The proper collect, epistle (I Cor. 13:1 — 13), and gospel (Luke 18:31 — 43) for Quinquagesima, the Sunday before Lent, combine to focus our attention on ἀγάπη (agape), that is, charity, the queen of the theological virtues. With this, the Sunday before Lent, sets the tone of the great season of fasting.
The placement of this gospel pericope at the entryway of this season and its pairing with Paul's hymn to charity invites the one about to take on the Lenten disciplines with the blind beggar who encounters Jesus as He goes up to Jerusalem to sacrifice Himself for us beggars, embodying the utter selflessness of divine love. We are the helpless ones who cry out, 'Jesu, thou son of David, have mercy upon us'.
J. S. Bach's Cantata for Quinquagesima, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (BWV23) provides the perfect musical entry into the season of Lent. BWV23, described by Craig Smith as 'one of the densest and greatest of all the cantatas', reflects on the proper gospel for this day in which a blind man at Jericho persistently cries out to the son of David, whom he hears passing by with a great crowd.
The cantata, which would have originally been performed in part just before and in part just after the sermon during the Holy Communion, is an expansion of the blind beggar's cry, as in this first aria (the beautiful soprano — alto duet):
The cantata transforms his cry into our cry, his blindness into an image of our spiritual darkness, his persistence and single-mindedness into an analogy for the disciplines we are about to take on during Lent.
For members of the Society
The full text of this article is reserved for members. Sign in with your email, or become a member, to read it in full.
