Gone Fishing.

Ah, with tomorrow's readings we start back into Ordinary Time.   Our English language makes that sound dry and bland, plain.  The dictionary gives it the synonyms of normal, common, routine... But that isn't what Ordinary time is about.  The etymology of the word though, ordinalis,  shows us that the word has more the connotation of being 'ordered.'  That is time that is being counted, time that is ordered to something.  Ordinary Time then is a time in which we are heading toward something, or maybe more accurately, an event or a someone. 

Ordinary time begins right after the Christmas season.  After we have spent weeks celebrating the birth of Christ, we then celebrate his Baptism, which marks the beginning of his earthly ministry.  Then we begin to count, we are ordering time... drawing towards something.   The next event will be Lent, and then Easter.   That means Ordinary time is leading us toward Christ.  It is leading us, ordering us, guiding us, toward his death, and his resurrection.  That's what Easter is about.  It's about not just death, for that would be very gruesome on it's own.   Rather, it leads us through death and into eternal life. 

Then we celebrate Easter for a good amount of time, another octave.   Then back to ordinary time.  Time that is leading us, ordering us towards another event.  That event is the Parousai, the end of the liturgical year reminds us of the end of time.  It reminds us that Jesus has promised to come again.  When he does he will usher in a new creation, a new heaven and earth.  The judgement day.  Then we start again with Advent, leading to the birth of Christ.

What do we learn from this repeated ordering of time?  We learn that our lives should be lived in an ordered fashion.  First thing God did with the universe?   He brought order out of Chaos.  He sent his Holy Spirit to put things in order.   We too must order time to God.  Our lives, our spirits, should be ordered toward Christ.   That's what the Liturgical year is in place to remind us of.   That being disciples of Christ means ordering our lives, patterning them after his.  It means taking time throughout the year to contemplate the mysteries of his birth, life, death, and resurrection... to remind us that he will come again and that we must be ready for it.

What do we do in the mean time?  How should we act?  How should we behave?  Tomorrow's Gospel is a very powerful one to start this time, to begin ordering our lives toward Christ.  Jesus calls his first two disciples.  He tells them to follow him, and he will make them fisher's of men. They immediately left their nets, their family, their livelihood, and followed Him.   That's our first example.  We are to listen to our call, and immediately begin living it.    Yes, that's what ordinary time is about.  It's not about counting down till the time we will begin to live our faith.. it's living our faith in an ordered, Godly fashion, as we head toward our own Easter.

You and I have something very much in common.  We all will eventually die.   Some of us sooner.  Some of us later.   It is appointed unto man, once to die and then the judgement.  That's what Ordinary time is about.  So here I am, like Father Ev Hemann, whom I have named this blog after; living my life in Ordinary time.. anticipating my own Easter, and longing for the end of time where all of creation will be redeemed for our Heavenly Father. 

So I leave you instead with the link to a blog that speaks of Ordinary Time in a way that I can never match, in a way that changed my own personal walk and my own understanding of this season of the church.    I pray it touches you, as it touched me:  Ordinary Time.

His servant and yours,

Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Silent Night, On a Somber Note

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  It's a time of celebration, a time of great joy, and yet here I am at one A.M. in the morning having very somber thoughts.  I want to share those with you if you will bear with me.  I intended to write something uplifting, something joyful and edifying.  We will see if that comes out it.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit has his own idea of what my blog posts should be about.

I ran into a friend earlier today at the store while getting some things for dinner and for the house.  He stopped to talk to my wife and I as we were moving thorugh the freezer section.   We talked about his plans for the next few weeks.   He is travelling down south to a place he owns in a warm climate.  He'll be gone for a few weeks.  He has to decide if he's going to keep the place or sell it.  It is a good time to get away, right after Christmas.   He said he'll spend Christmas with the family then fly down.  Then he looked at me.  I guess I reminded him of her.  We spent some time together before she passed.  Tears came to both of our eyes.  He didn't want to talk about it, I didn't want to bring it up.  We hugged.  We talked anyway. It's the first Christmas since she went on to the next life.

I hope this Christmas for him will be one in which he finds how to deal with the sorrow and finds comfort.  The Gospel reading for the Night Mass tomorrow talks of how Joseph and Mary had to journey to a place with many memories.  He had to return to the land of his family to be counted in the census. Like my friend, he had to go back.  Decisions had to be made.  Worries sorted through.  As they journeyed together conversations had to be had.  Christmas Eve was a time of hardship.  A time of fear.  No money, no place to stay at an inn, a baby on the way.

Then the angels came to the Shepherds in the field.  They proclaimed the good news!  “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  I think often we forget how much fear was involved the night before Christmas.  So many strange things happening.  Life was going on though.  Christ, the king of the universe, was being born into the world.  The greatest event in all of human history, the salvation and restoration of mankind to a right relationship with God, began in the still and darkness of night.  It began with a journey.  Both for Mary and Joseph, but also for all those who came to see Christ.  They had decisions to make.  Shepherd or wise man, both had to go on a journey looking for answers.

Just like my dear friend who is flying out to make decisions, what they all have in common is they are looking for answers.  You and I, we are looking for answers too.  Truly though the answer lies in one man, Jesus Christ.   He is the full revelation of God.  Everything we need to know about mankind, everything we need to know about God, everything we need to know about life... all of it lies in this God man, born in the darkness of night.  Shrouded in mystery.  Placed in a manger.  The Bread of Life.  The Son of Man.  Emmanuel.  God with us. 

Tomorrow as we begin our Christmas season anew, let us begin to search earnestly for answers.  Don't let Christmas get away from you.  Too many times we get so caught up in the presents, in the food, in the atmosphere, that we don't spend time in prayer.. time with Christ.  We too have a journey to make, we just don't know when the final flight will occur.  Christ is being born into our world in the past, present and future.   What does that mean to us?   What do we do about it?  There can be a lot of fear.  A lot of doubt.   A lot of questions.  We know though, that a wise man once said, "We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."   Wise men still seek him, that's where the answers are. 

His servant and yours,
Brian