The Easter Season concluded three weeks ago with the feast of Pentecost. Since then we celebrated our two credal feasts of Holy Trinity and Corpus Christ. This Sunday, we resume Sundays numbered according to the weeks of the liturgical year, so that today is the “13th Sunday of the year”: Ordinary time consists of the Sundays of the year counted independently of the four liturgical seasons (Advent & Christmas, Lent & Easter).
Though many hear “ordinary” as “nothing special,” it can also mean “counted,” in the sense of “ordinal.” The counting marks progress: With the coming of Sunday one more week has been consecrated to Christ. We bring our joys and hopes, griefs and fears from the past week with us into Sunday Mass and reckon them as shared with Christ in his death and resurrection. The coming of Sunday means we increased our communion with Christ by one more week.
The counting of the Sundays also reminds that we, too, are works in progress. We do not live like the angels all in one moment, but over the course of a lifetime. God shapes us over time. Life is a journey and requires of us a certain degree of patience and endurance.
Finally, the counting of Sundays is also a kind of conquest. Our Lord sent his apostles on a mission to make disciples of all nations. That mission extends in space, biblically moving from God’s city of Jerusalem to the capital of the world, Rome. But the mission also moves in time from Pentecost to Judgment Day. One more Sunday is one more week of conquest, proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ through every moment entrusted to us.
- Farewell, Fr. Michael Ruffalo! I’ll miss your eloquence and humor, among your other virtues.
- Welcome, seminarian Jacob Gruber! As you and the Church discern your calling to the priesthood, I pray that the year we share with you may inspire all of us to answer our Lord’s call ever more perfectly.
—Fr. Dave
