June 29, 2003

The term for this season of the liturgical year, “Ordinary Time,” does not seem very inspiring at first. The fact is, the word “ordinary” is a revelation. It means that there is an order, and if an order then there is an orderer. God made all things according to a plan, and in “Ordinary Time” the Sundays are numbered, because creation is harmonious and God’s grace brings that order to perfection. There would be no science, no civilization, no progress, and no computers, in fact there would be nothing to make life livable if one were not followed by two and two by three and so on.

Sin is a wrong note in the symphony. It is disordered. Some pretend that disorder is part of the order of things. They actually reject the philosophical principle of “non-contradiction,” which holds that two opposite theories cannot both be true, and it is astonishing how many absurdly disordered propositions such as “same-sex marriage” are taken seriously.

If you appreciate the romance of the ordinary, you will not fall into the trap of looking for the extraordinary. The Holy Eucharist is ordinary in the sense that it is celebrated every day, and it is also the most blessed gift God can give us. St. Thomas Aquinas said that if God could have given us something more precious than the Mass, He would have. Yet there are those who prefer the extraordinary to the ordinary and will superstitiously rush to see some moisture on a window that resembles the Blessed Virgin Mary. I suppose that some of them will skip Mass and Benediction to look at the window. Jesus said that a faithless generation seeks after signs and wonders.

The ordinary is not a news item. No headline proclaims, “The sun rose today.” The newspapers do not record the ordinary lives of ordinary people doing ordinary things with love. Sin gets more attention, and the media are always ready with lurid accounts of scandal and corruption. These sad facts need to be noted if there is to be reform, in culture and in the Church, but these disorders can blind us to God’s grace at work in the daily routine of life.

In a recent conversation, the Cardinal mentioned his astonishment at the living saints he meets each day, at the increasing number of vocations, at the throngs at the cathedral these days overflowing onto Fifth Avenue, at the 11,000 catechists now training the young in the archdiocese, at the most successful Cardinal’s Appeal in history, and the impressive correction of the archdiocese’s serious financial burdens. We may give thanks for the many blessings in the daily rites of our own parish. Ordinary Time is a graceful time to pause and notice the splendor of the ordinary.

Fr. George W. Rutler