By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
January 19, 2020: 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 49: 3,5,6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1: 29-34
We have been busy celebrating feasts one after the other! It’s time to return to the Ordinary Sundays and probably, the right beginning is to get our basics right, as sons and daughters of God. Today the readings speak to us about living our Christian life on an everyday basis… in our ordinariness of life! Festive occasions make it easier to feel the joy of the moment; but the demanding call is to live our life on a daily basis, to live it fully, faithfully and meaningfully.
Jesus is about to begin his public ministry, and like an MC (Master of Ceremonies) in a performance, John the Baptist announces Christ’s entry into the scene! With Jesus’ entry and his public life, our life as Christians, our call as sons and daughters of God and our identity as disciples of Christ are clearly defined. And that is what the liturgy today intends to do… to clarify the basics to us, so that we may live our Christian calling everyday of our life.
The readings seem to reflect with us in terms of the basic Question Words…
WHO? WHAT?
The first question is about who we are and what we are? Isaiah gives a direct response to it: we are the light of the nations! We are called, we know that. But, as what? To do the will of God, yes; to be ever at the disposal of the will of God and say, “Here am I Lord, I come to do your will” (Heb 10:7) But doing the Will not merely as servants but as ‘the light of the nations!’
We are called not merely as workers but as witnesses. “Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” …that is the answer to the Who and the What, of our Christian life. We are called to live our life as witnesses…witness is our first mode of proclaiming Christ and His gospel. It is not what we do that matters most, rather what we wish to communicate through what we do! Do we want to tell the world about ourselves, our goodness, our greatness and our inevitability? Or do we want to communicate to them the goodness of the Lord, the Gospel of the Father, the grace and peace of Christ and love of the Spirit? What we wish to communicate would determine whether we are merely workers or witnesses!
WHY? WHERE?
Why should we be doing God’s will and where are we bound to? In simple terms, what is our goal? What are we called for? The Word of God is vociferous on this point, be it in the Old Testament or in the New Testament: We are called to Holiness… We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy – says the second reading today. Holiness consists of a clarity of one’s own identity as Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist demonstrate in the readings today: to know who we are and what we are, and thus realising why we are doing all that we do and where we are going towards!
We are called, not to a mediocre life, but to live our life to the full… that is a life of real holiness. If everything that we do in our daily life, does not ultimately lead us to sanctification and holiness, that is in simple words fullness of life, we are on a mistaken journey. It might seem colourful at the moment, but will soon end up gloomy and grey. A clairty on the why and the where, will determine our daily choices, will define every aspect of our Christian living – our family life, our career, our spiritual life, our personal life and so on. Only when we are clear about our purpose, our lives shall be lived to the full.
WHICH? HOW?
The next question is, which way? and how do we reach that holiness? Is it my achievement? Is it some kind of a detached discipline of life that looks at every one around as a distraction and disturbance? Is it a elitist view of life, keeping myself above everyone, trying to be as less contaminated as possible, so that I can reach God and godliness? Are these points of view Christian at all?
Christian life cannot be just a me-and-God type of a life. It has to be lived in a Community! From the very beginning, Christ-experience and the message of Christ has been lived and passed on by a community. The readings underline this community aspect with the terms like, light of the ‘nations’, ‘to all those everywhere who call upon the name of the Lord’, and ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’… We are in the Unity Octave, which this year invites us to see God working through people and places which offer Unusual Kindness, which we will notice if only we would do the appropriate kind of looking.
Now the only question that is left is, When? But that is established right in the beginning…Now, Today, Here, in the Ordinariness of our daily life… every day of our ordinary life… we are called to live mindful of our identity as children of God, called and sanctified by Christ towards holiness, living to spread God’s love to the entire world… as light of the nations, in footsteps of the Lamb of God who calls us as a community of faith and love!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.