What do the words Ordinary Time mean? Dorothy Day said, “The words ‘Ordinary Time’ in our prayer books put me in a state of confusion and irritation. To me, no time is ordinary.” She was right. The Ordinary in Ordinary Time refers to ordinal - counted - time not to a lack of something to celebrate. The Roman document, General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, says: “Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character [Advent, Christmastime, Lent, Triduum, and Eastertime], 33 or 34 weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects.” (#43)

How do we celebrate “the mystery of Christ in all its aspects”? We gather every Sunday. Sunday is our original feast day. Christians have gathered every Sunday – the day of Christ’s resurrection, the first day of the week – ever since there were Christians.

Each year there are two blocks of Ordinary Time, one in the winter between Christmastime and Lent, and the other in summer and fall, from Pentecost through Christ the King. When we gather on Sundays in Ordinary Time, as always, we hear the scriptures proclaimed. We systematically read through the Gospels. The first readings from the first testament (Hebrew Bible) were chosen for their relationship to the gospel passages. The second readings come from various letters to the second testament (Christian Bible) of the Bible. The mystery of Christ “in all its aspects” unfolds.

What is the heart of our Sunday celebration? We do our Eucharist, that is, we do our thanksgiving. We praise and thank God for all creation; we pray for the whole world, as we remember Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. We share the bread and wine, the body and blood. We are sent forth to be the body and blood of Christ in our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities, our country, our world.

“What happens in our churches every Sunday is the fruit of our week. What happens as the fruit of the week past is the beginning of the week to come. Sunday is simultaneously a point of arrival and departure for Christians on their way to the fullness of the Kingdom. This is not ordinary at all. This is the fabric of Christian living.” (Saint Andrew Bible Missal [Brooklyn: William J. Hirten Co., 1982.])

Mark was an expansive, inclusive Mediterranean Jew who saw all Gentiles and Jews as potential members of the one extended family. For the author of the Gospel of Mark around the year 70, all those who followed Jesus of Nazareth formed part of Judaism – the part that would become the true Israel of the Nations.

The evangelist of the earliest gospel intended his story of Jesus’ passion as intramural, intra-Jewish enticement to follow Jesus. He still hoped that members of the establishment, such as the council member from Arimathea (Mark 15:43), would return to the truth. The nameless and named Jewish women who followed Jesus in Galilee and Judea were model forerunners of the true Israel. They included the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon’s house in Bethany (14:3 – 9); the women at the cross (15:40 – 41), those keeping vigil at the tomb (15:47) and those who found the tomb empty. They ran away saying “nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). Truly they were Israel.

For Mark, the inscription of the charge against Jesus, “King of the Jews” (15:26), contained more truth than irony (see 15:2, 18). Compared with the context and tone in the other gospel accounts, the irony here was more hopeful than bitter.

The evangelist interpreted the passion and death of Jesus carefully. Especially with the presence of the Sanhedrin, the account parallels that of the innocent prophet Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 26). Six hundred years earlier Jeremiah threatened destruction for the temple (see Mark 13:1ff.). Priests and others demanded his death. The death of the innocent prophet Jesus was familiar to first-century Jews. Regarding his fellow Jews, Mark’s hope was exactly like Jeremiah’s long ago: “Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way” (Jeremiah 26:3). Jeremiah and Mark reflected a qualified anti-Judaism: disapproval focused on bringing about change.

Not long after the year 70, however, the climate changed. Rome’s presence grew much heavier in the small eastern province of the massive empire. Under Roman rule, the evangelists Matthew and Luke developed stronger understandings of discipleship of Jesus as something more churchlike or “Christian.” Groups of followers of “the Nazorean” became less like Judaism and more like institutions established alongside it, over it, against it or in competition with it.

The evangelist Mark had a vision of Christianity as a completion of Israel rather than a separation from it. He sought one Israel for the whole world. He certainly would have regretted the schism between rabbinic Judaism and those groups that did not make the “official” cut over the next forty years.

If we allow the Gospel of Mark into our hearts, we followers of Christ crucified and risen celebrate the One True Israel. “But we must first preach the gospel to all nations” (Mark 13:10). If the apostle Paul happens by and says, “Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), our evangelist, Mark, would reply with full voice. “Amen.”