Septuagesima Sunday inaugurates the liturgical season of remote preparation for Lent, a transition period marked by the suppression of the Alleluia and the Gloria in excelsis, clothing the liturgy in the violet color of penitence to awaken the soul from spiritual lethargy. Historically associated with the seventy years of the Babylonian exile, this day symbolizes man's distance from the Celestial Jerusalem due to sin, inviting the faithful to recognize the need for Redemption and the gravity of the fight against evil. The liturgical Station takes place at the Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, a martyr who, triumphing over material fire, inspires Christians to overcome the fire of concupiscence. The readings and prayers of this Sunday introduce the themes of spiritual combat, comparing the Christian life to a race in the stadium and to arduous work in the Lord's vineyard, exhorting both the ancient catechumens and the faithful of today not to remain idle in the face of the urgency of salvation.
📖 Introit (Ps 17, 5, 6 and 7 | ib. 2-3)
Circumdedérunt me gémitus mortis, dolóres inférni circumdedérunt me: et in tribulatióne mea invocávi Dóminum, et exaudívit de templo sancto suo vocem meam. Ps. Díligam te, Dómine, fortitúdo mea: Dóminus firmaméntum meum, et refúgium meum, et liberátor meus.
The sorrows of death surrounded me; the sorrows of hell encompassed me. In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple. Ps. I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer.
✉️ Epistle (1 Cor 9, 24-27; 10, 1-5)
Fratres: Nescítis, quod ii, qui in stádio currunt, omnes quidem currunt, sed unus áccipit bravíum? Sic cúrrite, ut comprehendátis. Omnis autem, qui in agóne conténdit, ab ómnibus se ábstinet: et illi quidem, ut corruptíbilem corónam accípiant; nos autem incorrúptam. Ego ígitur sic curro, non quasi in incértum: sic pugno, non quasi áërem vérberans: sed castígo corpus meum, et in servitútem rédigo: ne forte, cum áliis prædicáverim, ipse réprobus effíciar. Nolo enim vos ignoráre, fratres, quóniam patres nostri omnes sub nube fuérunt, et omnes mare transiérunt, et omnes in Móyse baptizáti sunt in nube et in mari: et omnes eándem escam spiritálem manducavérunt, et omnes eúndem potum spiritálem bibérunt (bibébant autem de spiritáli, consequénte eos, petra: petra autem erat Christus): sed non in plúribus eórum beneplácitum est Deo.
Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink: (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ). But with most of them God was not well pleased.
📜 Gospel (Mt 20, 1-16)
In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis parábolam hanc: Simile est regnum cœlórum hómini patrifamílias, qui éxiit primo mane condúcere operários in víneam suam. Conventióne autem facta cum operáriis ex denário diúrno, misit eos in víneam suam. Et egréssus circa horam tértiam, vidit álios stantes in foro otiósos, et dixit illis: Ite et vos in víneam meam, et quod justum fúerit, dabo vobis. Illi autem abiérunt. Iterum autem éxiit circa sextam et nonam horam: et fecit simíliter. Circa undécimam vero éxiit, et invénit álios stantes, et dicit illis: Quid hic statis tota die otiósi? Dicunt ei: Quia nemo nos condúxit. Dicit illis: Ite et vos in víneam meam. Cum sero autem factum esset, dicit dóminus víneæ procuratóri suo: Voca operários, et redde illis mercédem, incípiens a novíssimis usque ad primos. Cum veníssent ergo qui circa undécimam horam vénerant, accepérunt síngulos denários. Veniéntes autem et primi, arbitráti sunt, quod plus essent acceptúri: accepérunt autem et ipsi síngulos denários. Et accipiéntes murmurábant advérsus patremfamílias, dicéntes: Hi novíssimi una hora fecérunt et pares illos nobis fecísti, qui portávimus pondus diéi et æstus. At ille respóndens uni eórum, dixit: Amíce, non facio tibi injúriam: nonne ex denário convenísti mecum? Tolle quod tuum est, et vade: volo autem et huic novíssimo dare sicut et tibi. Aut non licet mihi, quod volo, fácere? an óculus tuus nequam est, quia ego bonus sum? Sic erunt novíssimi primi, et primi novíssimi. Multi enim sunt vocáti, pauci vero elécti.
At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heat. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.
⚔️ The Combat for the Denarius of Eternal Life
The liturgy of Septuagesima awakens the Christian from spiritual lukewarmness, presenting salvation not as an acquired right, but as a conquest that demands heroic effort and correspondence to divine grace. Saint Paul, in the Epistle, uses the metaphor of the stadium to teach us that life is a race where the "incorruptible crown" demands the mortification of the senses and the discipline of the body; the Apostle sternly warns that participation in the sacraments and external belonging to the people of God - prefigured in the cloud and in the sea - do not guarantee salvation if there is no interior fidelity, for "with most of them God was not well pleased". Complementarily, the Gospel of the vineyard reveals the dynamic of grace: God, the Father of the family, calls workers at all hours of history and human life, from the dawn of childhood to the twilight of old age. The apparent injustice in the distribution of the payment - a denarius to both the first and the last - unveils the depth of divine mercy, for the denarius is not a material sum, but Eternal Life itself, which is God giving Himself to the soul. As Saint Augustine explains, the envy of the first workers reflects human misunderstanding before the gratuitous goodness of God, who wishes to save both the just man who persevered from the beginning and the sinner who converted at the end; however, the indispensable condition is to accept the invitation to work in the vineyard, abandoning the idleness of sin, for the reward is given by grace, but the call demands our laborious response (Saint Augustine, Sermon 87).