Scripture:
Reflection:
Last weekend we celebrated the great feast of Pentecost! Happy Birthday Church!! In the coming weeks, we will celebrate the special Eucharistic feasts, but for the most part, we have entered into that long liturgical season of Ordinary Time! I think you will all agree that for most of us, our lives are anything but ordinary! We stand at the cusp of summertime; school’s out, vacation plans are being set, and springtime is giving way to warmer weather, longer days, and more time to spend relaxing, and enjoying a slower pace of life for the next few months.
My friends and I just spent several days planning a three-week camping trip out west for this coming month of August. We pored over maps and travel books for many hours as we set up our itinerary for this long-awaited vacation. We laughed a lot, we got frustrated at times when the places we wanted to go, and the times we had to see things, were sometimes all filled up. We rejoiced when in some instances we got the last places on the boat excursion or gondola ride. Several times we had to walk away from the planning, take a walk, enjoy ice cream or the hot tub, in order to refresh ourselves. The ordinary lives we thought we had been leading up to this point took on a new aura as the excitement of the trip began to take hold of us! At the end of the week, planning completed, reservations made, deposits sent, we returned to our ordinary lives to await the adventures to come in a few short months!
Our scriptures today give us some ideas or practices on how to make the best of this time of the church year called Ordinary. Being the ordinary human beings we are, trying to navigate life in the fast lane, we need to pay attention to growing our spiritual life in the midst of vacation planning. In 1st Peter, we are called to ‘be holy just as He is holy’! In the gospel, Jesus reiterates that for those of us who accept the challenge and gift of being a believer in Christ, in enduring the highs and lows that this life brings to it, we will in the end be rewarded.
This Ordinary time calls us to take time to recognize the holiness all around us; in the faces of our children playing at water’s edge, hiking with our friends along Canyon Pass, or celebrating the life and times of a loved one gone before us. May this Ordinary Time call us to celebrate our holiness, and to recognize the holy in those we love, as well as those we find it hard to love. Have a safe and blessed Summer and together celebrate the Ordinary in extraordinary ways!
Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.