It is axiomatic, when you are a child, time seems to really move slowly, but once you get to a certain age (I’ve been there for a while), time seems to travel at light speed. This weekend is already the fourth week of Ordinary Time, Christmas has come and gone?
No, Christmas does not remain in the past. Christmas celebrates the unimaginable total self-gift of God by becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus. With his birth, as a child of Mary, God gives his life absolutely and such action is fully consummated by death upon the cross. Further, with his rising, we have all risen! This is something totally objective, it is a declared fact. In other words, each of us is Christmas, we are the incarnate reality.
Now, it is certainly true that it is one thing to receive and another to put into practice what has been received. Worth mentioning, what is not put to use could very well be lost. Ordinary Time is dedicated to putting into practice what has been received. Where to start?
The fact that we have God’s lifeblood means that we can actually be free from all fear. Of course, easier said than done! With an ache in the soul, the song of Christmas peace is confronted with extremes of contradictions. Humanity continues to be so inhuman in every corner of the world! It seems the entire system is completely violent and involved in violence and finds no way out but violence, leading to more violence. This is the context that takes us from the nativity scene to an encounter.
The encounter will need to be, no longer with the child but with the adult. Jesus is no longer a child, he is an adult. We have to leave behind what belongs to a child to the child and become adults. Adults know how to see into one another’s eyes and not run away. Our Lord looks into our eyes and declares himself a brother and Lord, and a mission to fulfill. God became human flesh to fulfill a mission. This is the incarnation that prolongs itself in each of us and unites us to the mission of Christ.
The Gospel tells us that there were a couple of fishermen, much like ourselves, minding their own business and their nets. The encounter with the Lord takes place and then the following. Heeding the call to follow anoints us with a mission: redeem, heal, and give life with one’s own.
We have received the gift of God’s life, we can make a difference in the ordinary and extraordinariness of our lives. This is the call and meaning of Christ’s call to follow him. The early apostles dropped their nets and left their boats. No longer would they be accomplices of “that’s just the way things are”, following the Lord would transform their lives. They too, at the appointed time, in the footsteps of Christ and the Eucharist, would be broken and shared with others.
Father Francisco Gómez, S.T.