Signposts On The Way

Last Monday’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord marked the end of Christmas Season. There is always a sort of sadness with this: Christmas is past, festivities are done, lights and decorations are taken down and carefully stored. It seems as if the dim dark days of winter – banished by Christmas – now encroach upon us anew in the January gloom. Our lives return to the mundane, dull, dreary and predictably monotonous pre-holiday routine. It’s just so plain – so ordinary.

Isn’t that the meaning of the liturgical season that began on Tuesday—Ordinary Time? The vestment colour is green—one of the most common in creation—and other than the occasional feast day, there’s not much exciting about it. It’s just so ordinary.

Well, not really. “Ordinary” comes from the Latin word “ordinalis,” meaning a numerical sequence (1, 2, 3, …) that is based on the root word “ordo,” which means either order or succession. This implies a sort of movement – a progression – an advancement that is anything but stale or stagnant, rather one that invites active engagement.

You see, the readings build upon one another from one Sunday to the next. Notice the Gospel readings for the next several weeks: The Gospel of Matthew unfolds verse after verse, chapter after chapter, drawing us ever more into the life and mission of the Lord.

The same is true for the weekdays of Ordinary Time: Tuesday builds on Monday, Wednesday on Tuesday, and so on, with each day pointing to and hinting at what will be coming next Sunday. At the same time, the prayers of the Eucharist are the ones we heard last Sunday. There is a sort of circle being formed here, isn’t there? Readings looking forward, prayers looking backward, and we are in the present.

Yet, more than this, Ordinary Time invites us into a progression – an advancement – in our journey of faith, growing each day ever more into “full stature in Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Discipleship is not a passive preoccupation! It is a conscious, determined effort to ever more “put on the mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5) in union with His Body, the Church.