Baptism of the Lord: A Return to Ordinary Time
On Monday, January 8, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It also marks the end of the Christmas liturgical season and the beginning of Ordinary Time. The term “ordinary” makes this season of the Church sound like something boring or not worth paying attention to. However, the season of Ordinary Time is anything but “ordinary” in the normal sense.
First, the word “ordinary”, in its use here, actually comes from the word “ordinal”, which is when something’s number also indicates its position in a list or series, for example the words “first”, “second”, “third”, etc. So, the weeks of Ordinary Time are named according to their number; the week of January 8 is the First Week in Ordinary Time.
In addition to this fact about the numbering, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops tells us:
The Sundays and weeks of Ordinary Time… take us through the life of Christ. This is the time of conversion. This is living the life of Christ.
Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal, toward which all of history is directed, is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
So, as we begin this season of Ordinary Time together, let us allow ourselves to “live the life of Christ,” both in our reading of the Scriptures in the daily lectionary and in our actions of loving service to those around us.