The Wrong Ordinary Vs. The Right Ordinary

While yesterday, (Sunday) we ended the Easter Season in the liturgical calendar with the feast of the Pentecost, the Ordinary time will now begin. Let us reflect upon what is the right ordinary and strive to leave behind the wrong ordinary.

The ordinary time is set to give us time to focus less on the major events in Jesus’ life as in the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery, and it seeks to help us focus on the teachings of Jesus Christ in themselves. For the whole duration of the ordinary time, we will hear the many teachings of Jesus ranging from Parables, his healing, his exorcism of demons, calling of the disciples, his criticisms of the pharisaic way of thinking and discipleship.

In the ordinary time, we are given the time to listen to Jesus speak the words of life. In the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery up to the feast of the pentecost, we celebrate the Soteriological aspect of the mission of Christ or that which pertains to the salvation of all, or the his mission of incorporating us about the fullness of life with God. In the ordinary time, we are given the chance to focus on his teachings. Christ came as a savior and as a teacher. He came to give us life and to teach us how to live.

The ordinary time is represented by the color Green; the color of the Pasteur, the color of nature, the color of photosynthesis, the color of nourishment, the color of vitality and growth, of sowing and reaping, hence the color of life. This color helps us understand the natural process of life, the ordinary color of life, the color which celebrates creation.

If ordinary time is a time for vitality, innovation and initiative, then ordinary time is not about going back to our ordinary selves but to become that which we were not, that which we hoped to become, that which we hope for, that which we aspire for, and that with we are destined for. If at Lent and Advent season, we are called to repent and renew our lives, ordinary time invites us to grow; to grow in the love of God, -that is to grow in holiness through the ways Jesus would be teaching us about.

The Pandemic, the Corona Virus, had vanished us to our homes and has confined us to quarantine. We were prevented to go out, we were prevented to eat at our favorite restaurants, we were prevented to go to mass, to visit friends, to go to parties, to buy supplies for our house, to go shopping, to travel, to play and to go to work. As it turned out, it has given us the time to spend with our families at home, some had the time to pray to God, to long for him, and some had the time to rest. It has given mother nature time to breathe and recover as pollution levels went enormously low. In short, this pandemic has given us a break from our wrong ordinary and routinely lives.

The last time humanity had a break was during the world wars. After the industrial revolution, the pace of civilization has significantly increased and the only intention of humans since then on was material progress at the expense of the degradation of our ecology. Machines that lessened human labor were invented, cars and planes were modified and made even more complex but otherwise still detrimental to environmental well-being and burned fuels up into the air that lead to one solution to the other. After the industrial revolution, we started to choke the planet and ourselves by sending pollutants to the air, oceans and soils for a relentless desire to reduce human labour and for inequitable profit which was achieved out of exploitation and impersonal economy.

This Pandemic has dismantled the pollutants and so today we enjoy a cleaner air, and has inculcated the hope for a better human race, a better relationship with the rest of creation. The pandemic has initiated hope, it is now up to rational beings to work on what has been initiated; whether to go back to the wrong ordinary way of life, or build a new globally conscious civilization; a civilization of new normal, a civilization of right ordinary; a civilization that sows hope for the ecology to breathe and be given the voice in each realm of progress, a civilization that is inclusive, a fiscal system that equalizes, an economy which is humanized, a military that doubles tolerance on restraint, media that promotes concern and service instead of fake news and hate speech, governments more of public service and less of politics, governments in love with research and innovation, healthcare that is for all, and a church which remains a face of God in the midst of darkness.

We should never go back to the ordinary if by ordinary we mean the old insensitive life, or the usual trajectory of human quest for survival and expediency; hate speech, fake news, hatred, quest for relevance, immaturity, desire to always speak and dictate and comment, unwillingness to listen, economy of exclusion, or individualism. They should not be the ordinary we should going back to.

Ordinary time always follow Christmas season because we are meant to live in faith, hope and love. Ordinary time resumes after easter season because we are meant to grow and aspire for new life everyday.