Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last Sunday the church was filled with poinsettias.  I miss their brilliant red.  I always feel a little bit nostalgic when the Christmas season comes to an end.  It feels empty.  Between Christmas and Lent we return to what we call Ordinary Time.  Ordinary Time can become the time of grace, if we are watchful.  These readings today are good examples.

There is the story of the young boy Samuel, sleeping in the Temple.  It had been a long time since God had spoken to the people.  When God calls to Samuel, the boy does not know what is happening.  So he runs to old Eli, the high priest, thinking it was he.  Eli, on the other hand, thinks it was a dream.  He tells Samuel, “Go back to sleep.”  Again the voice calls, and yet again.  Then, it dawns on Eli; suddenly it occurs to him that God may be speaking.  And he directs the boy to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  And a new age begins, a time of grace, when God is back in touch with the people.

We can also see this dynamic in today’s Gospel.  Suddenly a moment of grace occurs.  John the Baptist sees Jesus walking by.  “Behold, the Lamb of God,” he says.  John’s time is over.  It is the hour of the Lamb, the moment of the Messiah.  Look, the Lamb!  And two of John’s followers leave him and follow Jesus.  “Rabbi… Where are you staying?” they ask.  ”Come, and you will see,” he replies, and they do.  And the moment of grace extends from that invitation to others.  Andrew then goes to get his brother Simon, telling him, “We have found the Messiah.”  We have found the one we have been waiting for.  Something new is beginning – a new age, a new time.

Isn’t it always time for the moment of grace?  Our day is certainly ripe for it.  We need a new time.  The demand for peace calls us to a new time, another way than the way of war.  Our assistant bishop Eusebio Elizondo applauds the executive order by President Obama for providing temporary relief from deportation for millions of immigrants.  The unarmed young man cries out for justice, not for vengeance – for an end to the violent taking of the lives of innocent people.

This is the week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  There are twenty-eight denominations represented at Seattle University’ School of Theology and Ministry.  A splintered community continues.  Will the moment of grace that is church unity ever arrive?

 Martin Luther King weekend provides another opportunity for the moment of grace.  Preaching at the National Cathedral shortly before his death, Dr. King said: “We are challenged to rid our nation and the world of poverty.  We must find an alternative to war and bloodshed… It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence.  It is either non-violence or nonexistence.”

Like Samuel, Dr. King had a vision of grace.  That day also is a long time coming.  But Dr. King himself recognized this when he reminded his listeners: “We must accept disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”  On that day we shall overcome all the hurts and hatreds of the past.  God gives new beginnings again and again.  Ordinary life is penetrated anew by the Word of God and the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Sometimes grace comes to us in dreams, sometimes in the ordinary events of life, sometimes at church on Sunday.  People of the past like Eli and John the Baptist continue to point us God-ward.  And we, the people of the present, are now called to respond.  May we at Christ Our Hope Parish be a community that cherishes the time we have been given, allowing time to be transformed into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years of grace.  Let us give thanks to God for the hours that remain and pray for the wisdom to use them well.

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor