Reflections on Septuagesima Sunday

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24 – 10:5     Gospel: St Matthew, 20:1-16

Collect: Graciously hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy people: that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins, may be freed by thy mercy for the glory of thy name.

Today, in those communities that use either the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or the Ordinariate Rite, the Sunday of Septuagesima is kept. This Sunday marks the beginning of the three weeks of preparation before Lent. The solemnities of Christmas and of the Epiphany, in which we celebrate the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God, are behind us. Now, this season of Fore-Lent opens for us a new cycle in the liturgical year that will take us through the drama of our Redemption, culminating in the holy celebrations of Easter, of Our Lord’s victory over death. It is a prelude to the preparation that is Lent. It may seem redundant that we have to prepare ourselves before entering a time of -- preparation. However, the Church has seen fit, first in the East, and then in the West, to institute this season in order to accustom us to the grave tone and the sorrowful mood of Lent. It eases, so to speak, the transition between the seasons of Epiphany and of Lententide. The Crib leads to the Cross: the joy of Bethlehem is incomplete without the desolation of Golgotha, which itself is but a preface to the empty Tomb, and to the ultimate victory. This is also the time between the theophany in the waters of Jordan and the forty days in the wilderness. Retreat and recollection are to be the watchwords of these days of half-mourning. The liturgy itself becomes more subdued as we take leave of the Gloria and the Alleluia, the violet ornaments of penitential days are worn, and the organ is silent.

And the texts of today’s liturgy invite us to prepare ourselves for the Lenten work of penance and mortification. The collect reminds us that we cannot and ought not to separate the justice from the mercy of God. For we are sinners: the temporal visitations of God’s justice upon us are deserved. These little (or great, as the case may be) inconveniences, these temporal punishments are really opportunities for us to be exercised in the virtues of courage, patience and forbearance, and in the resignation of ourselves to God’s will. There is the suffering that we do not choose and the suffering that we choose. In the epistle, Saint Paul likens the Christian life to a race; to run that race we also need to prepare ourselves through self-imposed (with the guidance of one's confessor or spiritual director) mortifications and toils. In this preparation, the greatest struggle is against ourselves, our bad habits and vices, our constant pleasure-seeking, our listlessness, our indifference to our neighbour. The vision of the prize, that incorruptible crown, together with God’s grace, received in the sacraments of penance and of the Eucharist, will sustain us in this ascetic struggle. And it is not the length of our labours that matters, as Our Lord reminds us in the Gospel. All, irrespective of the duration of their faithful service in the vineyard, will receive the same reward. This service in the vineyard is not to be construed only as the outward proclamation of the Kingdom, for it is primarily an inner openness to the Word and the grace of God, to allow these to work in us before we undertake any other work for his sake. However “late” we might deem ourselves to be in our sinfulness, God still calls us and draws us to himself. Let us therefore, at this threshold of Lent, meditate upon the mysterious dispensations of God’s mercy for us sinners, and, aided by the exercises of this season, pray for the grace of perfect contrition and final perseverance.