Is he not the carpenter’s son?
How do we avoid taking Jesus for granted? He is a regular presence in our lives. We see him at least weekly at mass. We hear about his power in the world but maybe we don't experience that often ourselves. We hear amazing words and profound promises. There is a real risk that, to the degree our lives don't change, we begin to disregard these promises. We begin to suspect that his mighty deeds are exaggerations from well meaning individuals who need "experience" more than strong people like ourselves. From there we begin to suspect that tales of mighty deeds are actually malicious and profit-driven. This is all because we are used to, not who Jesus is in himself, but the current distance in our relationship with him. We believe, because it repeats day after day, that how close Jesus is now is as close as he can come. We believe that the power we have seen him display is all the power he has.
Yet Jesus is never the limit. Our hearts use expectations from our past to stay safe and ignore the risk that coming closer to Jesus presents. To our egos, coming to Jesus is not just dangerous it is certain doom. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
To prevent our ego from using our memories and expectations against us the LORD establishes the festivals and feasts, the times and seasons of our liturgical calendar. They reveal that the presence of God in Jesus Christ is far more important than any sort of work we must perform. They reveal that everything that we are working for, whatever harvest we seek, is a distant second to God from whom, through whom, and for whom are all things (cf. Rom. 11:36). They help us to remember all God has done for us so far. We remember that he is the LORD who brought us out of Egypt. When we honor the Sabbath and these other special feasts we teach our hearts to take God seriously. We force our memories to be made with proper regard to Jesus, the King of kings. He is not just one among many experiences in our lives. He is the peak, the mountain top. He is the source and summit, the "fount and apex" of the whole Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11, CCC 1324). When we honor these feasts we are empowered to confess, together with Saint John Paul the Great "THE REDEEMER OF MAN, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history" (Redemptor Hominis 1).
Let us honor God in the rhythms of our time. Let us honor him by placing him above all in the way we use our resources. This is the antidote to the idolatry of consumerism and entertainment. This is how we experience that there are no limits to the power of Jesus in our lives.
Take up a melody, and sound the timbrel,
the pleasant harp and the lyre.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our solemn feast.
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