The Gospel for Quinquagesima Sunday begins: Then Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem…
This is our invitation to “go up to Jerusalem” with Our Lord, and to witness His passion and death. All of this is to better prepare ourselves to enter more fully into the joy of the resurrection.
Appropriately, the Epistle for Quinquagesima is the 13th chapter of S. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Most of us know this as his famous paean to agape, or charity. When we speak of charity from a Christian perspective, as S. Paul makes clear, we mean that we love God above everything else.
Then following our love for God, we seek to love [our] neighbour as [ourselves] out of our love for God. We come to see our neighbour as someone created in the image and likeness of God, loved by God and desired of God to share eternity with Him. (And should we ask: Who is my neighbour? Our Lord gives us the answer in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.)
With charity (agape) we learn to see our neighbour from Our Lord’s perspective, and not simply from that of our own experience, our thoughts or our feelings. How easy it is to label someone as difficult, tedious or narcissistic and then distance ourselves from that person. How difficult it is to put charity into action and to demonstrate the love that we ought towards that person. Yet, that is what we are called to do in imitation of Our Lord. In a way, exercising charity in this way is a “going up to Jerusalem,” as we too learn to die to self.
S. Paul reminds us of the integral role of charity in our duty to our neighbour: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor…and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind…The Collect summarizes this thought in this way: O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth…
Furthermore, the Collect reminds us that most excellent gift of charity, [is] the very bond of peace and of all virtues. That is, where true charity is exercised, the other virtues will follow. Conversely, we will never grow fully in the other virtues unless animated by charity.
In S. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians, he writes: And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Charity begets charity: the more we exercise love towards God and our neighbour, the more we grow in love and the easier it becomes to love others.
This lesson in charity is essential to comprehend before entering Lent. No matter how diligent we are in our Lenten disciplines, unless motivated by our love for God, they will amount to nothing. Prayer is our conversation with God: our heart speaking to the Heart of love. Fasting (depriving ourselves of food), and the pangs of hunger, reminds us of our hunger for God and for His love. Almsgiving is our response to God after time spent in prayer and fasting. Having tasted more deeply of His love towards us, we want to reflect that love towards others, particularly those in need.
As we prepare ourselves for the rigors of Lent, may we pray firstly that God send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee.
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 