🗓️15 FebQuinquagesima Sunday

Quinquagesima Sunday marks the definitive porch of entry into Holy Lent, completing the season of Septuagesima with a solemn call to interior conversion and the illumination of faith. On this day, when the liturgical Station spiritually transports us to St. Peter's Basilica, the Church places before us the mystery of Christ's Passion, announced by the Lord Himself to the Twelve, and the absolute necessity of Charity, described by St. Paul, as the vital form of all virtues. The liturgy teaches us that without divine love, the coming penitential rigors would be sterile, "as sounding brass"; simultaneously, through the figure of the blind man of Jericho, we are invited to acknowledge our own spiritual blindness and to cry out insistently for the "sight" of faith, so that we may follow the Savior in His ascent to Jerusalem, understanding that suffering and the Cross are necessary paths to the Glory of the Resurrection. This Sunday is a proximate preparation for Lent. For the love of blind humanity, the Savior takes upon Himself its sufferings (Gospel). For the love of God - the Epistle teaches us which is the true one - we must expiate our faults, making the holy Mass our Calvary and uniting our sufferings to those of the Son of God. And if in the Prayer we ask the Lord to deliver us from all adversity, we desire only exemption from the evils that prejudice our salvation, knowing that for those who love God, all things work together for good (Rom 8:28).

🎶 Introit (Ps 30, 3-4 | ib. 2) 

Esto mihi in Deum protectórem, et in locum refúgii, ut salvum me fácias: quóniam firmaméntum meum et refúgium meum es tu: et propter nomen tuum dux mihi eris, et enútries me. Ps. In te, Dómine, sperávi, non confúndar in ætérnum: in justítia tua líbera me et éripe me.

Be Thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for Thou art my strength and my refuge: and for Thy name’s sake Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me. Ps. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in Thy justice, and save me.

✉️ Epistle (1 Cor 13, 1-13)

Fratres: Si linguis hóminum loquar et Angelórum, caritátem autem non hábeam, factus sum velut æs sonans aut cýmbalum tínniens. Et si habúero prophétiam, et nóverim mystéria ómnia et omnem sciéntiam: et si habúero omnem fidem, ita ut montes tránsferam, caritátem autem non habúero, nihil sum. Et si distribúero in cibos páuperum omnes facultátes meas, et si tradídero corpus meum, ita ut árdeam, caritátem autem non habuero, nihil mihi prodest. Cáritas patiens est, benígna est: cáritas non æmulátur, non agit pérperam, non inflátur, non est ambitiósa, non quærit quæ sua sunt, non irritátur, non cógitat malum, non gaudet super iniquitáte, congáudet autem veritáti: ómnia suffert, ómnia credit, ómnia sperat, ómnia sústinet. Cáritas numquam éxcidit: sive prophétiæ evacuabúntur, sive linguæ cessábunt, sive sciéntia destruétur. Ex parte enim cognóscimus, et ex parte prophetámus. Cum autem vénerit quod perféctum est, evacuábitur quod ex parte est. Cum essem párvulus, loquébar ut párvulus, sapiébam ut párvulus, cogitábam ut párvulus. Quando autem factus sum vir, evacuávi quæ erant párvuli. Vidémus nunc per spéculum in ænígmate: tunc autem fácie ad fáciem. Nunc cognósco ex parte: tunc autem cognóscam, sicut et cógnitus sum. Nunc autem manent fides, spes, cáritas, tria hæc: major autem horum est cáritas.

Brethren: If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

📖 Gospel (Lk 18, 31-43)

In illo témpore: Assúmpsit Jesus duódecim, et ait illis: Ecce, ascéndimus Jerosólymam, et consummabúntur ómnia, quæ scripta sunt per Prophétas de Fílio hominis. Tradátur enim Géntibus, et illudétur, et flagellábitur, et conspuétur: et postquam flagelláverint, occídent eum, et tértia die resúrget. Et ipsi nihil horum intellexérunt, et erat verbum istud abscónditum ab eis, et non intellegébant quæ dicebántur. Factum est autem, cum appropinquáret Jéricho, cæcus quidam sedébat secus viam, mendícans. Et cum audíret turbam prætereúntem, interrogábat, quid hoc esset. Dixérunt autem ei, quod Jesus Nazarénus transíret. Et clamávit, dicens: Jesu, fili David, miserére mei. Et qui præíbant, increpábant eum, ut tacéret. Ipse vero multo magis clamábat: Fili David, miserére mei. Stans autem Jesus, jussit illum addúci ad se. Et cum appropinquásset, interrogávit illum, dicens: Quid tibi vis fáciam? At ille dixit: Dómine, ut vídeam. Et Jesus dixit illi: Réspice, fides tua te salvum fecit. Et conféstim vidit, et sequebátur illum, magníficans Deum. Et omnis plebs ut vidit, dedit laudem Deo.

At that time, Jesus took unto Him the twelve, and said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. For He shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon: and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to death; and the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. And it came to pass, when He drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

❤️ The primacy of charity and the cure of spiritual blindness

On this Quinquagesima Sunday, the Church places us at the threshold of the great Lenten combat, offering us the indispensable weapons for victory: the clear vision of faith and the ardor of charity. The Gospel narrates the healing of the blind man of Jericho, an episode that Saint Gregory the Great interprets masterfully as an allegory of the human condition: "The blind man is the human race which, expelled from paradise in our first parents, ignores the splendor of divine light and suffers the darkness of condemnation; but feels the presence of the Redeemer and cries out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Saint Gregory the Great, Homily 2 in Evangelia). We are by the roadside of life, often immersed in the darkness of sin and ignorance, unable to comprehend the mystery of the Cross. Note that, at the beginning of the Gospel, Jesus predicts His Passion and Death, but the disciples "understood none of these things"; there was in them a spiritual blindness similar to the physical one of the beggar. To enter Lent and go up to Jerusalem with Christ, we must first ask: "Lord, that I may see". We need the light of faith to understand that suffering is not a blind punishment, but the instrument of our redemption. However, vision and sacrifice, in themselves, are insufficient without the soul of every Christian virtue: Charity. The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians is proclaimed today to alert us that fasting, almsgiving, and Lenten penance, if devoid of love for God and neighbor, are "as sounding brass". Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that charity is the "form of the virtues", which means that it is what vivifies and orients all our good works to their ultimate end, which is God (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 23, a. 8). To deliver one's body to be burned without charity serves nothing; therefore, Lenten mortification must be an exercise of love, not of proud stoicism. Just as the blind man, after recovering his sight, "followed Jesus glorifying God", we too, cured of our blindness by the Sacrament of Penance and illuminated by faith, must follow the Lord on the way of the Cross, clothed in the charity that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things". May this liturgy grant us the grace to see God in our sufferings and to love Him above all things, transforming our Lent into a true ascent to Calvary and to the Glory of the Resurrection.