Ordinary Time - Sundays 9 to 16 - Scripture Discussion
Some time this summer we will probably hear the song, "Summertime and the livin' is easy". Every summer since the song was first sung, the lyrics have gently lulled us. Responsible adults have forever sought to quiet and hush and assure restless and sleepy children. And the child in all of us wants the livin' to be as easy as when someone else worried about us and cared for us.
So, here we are in summer. The weather is mild and the sun is high in the sky. The fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. This abundance promises ease. But the abundance of free time also complicates life. The ordered, purposeful, and brief days of the other seasons moved along apace.
The order is a relief for us, but now the children are underfoot. Schedules are loosened. Vacations on the road are a possibility. Company is coming; children regard summer afternoons as movable feasts as they move from house to kitchen to the convenience store to the ice cream vendor.
In all this the Church celebrates the feasts of the Trinity, the Body and Blood of Christ, and then the long run of Ordinary Time Sunday after Sunday. The Church seems to be the mother providing the song and the steady rhythm we need to enter into that peaceful hush that is not sleep, but attentiveness, the attentiveness proper to mature Christians.
We are reminded that Sunday is time off and time away. But it is more: Sunday is time with. Sunday's quiet rest provides a context for contemplation, that is, a time to be filled with awe and wonder in the place where God is. This is never wasted or lost time. The time of hushed contemplation is time that saves all of us from the nuttiness that catches us up and uses us up.
Sunday is our time with God and with those we love and live with in mutual interdependence. This is time well spent. There are no substitutes for this kind of contemplative time. Consider Sunday as the best daylight savings time in the world. Everything else that needs to be done will get done because you have saved out a day. The fish will jump and the cotton grow and summer unfold without your fevered worry while your attention is elsewhere.
Copyright © 2002 World Library Publications
All rights reserved.
Ordinary Time - Scripture Discussion - Cycle B
Holy Trinity
The Life of God
Body & Blood of Christ
One Body in Christ
Nineth Sunday
Master of the Sabbath
Tenth Sunday
The True Family of Jesus
Eleventh Sunday
Teaching by Parables
Twelfth Sunday
A New Creation
Thirteenth Sunday
Christ the Healer
Fourteenth Sunday
The Prophet
Fifteenth Sunday
Sacrament of Salvation
Sixteenth Sunday
Shepherd and Guardian
Updated: September 7, 2009
