There is much about us that is ordinary. We follow regular routines, practice our customary habits, and see the usual faces. Peter, Andrew, and James were quite ordinary people when the Gospel tells their story of encountering Jesus. Jesus then showed them how to live within the ordinary and transform it, thus creating an extraordinary way.
Jesus’ extraordinary way had ordinary men living in community with women, as equals. Setting the men apart as high priests would have been the ordinary way to relate, so Jesus did not relate that way. Jesus’ extraordinary way taught ordinary men and women who had been oppressed that it was possible to end their oppression while loving those who made them suffer. Teaching people that God wills suffering and that high priests help carry that justice out would have been the ordinary God to reveal, so Jesus did not reveal that God. Jesus’ extraordinary way showed ordinary people how to share in God’s healing power. Showing people that violence is of God and Godly people exercise it would have been the ordinary thing to do, so Jesus did not reveal that God or take violent action. Ordinary people, ordinary places, ordinary time – and then bursting forth is the extraordinary – communion, equality, love, intimacy, friendship, healing, power – changing the course of history
Ordinary people routinely encounter an extraordinary Jesus. Whole lives are turned around, whole worlds. All are made extraordinary.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for making the ordinary extraordinary.
Question: What can I do to infuse the extraordinary into my ordinary routine?
January 26, 2014 Gospel Matthew 4:12-23 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time