The Not So Verdant Days

We lented into Jerusalem with Jesus, journeyed through His Passion, death, and resurrection into Eastertide, and finally watched Him ascend and the Holy Spirit descend. After those 90 plus days of sacrifice and celebration, we now have what is called “Ordinary Time” and back to the wearing of the green.

We are told that this “ordinary” is not defined as Webster and the gang say—that is, not meaning commonplace, standard, routine. This “ordinary” morphed from the word ordinal, referring to being numbered and ordered, and most certainly these weeks are counted, with the first one after Pentecost this year being the tenth.

Be that as it may, the greenery and the counting doesn’t really inspire me after three months of the agony and the ecstasy. It is undoubtedly a sign that I need an attitudinal overhaul, since that ordinary definition of ordinary haunts me after the curtain comes down on Eastertide. Maybe if I take off the emerald glasses and really look at the coming days, they won’t seem so ordinary, or ordered for that matter.

First off, no sooner does the HS land, when the following day we go from the Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli), to the Annunciation (Angelus) and Mary comes back to earth to be honored as the Mother of the Church. Sunday next, the Big Three come to town for Trinity Sunday. Then the Sunday following that (or Thursday if your Bishop prefers) the Super-Duper Solemnity of Corpus Christi (or in a less Latin vein: “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ”) where we are reminded of the joy of the Eucharist above and beyond the normal celebration of the Mass. The following Friday and Saturday ring in the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, though the latter is considered “optional.” Looks like lots of white instead of green to me.

In addition to these moveable feasts that come riding down the pike after Easter, June’s vestment greenery can give way as we celebrate several extraordinary folks:

• Tue, 6/11 St Barnabas, Apostle and Martyr (red)
• Fri, 6/13 St Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (white)
• Sat, 6/21 St Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (white)
• Tue, 6/24 Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (white)
• Sun, 6/29 Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (Red)

There are several memorials, optional and otherwise, that fall on Sunday or on other Solemnities or Memorials that I’m not even counting. And we wind up the month by optionally memorializing the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church with the optional scarlet.

And looking ahead to July, August, and September, while green may predominate, it does not overwhelm. In fact, the liturgiscape up to the violet days of Advent isn’t nearly as verdant as it seems if we dig beneath the numbered weeks and into our rich fabric of sacred tributes to the people whose blood and brains and bodies and souls built the cozy churches we can relax in on weekdays and Sabbaths.

This is the grand pageant of our faith. The famous and obscure have followed our Lord, Savior, and Boss in giving themselves and sometimes their lives to preserve the Word, the gifts and the foundations which I often take for granted when I hear the litany of saint’s names in the prayers at Mass.

We have a glorious history in the Church that is celebrated year-round, not just in the special seasons of our liturgical year. So, let’s open our eyes to the vast array of hues in our vestments, remembering that there is a story of sacrifice and struggle with each color, and that our own salvation is intimately enmeshed with those who preceded us on this spiritual journey which is anything but ordinary.