Quinquagesima Sunday

This Sunday is Quinquagesima Sunday, or approx. 50 days til Easter. Ash Wednesday is just a few short days away now. St. Paul tells us about Charity, and how nothing will be good unless we have it and use it. In the new church, we hear this as love. I personally think they are connected, but are NOT the same at all. In the Gospel, we hear about the blind man who hears Jesus coming, and begs earnestly to be healed from his blindness. Christ grants his wish because of his faith. We are all desirous to be healed from our blindness, and pray for those who are still blind to the Eternal Truth. This is our job, what we are called to do.

In regards to this, St. Francis of Sales tells us how "we must go on these days, and mingle in the company of worldlings, to think, from time to time, on such considerations as these:--that while all these frivolous, and often dangerous, amusements are going on, there are countless souls being tormented in the fire of hell, on account of the sins they committed on similar occasions; that, at that very hour of the night, there are many holy religious depriving themselves of sleep in order to sing the divine praises and implore God's mercy upon the world, and upon them that are wasting their time in its vanities; that there are thousands in the agonies of death, while all that gaiety is going on; that God and His angels are attentively looking upon this thoughtless group; and finally, that life is passing away, and death so much nearer each moment."

Another take:
Our Lord's words to the blind man, Thy faith hath saved thee, are a obvious correlation to our ability to correspond to grace.

Faith in Christ, dead and risen again, is the subject of the Gospel. We read how Christ foretold His Passion and His victory and how He restored the sight of a blind man, and told him: "Thy faith hath saved thee." On this St. Gregory comments: "This blind man recovered his sight under the very eyes of the apostles so that to have seen deeds wrought by the divine power might strengthen the faith of those who could not yet grasp the message that a heavenly mystery was revealed to the world. Indeed it was necessary, that when later they should see our Lord die in the very way foretold by Him, they should have no doubt at all that He must also rise from the dead."
In the epistle, in its turn, St. Paul sets forth charity in all its merit, indicating to us how our own faith should bring forth fruits of virtue. St. James, touching on the same theme, writes, "So faith also, if it hath not works, is dead in itself. Wilt thou know that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou that faith did cooperate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God. Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?"
If the custom of allowing ourselves a little relaxation of spirit before undertaking the Lenten penance is of liturgical origin, let us not forget that the Church condemns all excess. To atone, therefore, for those sins that are committed, let us this week make an act of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Source: Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, 1945, adapted and abridged.

_____________________________________________________________________________
As we enter into the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday this coming week, I would like to end with a hymn from the Greek Church, which proclaims the annual fast of Lent:


The week, the harbinger of spring, is come; the week that cleanses away sin by the sacred and ever venerable fast, which enlightens the body and soul of every man.

Lo! the gate of penance is thrown open, O ye that love God! Come, then, let us joyously go in, before Christ shut it against us as being unworthy to enter.

Brethren, let us prepare, and bring with us purity, abstinence, and modesty, and fortitude, and prudence, and prayers, and tears; for it is by these we enter on the path of justice.

Be not solicitous, O mortals! about the body, how you may pamper it, not seek delicacies in what you give it to eat; give it, rather, fullness of vigor by abstinence; that so it may aid the soul to conquer in the battle with the enemy.

This day, O ye that love God! begins the fast, which is to prepare our souls and bodies by expiation, and infuse into our hearts the generous light of the sacred and venerable Passion of Christ.
Let us, O ye people! enter on our fast with a glad heart; for lo! the spiritual combat begins. Let us throw off the effeminacy of the flesh, redouble the gifts of the spirit, and suffer with Christ, as it behooves them that are his servants; that thus, we may rejoice together with him, and our souls be enlightened by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost within us.

Let us, O faithful! cheerfully receive the divinity inspired messenger of our fast,as did the Ninivites; and as the harlots and the publicans did, of old, receive John, when he preached penance unto them. Let us prepare, by abstinence, for a participation in the Sacrifice of our Lord on Sion. Let His divine laver be preceded by that of our tears. Let us beseech Him to show unto us, when the time is come, the consummation of both Paschs, the figurative, and the True. Let us put ourselves in readiness to adore the Cross and Resurrection of Christ; saying unto Him: Let me not be confounded in my expectation, O thou Lover of mankind.



Lord Jesus, have mercy on us, that we may see