Ordinary time

After forty days in violet, fifty in white and a conclusion in red, we have abruptly been brought back to green.

“Ordinary time” was once called “the time after Pentecost”. Even if the name has changed, it is difficult to see how “ordinary time” could be anything else than the time after Pentecost. How can an ordinary Christian be just a Christian with being animated permanently by the Holy Spirit? In order to facilitate this return to ordinary time, the liturgy has us listen to the Gospel of the Beatitudes. How can one listen without rebelling to “Blessed are those who weep”, “Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice”? Only the Spirit of God can make us capable of understanding this and living it.

WE have just seen a magnificent illustration of the beatitude « Blessed are the peace makers » in the gardens of the Vatican. I am impressed among other things by this one sentence of the Pope: “It needs more courage to make peace than to make war”. Making peace is a daily obligation. Only the Spirit of God can make us capable of making peace reign within us and around us.