In the Church’s ancient calendar, there are three Sundays before Lent, with quaint old Latin names – Septuagesima, (which means ‘seventieth’); Sexagesima (‘sixtieth’), and Quinqagesima (fiftieth). Obviously, they start a countdown that leads us first to Lent (also known as Quadragesima, in reference to its forty days), and ultimately to Easter itself, the festival of our redemption.
Thus, long before we begin the observance of Lent and its corporate disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, the Church announces its approach and invites us to prepare for it. As the Eastern Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann put it, ‘the Church knows our inability to change rapidly, to go abruptly from one spiritual or mental state to another. Thus, long before the actual effort of Lent is to begin, the Church calls our attention to its seriousness and invites us to meditate on its significance. Before we practice Lent we are given its meaning‘.
In Epiphany we celebrated the transformation to which we are called by the grace of Christ manifested to us; now in the Sundays before Lent we consider how this transformation requires our disciplined effort. Though good works do not earn us God’s grace and favor, in good works do we testify to our gratitude to the grace we have received, and in them we are also sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
In general, the lessons of these Sundays represent the corporate disciplines of Lent in images of purposeful, fruitful labor and pilgrimage. In particular they address, on Septuagesima, the purpose of fasting (‘I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection’), and on Sexagesima, of prayer (‘They, on the goo ground are they, which … having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience’), and on Quinquagesima, of almsgiving (‘Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor …. and have not charity’), the three practices endorsed by Christ (Matthew 6:1-18) by which we bring forth ‘fruits worthy of repentance’ (Luke 3:8). ‘Why stand ye here all the day idle? Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive’ (Matthew 20:6, 7).
Fr. Gavin Dunbar is President of the Prayer Book Society and rector of St. John's parish in Savannah, GA. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, he studied classics at the University of Toronto and Dalhousie University, Halifax; before studying theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto.