Ordinary Time

Homily for Monday of the First Week of the Year

Today, the liturgical year turns over to that period which is now known as “Ordinary Time”. Although some have tried to buttress the name of this season by giving it a theological meaning, that we call this season “ordinary” simply means that these weeks of the year are designated only by ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). Before the reform of the calendar in 1969, however, these weeks were known by their distance from the feast of the Lord’s Epiphany (yesterday would have been the First Sunday after Epiphany); and even if that is a nomenclature that we no longer use, there is still great value in thinking of this sacred time in that spirit.

That is because the beginning of today’s Gospel, from the first chapter of Mark’s account, constitutes an epiphany. Whereas a star over Bethlehem announced that the Messiah had come, now Christ himself, the light of the world announces to Galilee: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” And this epiphany of the Messiah likewise makes demands on those to whom it is made. Whereas Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the magi of the East, fell at the Christ child’s feet to do him homage, so now do Simon, Andrew, James, and John lay aside all that they have, even family, to follow this Jesus.

These weeks are truly time after the epiphany, because we, like the disciples in today’s Gospel are the ones to whom this epiphany of the Lord has been made; and this epiphany likewise demands a response of each of us, to lay aside everything and do him homage by following him, our King and our Messiah, our Lord and our God.

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