We have just moved from the Christmas Season to the Season of Ordinary Time. That’s why the decorations are down and put away and it is why I’m wearing green. And you know, it’s not easy being Green and for reasons that we shall soon see, it should not be easy to do so. It’s not like we came to the end of the Christmas Season so that we can say “Whew, we made it,” and then coast into plain old ordinary life. No, that’s not it at all; and thank God it isn’t. Actually, the whole purpose of the Christmas Season was to fortify us, energize us and prepare us to live the season of Ordinary Time extraordinarily well. It might be better for us to try to understand this season as the season of “Real Life;” not that the other seasons are not real, but that we need to understand that their purpose is to try to help us put our lives in a proper perspective and to live them in a good and holy way. The purpose of the Christmas Season was to do just that. The overwhelming message of the Christmas Season was that God the Father and God the Son accepted lowly humanity to the point where God Himself took on human form and became one of us. Through Jesus’ Baptism last week we have all become adopted as brothers and sisters of Jesus and sons and daughters of God the Father. But the story does not end there; that’s where it begins. There is no “happily ever after,” and thank God there isn’t because that would be so boring, now wouldn’t it? Come on now, you know it would be! What happens next is that God accepts us totally and completely as we are, warts and all, and then calls us to follow Him. Today, in our First Reading, Isaiah tells us that the Lord said to him, “You are my servant…through whom I will show My glory.” That certainly is one way of looking at what a disciple is, is it not? We are called to be servants of God, through whom His glory will shine. Isaiah goes on to say he was formed in the womb to be God’s servant so that the people of Israel might be brought back to God. Brothers and sisters, we were all formed in the womb to be servants of God so that others will be brought back to Him. I have to tell you, to me no other purpose in life makes sense, no other purpose has meaning and we cheat ourselves if we settle for less. Nothing will be satisfactory to us, if we don’t realize this purpose. Not even coming to church every week will cut it. Something will be lacking, because God formed us to be his servants. And when we accept our role as His servants, God tells us that we will become a light to the nations, so that His Good News might reach the ends of the earth. Jesus calls us forth literally from the womb to be His adopted sons and daughters, to enter into and to live out the sacrament of Baptism as His beloved disciples. That is what the season of Ordinary time is about. It is when we live out our baptismal call. Welcome!