A More Excellent Way
A Homily For Quinquagesima Sunday
We come to the final of the three 'Gesima' Sundays this Sunday morning. These Sundays transition between Cana's festive Epiphany wine and the Lenten wilderness's somber starkness. After forty days, this journey leads to the cup of suffering and lamentation that our Lord will deeply drink from on Good Friday. However, the path of the cross commences in the desert.
Recall our Lord, who immediately embarked on a solitary journey into the desert after his baptism in the waters of the Jordan River. Unlike the Israelites, who wandered in the wilderness and faced numerous trials, Jesus, embodying the true Israel, triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the devil. His victory in the barren landscape was not just a momentary achievement but a profound foreshadowing of the ultimate conquest he would accomplish on the cross at Golgotha, where he would decisively defeat sin and death for all of humanity. This initial challenge in the wilderness solidified his role as the Messiah and paved the way for the redemptive sacrifice he would later make.
Like our Lord, we are being led into the wilderness of Lent, except, unlike Jesus, we will not make this journey alone. We are joining Him in the wasteland; he is our companion, guide, strength, and defender. We are very much like Israel was in the desert. The story of Israel's exodus and wilderness journey is, finally, the story of Jesus and the story of the church, our story.
Having heard the cries of his people, God redeemed his children from the enslavement of Egypt. He brought them safely through the waters, and as a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night, the Lord led His people into the desert for forty years. Have you ever wondered why God did this? I can tell you it wasn't because the Lord didn't know the way! No. He led them in the wilderness for forty years to prepare them, to refine and ready His people to enter into blessing, to receive the fullness of his promises, their promised inheritance which lay just across the banks of the river Jordan.
We tend to view God's dealings with Israel punitively, as punishment, but God's discipline is meant to refine, reform, to draw his nature and character out from under the hardness of the heart. Those forty years were a gift of grace, given to displace pride with humility, fear with faith, and disobedience with love. Love: to reform a people back into the fullest expression of their Maker: love. To mirror the image of God, who is Love. Then, and only then, would God's people be prepared to enter the land and the blessing and joy set before them.
The wilderness was where the Lord chose to forge and imprint his people with Divine love to prepare them. This is precisely what we hear in today's reading from Deuteronomy. Through his prophet, God exhorts those in the wilderness, saying,
"You shall, therefore, love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always... what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place. For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did. You shall, therefore, keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey."
The commandment they were to keep, above every other, was love. To love God and love others. This, beloved, is the more excellent way (1 Cor 12:31). In the same way, God offers his church forty days of Lent to prepare. Lent's wilderness journey is not without a destination. Like Israel, the wilderness is the Divine path to blessing and promise. On the other side of the Jordan lies the majesty and joy of the resurrection! Milk and honey await the desert sojourner. For Lent's dark and rigorous season does not end in death but in life, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Although we may experience thirst and hunger along our journey and face various temptations and trials during these forty days, we must not lose sight of the promise. We should open ourselves to the gracious hand of the Lord, who will use this coming Lent to shape us into the image of His love, just as He guided Israel. If we are willing to be led by Christ, we can grow in our faith and understanding.
This is why we have been given these past three 'Gesima' Sundays. To begin the work of self-mastery by elevating the virtues. On Septuagesima, St. Paul, in his Epistle, compelled us to 'Strive for the mastery' of the Christian life with temperance. In the Gospel of the Laborers: justice. Last Sunday, fortitude was illustrated in St. Paul's account of his sufferings for Christ's sake, and the virtue of honesty by the parable of the Sower, some of Whose good seed fell on honest and good hearts.
And on this Quinquagesima Sunday, we are called to not only embrace but become the chief of all Christian virtues: love. For as the Apostle says, "now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity." Charity is how the King James renders the Greek word agape. Agape is a uniquely Christian word not found anywhere else in the vast lexicon of ancient writings. It is a word inspired by the Holy Spirit and used by St. Paul and other writers of the New Testament to describe the purest and highest of loves. It expresses the unparalleled and uniquely Divine Love, the perfect Love of God most fully demonstrated in the sending of the Son.
This pure love compels the Lord into the passion and sufferings of Holy Week; it is a love that willingly thrusts Him onto the pain and suffering of the cross. Every action of the Lord Jesus Christ, his miracles, healings, teachings, rebukes, examples, and so on, is fully comprehended and found perfect in light of his self-less agape, the charity of Christ poured out for the life of the world.
In today's Epistle reading St. Paul exalts charity above both faith and hope; it is “the greatest of these.” But what the Apostle here speaks of is not any particular virtue or grace, but that which is the root and spring of all virtues and graces. To possess agape is to be both like God and in God. The cardinal virtues- temperance, justice, honesty, fortitude- are worthless if they are not accompanied and rooted in agape love. St. Paul poignantly reminds us, "Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." This profound statement encapsulates the essence of our spiritual journey: every action we undertake must be rooted in Charity. We must not operate as mere slaves, motivated by fear or driven by selfish interests.
Fasting and praying to garner attention, as the hypocrites do (Mat 6:5, 16), leads us nowhere. While such actions may momentarily alter our appearance or behavior, they fail to ignite true transformation within our souls. We may generate a cacophony of 'Christian noise,' but without inner authenticity, will never bring forth from the heart the righteous song of the saints. Dear friends, it is imperative that our Lenten prayers, fasting, and almsgiving are infused with genuine love.
We must immerse ourselves in the wellspring of Charity alone, for only love can liberate our souls from the clutches of self-centeredness and the allure of worldly distractions. The spiritual work of Lent is not just about austere practices; it is a heartfelt pursuit of charity, wholeheartedly embracing the agape love of Christ. In the wilderness, His transformative love reshapes our hearts, guiding us toward deeper authenticity and connection with the divine.
Notice how this morning's Gospel keeps us within the orbit of God's love. See how Jesus loves the blind beggar. He stands and puts aside whatever he is doing, telling his disciples to bring the beggar to himself. See how he elevates the need of any who calls to the Son of David, "Have mercy upon me!" See how he inquires about the man's needs.
And without delay, question, or qualification, he acts in love. "And Jesus said unto him, ‘Receive thy sight; thy faith hath saved thee.’ And immediately the man received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God." Agape removes blindness. It opens the eyes of the heart to see love and glorify God. Agape. This is the aim and goal of the Lenten journey, a journey that begins next week on Ash Wednesday.
As you leave this place next Wednesday, having been marked with the ashes of mortality, remember that it is the mark of love for it is the sign of the cross, reminding of the merciful love of God with which you have been sealed. It is the seal and sign of God’s great love for you, who were dead in your sins, and destined for eternal damnation. Yet love brings forth life from the ashes. I mean, what could have possibly motivated God to lower himself, take on our humanity, suffer cruelly, and die shamefully on a criminal’s cross? Love.
“God so [agape’d] the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Without love, the Incarnation as the means of our Redemption is entirely incomprehensible. Friends, He could have satisfied Divine justice without our Redemption. Yet He wanted to satisfy it AND display His pure and perfect love. The agape of God had to suffer and die to be the supremely better love. God loves us, and God is agape.
The most profound and unparalleled display of love that the world has ever witnessed will once again be revealed during Holy Week in the poignant passion of our Lord. As we journey through this Lenten wilderness, we, too, are being meticulously prepared to traverse the path of sorrows—a path illuminated by the divine light of charity. This is why, on this Quinquagesima Sunday, we are encouraged to infuse every aspect of our lives with charity. Without charity, no matter how hard we try, we will never truly please God.
Beloved, may this Lent be distinctly marked by your charity. May the wilderness leave you touched by Divine Agape. And remember, the measure of our love for God is reflected in our capacity to love immeasurably, sacrificially, humbly. Love is the more excellent way for it is the way of Jesus.
Let us pray, O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen+
