My friends in Christ, with today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the liturgical season of Christmas now concludes and the first part of Ordinary Time begins. And this liturgical shift now from Christmas to Ordinary Time beckons our reflection today I think. And that is because Advent and Christmas can be very intense times, spiritually-speaking; and, very soon, we will be launching into Lent and Easter (some even more intense times, spiritually-speaking); and so there easily can be this very strong temptation to treat Ordinary Time like some sort of “spiritual vacation” as if finally we can take a break from all this “faith stuff,” this “religion business,” and just relax! Ha! Nice try…but no dice! Because hopefully, as we will see, not only should we never even want to view our faith in God, our friendship with Jesus Christ, as just one of several various things in our lives that we can compartmentalize and then be done with it…but also, we will hopefully see that Ordinary Time – when done well, when done correctly – might very well be that liturgical season in the Church’s year wherein we experience the most growth and the greatest intensity…although we may not really experience it at that time and in that moment, nor indeed have anything to do for it! And so, we consider Ordinary Time. First of all, we might wonder at the very name of this liturgical season: Ordinary Time. And that is because ordinary things, we might be tempted to think of as unimportant…insignificant…boring. And so Ordinary Time may at first seem like all of that to us, especially in the beginning of each of the two parts of Ordinary Time. In the spring, we will have just celebrated four major liturgical feasts, all in quick succession: the Ascension of the Lord, then Pentecost, then Trinity Sunday, then Corpus Christi – and all of that, mind you, right there in the very midst of spring ending and summer beginning, school wrapping up for the year and finally poised on the very brink of summer vacation like the fabled cliffs of dawn! And much that same phenomenon happens with the first part of Ordinary Time here in the middle of winter: we have just celebrated Christmas, then the New Year, and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, then the Feast of the Holy Family, then the Epiphany, and now today, the Baptism of the Lord. Liturgically- and spiritually-speaking…what a rush! Time to slow down now! Relax, and take a break, and let things just go back to being…ordinary…for a while! Thanks be to God, we say, for Ordinary Time! Yes, after so many powerful feast days, the Church now returns to a season of typical Sundays and a normal pace of life in spirit and in liturgy…. But you know, it is precisely now, in Ordinary Time, when the real work begins! It is now when true intensity heats up, and it is now when the spiritual growth in our lives of faith and discipleship now can begin. We are a largely agrarian society here in Eastern Washington; consider, therefore, the life-cycle of the wheat lands. There is a lot of work that farmers have to do at the beginning of the season each year: all of the tilling, all of the sowing, all of the planting. And there is a lot of work also at the end of the season each year: all of the reaping, all of the harvesting, all of the shipping off to market. But in between the beginning and end is (of course!) the middle. And in the middle is when the real work is done. Maybe the farmer does not have much work to do during that time…but you had better believe that the middle is precisely when almost all of the actual doing is actually being done: the seed – which, yes, the farmer planted – is germinating, and growing, and producing a plant – the farmer knows not how, nor does he himself actually do anything to make this happen. And at last, in the end, the plant, in turn, produces the fruit, at which time the farmer gets to work again – this time, for the harvest…. But it was in the middle time (not the beginning, not the end) when most of the work, most of the actual doing, was actually done. So it is the “middle,” as it were, of Ordinary Time. During Ordinary Time, the Church’s prayers for the liturgy and also the texts from Sacred Scripture proclaimed at Mass have the disciples and the rest of those followers of Jesus accompanying Him in His public ministry; the Church, in her God-inspired wisdom, proclaims the healings and the signs and most of the essential teachings from the life, ministry, and mission of Christ, that His followers can be reminded, reaffirmed, consoled, and challenged in how they (we) are living the Christian way of life. All throughout Ordinary Time, the community of disciples once again are told by the Lord to forgive, to love others generously, to be healed, and to serve as instruments of conversion and grace; and we seek peace, and we live humbly, and we pray, and we trust in the Lord’s providential care for us and for all. And so, we see that Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary! The purpose and many benefits of this liturgical season are, in very truth, extraordinary, and they are indispensable, and they are fundamental for us to follow Jesus. Ordinary Time is one of the sources from which our lives are fed as Catholic Christians, and upon which the Church’s celebration of those higher feasts is grounded. It is the resounding echo of Jesus in the “ordinary” life of the Church and in the hearts of Catholic Christian disciples (again, us) who love Him, who follow Him. Okay…so, given all of that…what can we actually do with Ordinary Time – at home, at work, at school? As the Catholic Church slows her Christmas pace, and she returns now to the public ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ, we can see in this an invitation to slow the frenetic pace of our own lives, so to refocus attention on loved ones, evaluate personal convictions, and assess overall where life is going and what changes we want to make. The season of Ordinary Time is a welcome signpost along the way of our Christian discipleship and our pilgrim’s journey of faith here on Earth. It is an opportunity for all of us to place even the most urgent things in check and proper order, so that we will refuse to allow them to dominate our existence. And it is a sacred time to renew and cherish what are truly the most important things, so that our lives can flourish and we can in turn enrich the lives of others…. In short, Ordinary Time empowers us, once again, to return our focus onto the things that matter most, the great here-and-now – for “today” can never be repeated, and sufficient for today are its own concerns. And so, as we enter now, once again, the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, we can ask ourselves a question, “How is my today?” And we can start to address and answer that question simply by walking with Jesus Christ…by taking quality stock of our lives…and by slowing down our frenetic pace of life…but, above all else, by striving always to love both God and neighbor with the utmost sincerity and with whole-hearted truth, and that we do so, always and everywhere, for the salvation of souls and for the greater glory of God.