“The LORD said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” (Isaiah 49:3)

The major theme for this 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time focuses on our vocation, God’s calling, mandate and invitation to us to fulfill God’s will in our lives, especially in the Ordinary Time, to serve Him and our neighbors to extend the kingdom of God in our world.

Ordinary Time refers to a season of the Christian liturgical calendar, particularly the calendar of the ordinary form of the Roman rite of the Catholic Church. There are some other churches in Western Christianity that also use the term Ordinary Time. The English name "Ordinary Time" is translated from the Latin term “tempus per annum” (literally means "time through the year").

Since the liturgical reforms of 1970, the ordinary form of the Roman rite in the Catholic Church, also known as Ordinary Time, is comprised of two periods. The first period begins on the day after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and ends on the day before Ash Wednesday. The second period begins on the Monday after Pentecost and continues until the Saturday before the First Advent Sunday. These two periods number about 33 to 34 weeks of Ordinary Time. Within it there are special Sundays bearing the proper name of the feasts or solemnities celebrated on those days (e.g. Trinity Sunday, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Feast of Christ the King, etc.). The liturgical color assigned to Ordinary Time is green to symbolize hope and life in Christ.

As we begin ordinary time, the Church is inviting us to ponder and reflect our challenges and vocation to pattern our daily lives with the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is truly the Lamb of God, to imitate and serve Him faithfully to accomplish a certain mission entrusted to us individually and collectively to extend the Kingdom of God on earth.   

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to appreciate and exercise our vocation especially in the Ordinary Time, to imitate our savior Jesus Christ, to repent our sins, to exercise our Christian stewardship, to use our time, treasure and talents to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves, participating in the works of mercy, to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God. 

How can we serve God and one another like the Lamb of God? 

Wishing you a very happy and blessed week in the Lord.