Christ is Anything but Ordinary

We’re about to dive headlong into week two of Ordinary Time, and we need to admit, after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, things are indeed looking more … ordinary, at least in our spiritual lives.

The transcendent highs of the Christmas season are flatlining a bit and the vivid imagery of the Nativity scene has faded. The solemn anticipation of the Advent season is by now a distant memory.

Are you bored yet?

Here’s a secret: I think that Ordinary Time can actually be quite extraordinary, if we’re really living out our baptismal call.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus point-blank asks Andrew, who is following him after hearing John the Baptist’s testimony: “What are you looking for?” He’s asking us the same question.

What are you looking for? Why are you following me? Is it for the Christmas cookies and the Advent carols? Is it for the King’s Cake on the Epiphany? Is it for the feeling we get on Christmas when we just know God has done a wondrous thing?

None of those things are bad, but they are not what Andrew was looking for, and they were not what Christ promised him when he said, “Come, and you will see.” Andrew was looking for the Messiah — the One who makes even Ordinary Time extraordinary. The One who can sanctify the longest and dullest of to-do lists, on the longest and dullest of days. The One whose peace can reign in our homes on January 25, not just December 25.

Remember what you are looking for. Come, and you will see.

— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS