My friends, I have often said in the past, that the season of the Church Year that we are in, “Ordinary Time,” should really be re-named, “Extra Ordinary Time” because of the great challenges that we are presented with during these months, basically, to be our best.  I believe those who named this time “ordinary,” were simply looking one-dimensionally, thinking these many Sundays aren’t about the major, reflective feast times – Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, thus just, “ordinary.”  It is my belief that living in our brother Jesus’ footsteps is never for the most part, “simple,” so “ordinary” doesn’t adequately name what should be happening during this time. 

   So, why am I spending time today discussing the “ordinary” naming of a time in our spiritual-religious lives, when so much, it seems, that is going on in our world, needs to be addressed?  My answer is, because the way we name our reality has at least something to do with how we act in our world. 

   If we fail to see that our presence in the here and now as followers of Jesus, as Christians is more than ordinary – ho hum, than we forfeit the strength and power that we have to make a difference in our present-day world that seems to be operating and stressing, from the top-down the lowest common denominator that we humans are capable of.  And please hear these comments, not as political – as it seems our world is moving, in its present configuration, way beyond that, showing us if we care to really focus, what is lowest in our common humanity:  arrogance, selfishness, lack of vision beyond the moment, pride, rhetoric filled with lies – lack of justice, caring for the least among us, and more…

And Jesus told his 1^st followers when they asked whether some people could be counted among them – “check the fruits” – if goodness, love, mercy and justice are present, then “they” can be considered part of us. 

   Looking then to the Scriptures, Isaiah tells us today that [our God] “is coming to gather the nations of every language” –to me, that says, everyone, everyone is welcome.  A present-day example for those who demonstrate on Winona’s main streets every Monday is the fact that there are no people of color out there because they know, in the times in which we live, that they are susceptible to the worst that we humans are capable of – yet these same people of color, drive by and applaud the action of demonstrating on their behalf. 

   The psalmist in 117 today would agree with the prophet Isaiah that “our God is coming to save us all,” as this person instructs those who are listening, [to] “go out to all the world and tell the Good News” – clearly, this is a statement that says, “we are all welcome!” 

   The writer to the Hebrews seems to seal the deal – “we are all God’s children.”  This begs the question then of why so many in positions of power within our country, who claim to be Christians, followers of Jesus, fail to act as we would expect Christians to act. 

   This is true for those who lead our Church as well.  Except for a few; the likes of Bishops, Peter Baldacchino in Las Cruces, NM, Gustavo Garcia-Siller in San Antonio, TX, and John Wester in Santa Fe, NM, who have been demonstrating at the borders about the United States present policies concerning deporting immigrants in our country, our bishops are silent on the abuses done to others in our world, and our bishop, Robert Barron is included here.  Any rhetoric about “uplifting the Eucharist” devoid of seeing Jesus’ body and blood in our world is useless in the long run! 

   So my friends, as we look at our human condition, our default stance, we could probably agree, is to take care of ourselves, and this is especially true when we are tired, discouraged, frustrated, thinking that we have no power to make change.  But the truth is, and we know this in a whole other part of ourselves, we are capable of so much more. 

   Many of us have lived long enough to realize that the time we have left is far less than the years we have lived.  This was brought home to our family rather clearly this past week, as we lost Joan Redig’s husband, Wayne, and two other of our brothers-in-law, ended up in the emergency room with age-related conditions.  If we have the personal habit of “reflecting on the past” in order that we might do better in the future, we are aware of those times when we have been our best, stood up for those “less fortunate” perhaps; and even though what we did in those times may have been hard, not knowing the possible outcome, it is those same times that ultimately gave us the most joy. 

   Jesus in today’s gospel tells us “to try and go in by the narrow gate,” a command that made perfect sense when he lived, as it was speaking about the “ease of a camel getting into the city through the Needle’s Eye Gate,” as opposed to a “rich person getting into heaven.”  Now the camel would have had great difficulty with the Needle’s Eye Gate, so we can take it from there. 

   I look at Jesus’ command that, “we try to go in by the narrow gate to simply mean, “try to be your best.”  Our world isn’t always accepting of that stance though: of not returning violence with violence, turning the other cheek, which may be about, “giving no power” to violence, but simply trying to love the one doing the violence, which becomes truly hard when that person may simply, drive us crazy.

   I don’t know about you, but when I give in to the “hate,” a word, by the way that I really hate, and don’t like to use, — afterward there is no satisfaction that I feel; whereas when I try “the narrow gate,” LOVE, there is peace. 

   Very often here I talk with you about living our spiritual journey, in search of God, trying to see this entity, however we personally see God, in bigger than black and white ways, breaking open the “small boxes” we have placed God in. When we keep our God “small,” we give ourselves permission to love in small ways too.  Keeping God small allows we humans to write laws in Church and state that direct us to the lowest common denominator of action in our human sphere.  So much of what I hear in the daily news is about this very thing…

• “I can’t trust because the other is untrust-worthy,
• I can’t stop going to war until they do,
• We can’t seem to do anything about the gun epidemic in our country because we consider the rights of gun owners more important than the rights of our children to stay alive,
• We can’t give the Body and Blood of Christ to others until they believe our narrow thought processes,
• We can’t respect how someone says they were created and called to love in our world, because it isn’t in our narrow way,
• Our Church hierarchy sees our loving God as loving very exclusively, and in narrow ways when it pontificates that God calls those who serve at our tables of prayer and blessing worthy only if they have certain body parts.”

And the list of narrowly loving, if at all, goes on. 

   Why do we as Christians persist in seeing and acting in our world in narrowly conceived, black and white ways, when as someone said, “Our God sees in technicolor?!  Amen?  Amen!

My friends, being that we usually don’t meet for scheduled “holy days” outside of our usual Sunday gatherings, I wanted to take the opportunity of remembering Mary, our mother, sister, and friend for the journey, along with the 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  It has often seemed to me, over the years, that Mary, being a woman, and remembered solely by men in pulpits, gets less than she is worthy of.  While it is wonderful to remember her as a “faithful woman” who said, “yes” to God, it is equally important to remember her strength of character – her willingness to proceed into the unknown, which was what her “yes” truly meant.  It took great strength and courage to give the world a son who would do much to change the entire world – one who we would say today was about making, “good trouble,” so that each of us, and all, could hopefully enjoy a good and meaningful life. 

   Jesus found his world, much as we find our world today –  the powerful versus those with no power – mainly women and children, and he said “no” to that! Of course that got him into trouble, and not, “good trouble” for speaking up against the “powers” of his time.  Life in our present-day world looks much the same, I think we all could agree. 

   Interestingly, Mary’s “yes” in being willing to walk-in-faith, not knowing the outcome of giving the world such an amazing son, who would challenge the powers of his time, would bring great “trouble” into her life as well. 

   Beginning with her conception of a child outside of marriage – something she could hardly explain in a way that would make her human neighbors understand anything other than that she was a wanton woman.

   Mary was complicit with her God in giving the world Jesus, and she had the strength of character to say, “yes” and stand beside her son through all the disbelief and misunderstanding of others, all the way to the cross, in order that, as we will sing again later, in the beautiful canticle – her Magnificat, [they] “would pull the mighty from their thrones.” 

   These are the actions of a strong, vibrant, and formidable woman, not one to place on a pedestal, out of sight and mind.  If one woman’s “yes” could bring the “powerful down,” this is not something those with power in our Church today would want to lift up going forward, thus we often, most often do not hear of this Mary.  And this reminds me of the double standard, not only in our Church, but in our world in general of seeing the strong actions of women in a negative way, whereas the same actions by a man are seen as positive – a point in fact that was quite well demonstrated in the movie, Barbie, which we viewed recently. 

   So, my friends, completing our thoughts on Mary – mother, sister and friend – I would like to lift up, along with her courage and strength as a woman, attributes our Church so needs today, her “purely human nature,” the reason that we can name her as, “a friend for our journey” whether female or male. 

   Beginning with the conception of Jesus, a reading we didn’t use today, we see her being extremely human, “How can this be, since I have never been with a man?”  Then, in the 1^st reading selected for today from the gospel of Luke, her pure humanness is seen again as she and Joseph lose Jesus for a few days on a trip to and from Jerusalem.  Jesus we need to remember was only 12. 

   When they finally find him, teaching the “learned men” in the Temple, we hear the very human Mary say, “Son , why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been so worried!”  Jesus’ response should not be seen as a smart-alec one from a teenager, but as a response that clearly shows his “otherness,” his unique mission on this earth, and I would submit that this is how Mary took what he said, as Luke tells us, “Mary treasured all these things in her heart, “ not truly understanding, which shows I think, her patient faith in awaiting God’s time.  Additionally, this patient faith, awaiting what would come next was something she and Joseph would deal with again and again through this “precious life” that was given into their keeping. 

  And really, when we think about it, is this any different from what other human parents experience in raising their children? – one never really knows if what they teach and instruct their children to do, in order to “become their best” is what will indeed make this a reality. 

   We see that Mary and Joseph are blessed as “Jesus returned to Nazareth and was obedient to them” – an action that no doubt confirmed their faith and, “as he grew in wisdom and grace,” their hope as well. 

   So, what of us my friends – how are we to make sense of Mary’s journey as we reflect on our own, attempting to walk, not only in hers, but also her son’s footsteps?  In today’s actual feast, the 20^th Sunday in OT, we heard the writer to the Hebrews say, “Let us not lose sight of Jesus,” [so that] “You will not grow weary and lose heart.”  To this I would add, Mary’s name specifically, and Joseph’s name too, because as most theologians and Scripture scholars attest, “Jesus had to have come into this human would as we all do, as quite a blank slate,” and we can be sure that his mother and father taught him many good things for navigating in his world. 

   Last week we talked about how we each have a “creative spark” within us, given by God – we might call that our “spiritual self.”  And we can be sure that Jesus was so endowed. 

   Then, moving into the actual gospel reading for the 20^th Sunday in OT, we hear Jesus’ question to the people in his time, and to us, “Do you suppose I have come to bring peace of earth?” to which he basically responds, “I have not!” We can only imagine that Jesus’s words were disturbing when he first uttered them, and in all truth, we probably have to admit, these words disturb us too!  So again, what are we to see here? 

   We humans, even though, spiritual, tend to pick the easiest thing to do, another part of being human – basically taking care of ourselves.  The thing is though; we are spiritual beings too and that calls us to, a bit more.  Jesus, in today’s gospel from Luke 12 reminds us that following him, truly following him, will bring dissention in our families, putting sister against brother and so on. 

   This “Jesus-following,” walking a faith-filled, courageous life as his mother Mary did, will ask us at times, to stand alone in order that all of created life is respected and cared for.  And we can gain hope from remembering that our brother, Jesus, even at 12, “amazed” others “at his understanding and his answers,” speaking truth to power.

   So, I would like to conclude with a short, true story that happened to me this week, which points to us keeping the faith, holding onto hope in the face of what we can’t fully understand.

   I arrived home after making some visits and doing errands.  I was unloading the car when another car drove in behind me.  It was an extra for FedEx I believe and he had a package for me.  He noticed our yellow and blue colors representing Ukraine on our garage and asked, “Are you Ukrainian?  I said no, but we are supportive. He answered in an excited tone, “I am Ukrainian!” to which I said, “God bless you!”  Amen? Amen!