QUINQUAGESIMA,  THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE LENT

            RECOLLECTIONS                       

FEBRUARY  6,  2005 

Today we stand on the threshold of Lent. We have 50 days of preparation for Easter Sunday.  Ash Wednesday, February 9^th, marks the beginning of our individual and collective time to change ourselves, with the help of God, from the old person with so many faults, into the new person full of love and joy toward others. During our three week pre-Lent period, we have read some very clear lessons from Holy Scripture. On Septuagesima we were told to acknowledge our own sins and seek God’s forgiveness.  On Sexagesima a very direct warning was given to us to put our complete trust in God, not in our own doings.  Today the teaching is about awareness; our own awareness, or perhaps our unawareness of God’s complete love for us. With this understanding of the love of God for mankind, we can willingly love God. He has the initiative, we have the opportunity of response. (Read I John 4: 19.) 

For this day, the Church has provided a set of Propers that cannot be equaled.  The Collect, (Page 122, 1928 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER), was written for the 1549 English Prayer Book and is based on the theme of the Epistle.  The old Latin Collect for today has vivid imagery: “We beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully to hear our prayers; that we, being absolved from the chains of our sins, may be defended from all adversity.”

To feel the real impact of today’s Epistle, read  I Corinthians, Chapter 12.  Then re-read the Epistle for today, I Corinthians 13: 1-13. This is considered by many scholars to be the best writings by St. Paul.  He writes of charity as though he were a swain deeply in love with a beautiful woman. But the word, “charity” does not go far enough.  The word “love” is often substituted for “charity”, but if you try using the word “Christ” in place of “charity”, a new, clearer picture and understanding of Paul’s meaning emerges. He writes that all of the practices  that are employed by some Christians in the Name of Christ ,and are still used by some people today, will not be used in Heaven. But charity will always be in heaven because there will always be God to be loved and worshipped.   

The Holy Gospel, (St. Luke, 18: 31-43, page 123 BCP),  shows the coming Crucifixion of Christ and the events leading up to it.   In the telling of this approaching event, Jesus was not predicting it, but declaring that what had been written by the Prophets was about to happen. It was one of the ruling ideas of apostolic preaching that the Passion of Christ took place according to the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”. (Acts 2: 23).  St. Luke is well aware of the importance of this. At the close of Luke’s gospel, our Lord speaks of His own words while he was yet with His disciples “that all things must be fulfilled, were written in the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Him”. (Luke 24: 43.)