is supposed to be integral
part of our lives. Our Christian faith is called to be lived in our quotidian,
our ordinary. Let us not make vain what we believe nor, inactive what we have
received, that is, our Baptism. It is time for us to be prophets of the Lord. So,
like John the Baptist, let us point out to the Lord and direct people to him
and not to ourselves. Because, without him, we are nothing.
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