It's Ordinary Time Again: Journeying along the Path of Faith

JESUS EXPELLING DEMONS.
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"If you can! Everything is possible to one who has faith." 

- Mark 9:23

It's Ordinary Time again, meaning, we journey along the path of faith outside of the significant period called the Sanctoral Time which is divided between Eastertide and Christmastide. Eastertide of course means our commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new Passover, and is celebrated with the preparatory Season of Lent and the celebration proper, Easter. Christmastide is on the other hand our commemoration of the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Incarnation, and has the preparatory period we call Advent Season before the Christmas Season proper.

Ordinary Time is divided into the period between Christmas and Lent and between Easter and Advent. It closes with the celebration of Christ the King, with the last few Sundays being focused on the eschatological realities particularly Judgment Day and connects with Advent by having the first two Sundays of this Season focused on the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ also and then making a change of gear by the third Sunday of preparing for the Incarnation, that is, the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, His first coming.

As we begin the Ordinary Time once again, we start our readings from the Chapter 9 of the Gospel according to Mark and we encounter a father who have asked the Apostles of Jesus to help him about his demon-possessed son. This event takes place right after the Transfiguration and so Peter, James and John were not with the others for they were together with the Lord up on Mount Tabor. Jesus somehow got frustrated with the Apostles and had exclaimed, "O faithless generation, how long will I be with you?" [v19] The father also must have somehow lost faith already and asked the Lord in this way, "if you CAN do anything, please help us" [v22] to which the Lord replied, "If you CAN! Everything is possible to one who has faith" [v23].

There are times when we face challenges in our lives that seem to be out of our control and forget that God is with us [see Matthew 1:23; 28:20] and so we can do something if necessary even out of the ordinary. But most of the time, we let ourselves be contained by the limitations of our human realities and weakness and succumb to the challenges completely leaving out the possibility of divine intervention. But didn't the Lord said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we tell a mountain to move into the sea [see Matthew 17:20; 21:21]? Truly, nothing is impossible if only have faith and if we only remain connected with the Lord [see John 15: 4-5].

As we journey through the Ordinary Time, let us remember that God has created us in His image and likeness, so we possess something of God, His very life, which may have been lost by sin but by the Lord Jesus Christ's passion, death and resurrection has been restored as sanctifying grace, making ourselves as temples of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Power [see Acts 1:8;  2:4; 4:33]. 

A blessed pilgrimage, dear friends!