A 5th Sunday after Epiphany Thought About Something the World Hardly Notices

The 5th Sunday after Epiphany finds us between an "extended" celebration of the Christmas Season and an anticipation of the coming of Lent, something the world hardly notices.

We noted last Sunday the tradition of keeping our Christmas decorations up until February 2nd - the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple. Today we find next Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday, looming on the horizon - at least in the traditional calendar. The priest will wear the purple of Lent, even though Lent will not begin for another 3 weeks or so. 

(Indeed, the newfangled "Novus Ordo" calendar hardly notices this.)

So the spillover of the joyous Christmas Season gives way to the preparation of our hearts and minds for the coming penitential Season that characterizes Lent.

Of course, the world hardly notices any or this, if it notices it at all. It's concerns center on such grandiose subjects like politics, the economy, the social issues of our day, if even these are not papered over by the "news" that dominates our media, whether that be the dying "legacy" media or the rising (and really not so much anymore) "alternative" media.

Not that we Christians don't notice the world and its doings. Indeed, we're here to not simply notice, but to "be" Christians, each in his or her own way. That way has been shaped by our individual character and temperament, tempered in common by our shared fallen human nature. Yes, we must recall, from time to time, the burden that came to us from the disobedience of our First Parents, Adam and Eve. The Garden of Paradise was once our destiny until Eve allowed the Serpent to persuade her to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - explicitly against God's clear direction not to do so. Thus disobedience entered Paradise, and Adam and Eve exited.

Looking back to the Christmas Season, we recall that Our Lord condescended to take on a human nature in order to save us from the consequences of this disobedience. And he did this first by example, beginning with the ultimate display of humility of His Birth in the stable in Bethlehem, continuing through His obedience to His parents, Mary and Joseph. After the "quiet years" of His life in "hidden" life in Nazareth, He answered His Father's call and and commenced His public life. In those few years of His travels with His disciples, he gave us both His example along with the Good News of our salvation. The Gospels captured both His example and His Words and have come down to us over two millennia, along with the traditions and teachings of His Holy Catholic Church.

In His great expression of obedience to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane - one that definitively countered the act of disobedience in the Garden of Paradise, we witness his Passion, Death, and Resurrection - all undertaken for Love of each one of us.

Looking forward to Lent, we understand now why it is so important for us to take seriously the penitential practices that have marked the lives of Christians ever since. It is our time to recognize our own disobedience and to make reparation for all our sins and failings.

Well, maybe this is a lot more than you bargained for on a simple 5th Sunday after Epiphany. But there is it is. Perhaps we can take a few moments during the respite given us by Our Father in Heaven every Sunday to meditate a bit on what has come before and what will come after this Sunday. At the very least, we will be able to "locate" ourselves in the flow of this Liturgical Year, begun so many weeks ago on the 1st Sunday of Advent. 

As we do so, we can open our minds and hearts to that which best feeds our souls and strengthens our Interior Life - the supernatural, or "real" world that this world of ours hardly notices.

 

Happy 5th Sunday after Epiphany!