The purple colors have all been put away.
The Nativity scene is gone from the altar steps. We have returned to “Ordinary Time” in the Church’s year. The green vestments have returned. The Scripture readings pick up ordinary themes.
But ordinary is not ordinary.
“Ordinary Time” does not mean “regular” time, or just plain. Ordinary Time means time’s even and steady order. And “order” does not mean a directive, or a required sequence or series.
Order means a step-by-step encounter with Christ that turns away gradually the impulsive chaos that can draw our thoughts, actions, and desires into the disorder of temptation and sin.
And the first step of Ordinary Time is given to us from the Gospel of Saint John. The first words of the Gospel set our course for every day: “John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him …” (Jn. 1:29).
Jesus is going from one place to another. And John encounters the Lord. It is not as if John won the spiritual lottery and Jesus will now fix everything in his life. The expectation that everything ought to be fixed in my life is chaos that leads to the temptation to control.
Jesus does not come to fix or control. Jesus is nearby John to call John, to form him, to love him – so that John can plunge back into the chaos and be the instrument of Jesus. And some will reject John. But Jesus receives John. And that is all that is necessary.
If we give in to the temptation to obsess with the project to fix ourselves or others, we will only see expectations coming toward us, not Jesus. And we will find ourselves fascinated and preoccupied by control. Control and chaos have a lot in common.
Jesus brings connection, healing, and mission.
Take the step-by-step encounter with the Lord. Meet Him at Holy Mass, in the Sacrament of Confession, in devotion to Our Lady, in Eucharistic Adoration, and in the works of mercy. We are like John. Jesus is coming toward us.
Let us see Him and rejoice.
God bless,
Msgr. Brian Bransfield
