Scripture: Ordinary Time, Monday, January 14, 2008

Scripture: I Samuel 1:1-8. Psalm 116:12-19; Mark 1:14-20. Lectionary # 305:

We begin what is called Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar of our
Church. There are two words in the Scripture that describe time; the first
is the way we reckon it according to hours and minutes and days. This is
termed in the New Testament's Common (Koine) Greek "chronos"; then there
is "kairos" or the way the New Testament describes grace time and God's
time. There is a retreat method named KAIROS in which many of the
highschool and college students participate--and what a good way of
describing it! Today's Gospel is an excellent beginning to what we call
Ordinary Time for it starts with the Gospel of Mark's first chapter and it
is Mark who was the first to write a Gospel in a compelling, dynamic and
exciting fast-moving way. He wrote this after the fall of Jerusalem in 70
A.D. some three to four decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
He starts immediately after the baptism of Jesus to innaugurate Jesus'
public ministry in Galilee. It is here that we hear the "Good News" or
Gospel for the first time through Jesus' mouth. This happens after his
being baptized and anointed through the Holy Spirit and through being
revealed to us as the Son of God in whom the Father was well pleased.
Naturally, before there was a written Gospel, the apostles preached the
Good News orally and witnessed to it by their way of living out the
commandments and beatitudes of Jesus. Thus, in the light of God's
revelatory message to us this day, there is nothing ordinary about it. It
is kairos time and Jesus tells us directly, "This is the time of
fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand. Reform your lives and believe in
the Good News." Then Jesus calls his first four disciples, Peter and
Andrew, James and John. We are called through them and feel this day that
Jesus calls us to a renewal in our time (chronos) thus making it a kairos
time of union with Jesus in his mission of bringing the Good News to
others. Since we have received our call in being baptized we take that
commitment and live it out in our ordinary duties, ministries, and work.
We thank God that the Gospel readings accompanied by the Psalm Responses
and the First Readings will be a source of comfort, challenge, revelation,
and a deepening of our faith in the person of Jesus, our hope in bringing
about the realm or kingdom of God, and of love for each other in our
Christian homes and communities. Yes, this is ordinary time but we attempt
to live it in an extraordinary way. Thus there is a marriage of chronos
time and kairos or graced time. Grace builds on nature. Amen.