A Homily for Septuagesima Sunday

+ Multum enim sunt vocati, pauco vero electi. Many are called; few, truly, are chosen.

As we commence our annual preparation for the great fast of Lent on this Septuagesima Sunday, our Holy Mother the Church chastens us, as it were, with the Lord’s stark reminder that whilst many are called, the truth is that few are chosen; few, in the end, find themselves amongst the elect of God in His Kingdom.
 
These are uncomfortable words—or at least they should be—because they refute the contemporary heresy that anesthetises people to the eternal realities of death, judgement, heaven or hell by assuming a universal salvation that exalts the mercy of God whilst ignoring the demands of His justice. Our world today, and yes, far too often some in Christ’s Church, assume that we cannot go to hell, thereby rendering our moral choices irrelevant and eviscerating the mission Our Lord gave to His Church. Those who hold to this heresy would have the Gospel read: “All are called, and all are chosen—regardless of their free will or the choices they have made in this life.”  
 
But the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of God in human history and the unique Saviour of mankind, does not say this. It says: “Many are called; few, truly, are chosen.” And the One True Church He founded must faithfully proclaim this reality until the end of time—ministering His mercy and saving love through the Sacraments He instituted, most certainly, for we sinners have constant need of his grace and help, but never presuming to annul the reality and the demands of His justice, before which we must all answer.
 
In considering this sober reality, we would do well to contemplate two things. The first is the indignant question of the owner of the vineyard that we hear in the Gospel of this Holy Mass. “Why do you stand here idle all day?” he asks the men standing doing nothing in the market place. Through her Sacred Liturgy the Church asks each of us this question today.
 
And certainly, there is much work that needs doing—in the further conversion of our own lives, in uprooting vice by facing its reality in ourselves with an honesty that recognises its eternal consequences, in growing in virtue through the assiduous cultivation of good spiritual practices. There is much to do in our families, in our places of work, in our communities, where each of us are called to be witnesses to the truth that “many are called” but “few, truly, are chosen.” So too, we must bear courageous witness this truth in the Church, and refute errors that deny it or undermine its imperatives.
 
So too, there is much work to do in the Lord’s vineyard, and in contemplating the Gospel of this Holy Mass we cannot ignore all that it has to say to a young man or woman whom the Lord calls into His particular and intimate service in the monastic, religious or ordained life. Standing idle in respect of the Lord’s call is rightly rebuked. There is work to be done; if I do not do it when I am called, it shall remain undone—and for that I must answer before the justice of Almighty God.
 
The second thing we should contemplate on this Septuagesima Sunday is the exhortation of Saint Paul in this morning’s epistle to run so as to be victorious in the race. What he is saying becomes clearer if we consider the obverse: “Do not lose the race,” St Paul is saying. “Do not run so as to achieve defeat.” “Do not give up.”
 
Oh yes, it is so very easy to ‘give up’, isn’t it?! Self-pity, fear, sloth, wounds and illnesses all provide us with innumerable excuses or even reasons to say “I cannot…” when even more is asked of us. But St Paul would have us continue. He exhorts us to run to win the prize, not to fall by the wayside and lick our wounds, just as St Benedict instructs his sons who believe that that which has been asked of them is impossible to obey their superior nevertheless “out of love, trusting in the assistance of God.” (Rule, ch. 68). For Our Lord teaches us that “He that shall persevere to the end shall be saved.” (Mt 10:22)
 
On Septuagesima Sunday our holy mother the Church signals that Lent is approaching fast so that it does not catch us unaware, as it were. But as the Sacred Liturgy makes clear today is more than a mere purple flag asking us to remember a forthcoming event. It calls us to a sober and chaste contemplation of the reality that many are called but few, truly, are chosen, and by so doing seeks to wake us from our idleness and to encourage, indeed urge, us to keep running the course.
 
We may be tired, we may be injured, we may be utterly distracted; but none of those things changes the truth of the Gospel—the Gospel which assures us that the grace and the mercy we need are available for the asking if we but turn to the Lord and ask. As we now approach His altar to offer the Sacrifice of His Love, let us do precisely that. +