A Homily for Quinquagesima Sunday

​+ “Quid tibi vis faciam?” Our Lord asks the blind man who cries out to Him in the Gospel of this morning’s Holy Mass: “What do you want me to do for you?”
 
This encounter almost has a fairy-tale quality to it: ‘You have one wish; make it and it shall be granted!’ And yet this is no fable for children; it is the Gospel of Salvation announced by the unique and definitive revelation of God in human history, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and proclaimed anew by His One True Church in her Sacred Liturgy on this Quinquagesima Sunday. This very morning Our Blessed Lord, hearing our cries, turns to us and asks: “What do you want me to do for you?”
 
It is an apposite question, is it not, as we prepare for the great fast of Lent? What graces, what purifications, what growth do we hope for this Lent? What progress do we desire to have made when we celebrate the coming feast of Easter? What do we want the Lord to have done for us and in us by then?
 
The blind man was clear in his own request once again to be able to see. We, however, may not be so clear. We may well be approaching this Lent as many others with an habitual acceptance of its coming disciplines without, as it were, a clear goal in view. In one sense it would be quite possible to observe Lent quite correctly but to miss its great opportunity, as it were, to make real spiritual progress in uprooting vice and growing in virtue.
 
It is vitally important that we do not miss this opportunity; it is imperative that each of us takes the time and makes the effort to answer the question: What do we want the Lord to do for us in the coming weeks?
 
This requires an act of the will on our part. We must positively will to make the spiritual progress that is necessary in us. Complacency in respect of our spiritual life is a form of the sin of sloth, and we must overcome this temptation first and foremost if we are to move forward. We must actually want Our Lord to do something for us and in us. So too, we must be prepared for the consequent responsibility this will bring.
 
Then, if we wish Him to do something for us, we must work towards it. We must prepare ourselves worthily and fruitfully to receive His gift. Our Lord did not heal the blind man against his will. He did not force His grace upon him. The blind man cried out to Our Lord time and time again even when quietened by the bystanders. But Our Lord heard his cries for mercy and responded “…your faith has made you well.”
 
So too must we cry for mercy through our penitential practices, most especially in the coming weeks. If needs be we must cry all the louder through our faithful perseverance in them. The disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are at our disposal as always, as is the Sacrament of Confession. Our state in life and the duties it involves, our age and our health, will regulate what is prudent and possible, but if we want the Lord to work within us, we shall be as generous as we can in what we offer Him in faith and in penitence.
 
We may well have something very specific in mind for which we wish to ask this Lent: growth in a particular virtue (in this morning’s Epistle St Paul would have us remember the need to grow in charity), the uprooting of a particular vice. We may wish to see God’s will for us more clearly and to ask for the grace generously and courageously to carry it out for His glory and for the salvation of our soul and the souls of others. We may need to ask for the grace of further perseverance in our longstanding vocation. We may need the Lord to heal our unworthiness in the face of the responsibilities He calls on us to accept.
 
Or perhaps, without any great or urgent demand, we simply seek an increase in faith, hope and charity—we could ask for nothing more valuable—so as better to be at the disposition of God’s will in the particular circumstances of our lives. In this case we ought not to be surprised if we receive these gifts in abundance for use in the Lord’s service in ways in which we presently cannot imagine.
 
“Quid tibi vis faciam?” “What do you want me to do for you?” Our Lord asks each of us this question today. It requires an answer; an answer that shall itself make demands on us, most particularly in the coming weeks. And yet these demands should not cause us anxiety, for as the Church sings in the words of the psalmist in the Communion Antiphon of this Quinquagesima Sunday, “They ate and they took their fill; all they asked, the Lord granted them; he would not disappoint them of their longing.” +