Ordinary time

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It is ordinary time

a time I have been told

for growth and maturation,

a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate

ever more deeply into history

until all things are finally caught up in love

As such, ordinary time is far from ordinary

And yet in the sameness of each day

We trod

So caught up in the ordinary

In the work

The drudgery

In the asphalt and concrete of this life

That we fail to see the extra-ordinary

That makes us whole

Complete

Alive

Worn down we trod

Tired and hopeless

While malignant souls

Plot and lie

Selling their wares of wealth and power

Stealing freedom in the name of freedom

Leaving us carcasses

Picked clean

Of life

We wander into the buildings of faith

Hoping to find that spark of life

That fire that consumes

That wind that moves us

Come Holy Spirit

We wander into buildings hoping to find

Love and hope, peace and joy

And instead, find all the miseries of humankind

Fear and hate

Guilt and exclusion

For we have turned faith into collusion rather than rebellion

Maintenance rather than transformation

Power rather than service

Wealth rather than radical generosity

It is ordinary time, again

And in the shortening days

There is a message

About how the darkness grows

And how things grow cold and hard

But even as the darkness grows

Even now

As things foul and deadly

Seem to grow

There is the sunrise

That moment when the darkness is shattered

There is the frost on the trees,

The glittering mountain thrusting into startling blueness

There is God

There is love

I stand some mornings in the cold

Staring in awe at the mountain

Embraced by Sacred love

There are moments when

The ordinary is shattered

By the advent of love, the surprising arrival of grace

And even as the darkness grows

I wait

For the advent of Love

And God’s extraordinary new thing