Yesterday, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first reading that we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Moses said to the people: ‘Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.’” Then, in today’s first reading from the First Book of Kings, we heard the Lord said to Elijah: “‘Leave here, go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.’ So [Elijah] left and did as the LORD had commanded.”
The Lord God tested Elijah to see if it was his intention to keep his commandments and Elijah did as the Lord had commanded him. This is important for us not only to understand with our minds but to live out in our hearts in the dailyness of our lives. Since Pentecost and the end of Easter, we have observed the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which serves as a reminder to us that God is a Communion of Three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - God, and he calls us into communion with Him and with each other. Then, we observed the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which serves as a reminder to us “that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.” That Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14). And when he ascended into heaven, the Word of God promised to be with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Jesus keeps his promise to us in the Eucharist.
After these blessed and grace-filled times in the liturgical year, we now entered fully into Ordinary Time in the life of the Church. It is like Peter, Andrew, John, and James coming down the mountain after witnessing the Transfiguration of the Lord. Or, for many of us, it is like leaving an amazing, grace-filled retreat and returning to the dailyness of life. Where do we go from here? Jesus gives us the answer in today’s Gospel, instructing us to live our lives according to his Beatitudes so that we are blessed and our lives become a blessing to others. This is the call to holiness, the call to discipleship, to which Jesus calls all of us to, saying: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
When we take this approach in our lives, then Ordinary Time is turned into a time of “ordinary holiness.” I want to leave you all with these lyrics from the hymn, “Ordinary Holiness” - “Ordinary holiness. . . In the sacred day-to-day. . . Living out the Gospel. . . In a quiet, humble way. . . We are called to be the light. . . In the shadows of the night. . . Answering the call of grace. . . Seeing Christ in every face. . . In the families we love. . . In the neighbors that we greet. . . In the broken and the lonely. . . Whom we gather with to meet. . . You have poured Your love on us. . . Given strength for every chore. . . Turning ordinary pathways. . . Into steps to Heaven's door.”
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