12 January 2026
Finding Jesus in the mundane
Ordinary Time begins with something that is anything but ordinary.
After the great feasts of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and, finally, the Baptism of the Lord,
the Church now places us back into the rhythm of daily discipleship.
But what we are living in is not ordinary in the sense of routine or dull.
It is ordinary in the sense of grounded
—the place where faith becomes daily life.
And today’s Gospel shows us how that life begins.
Jesus steps forward for the first time in Mark’s Gospel and announces that something decisive has happened.
The waiting is over.
God has come near.
The Kingdom is no longer an idea or a promise
—it is present.
What follows is not a theory,
but an invitation
—a call into a new way of seeing and living.
Jesus does not explain the Kingdom in abstract language.
He invites people to step into it.
He speaks in words that ask for a response,
because the presence of God always does.
When God comes near,
something in us must shift.
The first thing that should shift is how we see ourselves and the world.
Jesus calls people to let go of the old way of measuring life
—by fear, by success, by survival—
and to begin seeing everything in light of God’s nearness.
This is what real conversion looks like.
It is not just changing habits;
it is allowing God to rearrange the way we think, desire, and choose.
That kind of change is never finished.
Some of us need big, visible turns.
Others need small but steady ones.
The smaller the change, usually,
the longer, the more difficult, and the more painstaking it can be.
In other words,
the smaller, the more difficult.
But all of us are being invited, again and again,
to let Christ move us just a little closer to His heart.
Then comes trust.
Jesus does not simply tell people what to do;
He asks them for relationship,
one in which we place our lives in His hands.
That is what faith really is
—not just agreeing that something is true,
but giving more and more of our lives to it.
When Jesus speaks, faith answers,
“I will take You at Your word,
and I will follow!”
We see that trust in the fishermen by the sea.
They are not searching for spiritual fulfillment.
They are at work.
And yet, when Christ speaks into their ordinary lives,
something in them recognizes that His voice matters more than their routines.
They leave what they know
because they trust the One who calls them.
The same movement is happening in the first reading.
Hannah’s life is marked by disappointment and misunderstanding. Her prayer is not polished or confident.
It is raw, but it is real.
She brings her pain into God’s presence
and entrusts her future to Him.
That is faith in its most honest form:
not certainty, but surrender.
And from that surrender,
God begins to write a new story.
Following Jesus always leads somewhere.
It moves us out of ourselves and toward others.
When Christ becomes the center of our lives,
we are changed
and that change never stays hidden.
Others begin to encounter God through our words,
our patience,
our forgiveness,
and our willingness to love when it would be easier not to.
If that doesn’t describe you in some way,
you know where the Lord wants to work in your life now.
That is why the Church begins Ordinary Time here.
Not with extraordinary moments,
but with daily discipleship.
With recognition of Christ.
With listening.
With trusting.
With moving forward
even when we do not yet see the whole path.
Jesus does not call us away from ordinary life.
He calls us to live it differently.
And that is where this season truly begins.