Ordinary Everydays

Gospel
05 July 2009
14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mk. 6:1-6

As an ordinary person, I marvel at the extraordinary. I guess this is true for most of us who live uneventful lives. As little girls, we grew up listening about prince charmings and happily-ever-afters. As teenagers, we formed lofty ideals regarding relationships and society. As adults, we became more focused on making the best career decisions to obtain financial success as quick and easy as possible. In our dreams, everything is grand and beautiful. Anything less is deemed laughable and simply too simple for dreams.

I imagined Our Lord was doubly saddened by the fact that the people he most wished to be with him in heaven refused to accept him. These are the people who were his playmates, classmates, friends, customers etc. He knew most of these people personally. However, these people precisely because they personally knew him found the thought of him being the messiah inconceivable.

I realized that I have yet to fully appreciate the graces that so abound in the seemingly mundane events of everyday; if I even bother to see them at all. There are times when I just can’t wait for time to pass, as if this would actually make a difference in the state my life is in. Personally, I have days when, as soon as I opened my eyes upon waking up, I immediately thought of the monotony of the weeks and months passed. I, then, silently wished to do something different and exciting for a change. What I forgot to consider is the chance of doing my tasks better and the fact that I still have the ability to do them for that particular day.  

I believe that the moment we cease to be amazed by the number of graces we receive each day because we are just so familiar with it is the moment when we refuse recognize Jesus’ role in our everydays. Like our dreams while growing up, we expect Jesus to show up in the most spectacular of ways. Anything less is shoved off as unworthy of his being God. But today’s gospel shows us that Jesus comes in both the familiar and unfamiliar i.e. in the ordinary and the extraordinary. So let us not look for Jesus in the extraordinary that we altogether miss him in the ordinary.