8th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
“…Deliver us from evil.” [Mt 6; 13]
“Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” [Mt 6; 34]
Ordinary time is a rather confusing name for a season.
We are more accustomed to having specific expectations when we give
names to times. We know what to expect
when we list the names of the seasons:
Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
We know what hard times are and we recognize good times when we see them
too.
We struggle with ordinary
time because the word ordinary does not bring much dynamism to our
minds. It’s more a synonym for garden variety than for fire and brimstone. If only we could bring ourselves to
relate it with “Order” – “Command” – “Arrange”.
In that case we would have a different attitude. We would know that there is something to do
to get our lives in order.
The readings of today all point to order. They talk to us about ordinary slices of life.
Read them again and hear what they are saying. Mothers don’t forget babies; I don’t judge myself
but I know that I do not stand acquitted.
Realize where you are in the order of nature, and of the
supernatural. Realize that every single
day has a beginning a middle and an end.
Some of it will be calm and peaceful and some will be turbulent. You aren’t going to change that, so hold my
hand through it all and you’ll be fine.
Jesus just told us to pray that His Father spare us from
evil. Deliver us from disorder. Deliver us from inner turbulence. Deliver us
from the tendencies that we have to consort with the lesser angels. Give us a well ordered mind and heart so that
we can persevere in the grace of peace and tranquility.
Ordinary time. Time to get our intellectual,
emotional and spiritual life in order.
Come down from the pressure of six weeks of intense disorder between my
secular self and You. Six weeks of Santa
Claus versus Jesus. Six weeks of New
Year’s resolution versus guilt from having failed in the pursuit of last year’s
resolution. Time to put first things
first. When first things are first, and
last things are last, then evil doesn’t reign.
When things are in order, life is ordinary. When life is ordinary, we are ordinarily
quiet and comfortable with God. What
could be better than that?
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