Musing: Ordinary Time

My dear family in Christ,

As we move away from the Easter season and the Feasts of the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, we return to Ordinary Time and the continuation of the public ministry of Christ in the Gospel of Mark. As I have noted on numerous occasions here and throughout my priesthood, Ordinary Time simply means we use ordinal numbers to mark the week of the liturgical year, it does not mean that nothing extraordinary is being recounted or shared. From now through the end of November, we will journey with Jesus as he traverses Galilee, Samaria and the rest of the holy Land. We will witness his miracles and ponder His teachings, all of which are anything but “ordinary.”

Consider this week’s gospel passage: Jesus is accused, not only of being mentally ill, but also of being possessed by a devil. Neither of which are regular occurrences in His life or our lives. As his followers we should expect that there will be times when our faithfulness is interpreted in a less than favorable light. We might be considered out of step with the modern world, out of touch with reality or just plain odd, this is to be expected. In fact, it should concern us sometimes if we are always seen as no different than everyone else and our lives are not seen as signs of contradiction in the world. The saints teach us this and Our Lord reminded His followers that they would be rejected, hauled into court and been put to death for being His followers. To love God above all things in the world and to openly embrace the teachings of Christ are bound to get us noticed, just not necessarily in a positive way.

However, as St. Paul reminds us  this weekend, the momentary and passing afflictions we experience here are preparing us for an “eternal weight of glory.” The burdens, the rejections, the persecutions and all the other challenges our discipleship bring are nothing compared to what the Lord has in store for us. This doesn’t mean we don’t fully embrace our lives here and strive to change the world for the better, but it does mean the final victory has already been won and we are called to share in it for eternity. We are all called to seek the will of God in our lives and to embrace it fully so that while the world might consider us “out of our minds,” to Our Savior, we will be His “brother and sister and mother.”

In Christ,

+The Most Reverend John J. mcdermott

Bishop-elect of Burlington