Gospel Photo of the Week



The Extra In Ordinary Time

Looking at the etymology of the words we use in our contemporary time illustrates just how difficult it can be for people to understand each other; especially 100s or 1,000s of years apart. Languages are living things, they grow they shrink, they add meaning and subtract meaning from words and phrases. It is easy to see how ancient writings can conflict with modern understandings. The study of Sacred Scripture requires a great deal of care and discipline to ensure that the modern translator, interpreter, or proclaimer properly uses the understandings brought by the word usage from cultures and languages from long ago.

Add to that the complexity of metaphorical nuances, irony, simile, hyperbole and other word tools of language and you can have a lot of misunderstood prose on your hands. On the positive side, it allows our minds to grow by opening our thoughts to multiple interpretations, multiple meanings attributed to the same word or set of words.

We have just completed our First Week in Ordinary Time. The word “ordinary” in English can mean mundane, expected, vulgar or dull; something not so special. Because Ordinary Time in the Church isn’t full of stars, shepherds, Kings, angels, and feasts, it can add to that misunderstanding of mundaneness. After the times of Incarnation, Epiphany and defining the mission; with the Baptism of Jesus, that mission now transfers to our shoulders. We are on a mission to spread the Good News that has been revealed to us since the First Sunday in Advent.

Ordnalis is the Latin term for a series of numbers, or more important numbers in sequence. We don't have a season of feasting as in Christmas and Easter, but neither do we have a season of penance and expectation as in Advent or Lent. We have a period of learning about Christ, one day after another, after another. This is the Ordinary Time of the Church in which faithful followers can fill their palate with rich teachings of Jesus all the while we continue to await His second coming. This is the time when we commemorate and learn to imitate Jesus’ walk among mankind, while He transforms our lives.

Today, our Gospel Reading for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time from John’s Gospel is the first miracle of Jesus’ earthly mission since His Baptism. The Wedding Feast of Cana is anything but a run-of-the-mill story. Its rich symbolisms provide for us a great extra for this coming season of the not-so-ordinary, ordinary time.

Fr. Benton Clift, Sr.

2018 Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal