Looking at my own life I am surprised how God works. Over the years I have somehow garnered up this expectation that the way God reveals himself to me is going to be in a drastic, life changing and mighty way. While it is true that God works in this way, it is the experience of most people that God doesn’t come with mighty trumpets, or in powerful storms but through common and everyday happenings. Sure we read Scripture stories where God showed His great power or we hear stories of miracles that have changed peoples lives, but how much do we miss when our expectations are different than what God wants to reveal to us?
The great news is that God wants us to live His providence in every moment, especially the ordinary moments when His presence is ever near. The Church gives us the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter to form us, help to grow in faith, and to convert our hearts to that of Jesus’. The Church also gives us ordinary time to reveal that Jesus continues to give us the same call of conversion and repentance in every season and everyday of the year. What a call!
What does this call demand from us? Something quite extraordinary. In the shadow of Advent and Christmas, the call of ordinary time demands a response to the promise that was given to us by Jesus in the manger - the promise that was foretold by the prophets and the promise that threatened Herod and the society of the day. My friends, it is just not enough to put the manger scene back in the box for another year and act as if just another Christmas season has come and gone. That is exactly what our culture is doing right now. The lights are coming down, the stores are changing out their Christmas items and most people are just moving on. If we have fallen into this, how much we have missed yet again this year!