A Homily for Septuagesima

+ As we begin our preparation for Easter on this Septuagesima Sunday, the human situation is unfolded before us by the Sacred Liturgy. Opening the Mass, the Psalmist recalls how the sorrows of death surrounded him. There seemed to be no escape. These sorrows that afflict us can be numerous and in many different forms. The liturgy, moreover, takes away from us the proclamation of Easter by depriving us of the word that should daily be upon our lips – the word which proclaims Christ’s victory over death and sin. In the Introit the stark reality of our mortality is brought before us – a reality which is sharply contrasted with the gratuity of the Resurrection.

Whilst our share in the Resurrection of Christ is an entirely unmerited gift of God, He still asks of us a cooperation with the grace that affects our salvation. Whilst He may go out into the squares to find workers for His vineyard at any hour of the day, we still need to be attentive to His summoning voice so that we may be converted ever anew unto salvation. Our conversion is not just a one-off act which leaves us a Christian ever thereafter but must be a continual process of turning further and further to God.
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Having celebrated the great conversion of St Paul to Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus earlier in the week, we witness the Saint today insisting on the ongoing training and discipline that is ever necessary. This is the measure of love that God asks of him, and of us.

Each year the Church reminds us of such a reality with the preparation she gives us for the great feast of Easter. Beginning today, in the first days of Septugeisma attention is drawn to the approach of the great fast of Lent so that we can prepare for it. But this preparation should be primarily a spiritual preparation: what virtues do I need to develop? What vices must I correct? How can I foster a greater love of God and neighbour through my daily living?

Having made this pre-Lenten examination, we are well placed to make a good decision on the Lenten disciplines to undertake. It also offers an apposite moment to avail oneself of the sacramental graces of confession.

By observing Septuagesima well, we can ensure that Lent is a time of great personal growth towards God, for it assures that our Lenten observance is looking at one the goal that matters: salvation. By turning again to God and assuring that our seeking of Him is pure we are given again an assurance that He will not forsake us. For He has promised us this. It does not matter what trial may befall us. He is keeping watch and protecting us, and we shall benefit from this so long as we persevere in seeking Him throughout our trials. Often these trials purify us - so long as we keep focused on God our salvation.

How then are we to keep the focus on God through all such circumstances? In the first instance, our prayer should sustain our personal relationship with Him. Everything depends upon this. For this very reason, Tradition has always included amongst our Lenten observance something to enhance our prayer life.

St Benedict gives very little teaching about prayer; he says simply that it should be short and pure. Certainly, he has already given us long directions about the Divine Office, which constantly brings us back to church to praise, to call upon God anew, continually renewing our supernatural perspective. Even if this is our first priority there is a necessity for prayer outside the Church’s liturgy. Something private, something personal, is expected of us. Both private and liturgical prayer complement one another: the psalms offering the words and the dispositions with which we turn to God in private thereby giving these same words an interiority that bears much fruit.

Whilst we need a regular pattern of prayer each day, often some circumstance or trial demands a spontaneous, and brief cry before God. These spontaneous cries of but a few words, if any, fully fulfil this prescription of St Benedict that prayer be short and pure. But this is a model which our Holy Father himself has drawn from the riches of the Desert Fathers. St John Cassian for example draws our attention to the opening words of Psalm 69, the verse with which we begin all the offices, “O God come to our aid, O Lord make haste to help us”: words which are suited to every time and situation. Words which can sustain us no matter what the circumstance.

Our prayer is not, however, an easy solution to a problem, often the grace given is not to relieve the burden but to bear it fruitfully. It comes as an assistance to serve Him no matter what these challenges may be. Prayer usually offers us, by the gift of God, the courage, the resolve, and even inspiration as to how to solve, or adapt and live with, the problem that confronts us, rather than a direct intervention of God that it may simply disappear. It is not a manner of hiding from suffering, but a request before God for the grace to deal with it appropriately. +