Septuagesima Sunday 20.1.08 Working in the vineyard
In the Christmas season we have been celebrating God’s generous offer of salvation. In Septuagesima/Lent we must consider our response to this offer.
It is necessary we respond, otherwise the offer of salvation will remain only a possibility and not become actual.
So the readings today put before us vital aspects of our response.
The Gospel tells us that we must accept the offer to work in the Lord’s vineyard. We are idle if we do not. This work is the main work we have in this earthly life. We may do other jobs, have other careers, but to work for the Lord is our first concern. To do His will.
We take up this work at different times. Some early, some late. Whenever we start we must continue to the end.
It is no use complaining if others seem to have it easier. We must do what each of us must do. The Lord knows what to ask of each one.
The epistle warns that one who has started the work might still be lost. St Paul says that he himself might be lost. We would be stunned by that, these days, but he knew what he was saying.
The devil never ceases to tempt us, no matter who we are or what our reputation.
We have established how long we must work – till the end of our lives. How hard must we work? Very hard. The work takes different forms but there needs to be a certain intensity and commitment about it.
This becomes clear if we look at the Church as a whole. Going back to Pentecost, which was our official launching, we see there was a high degree of enthusiasm and commitment in the early Church. There was much praying, much witnessing to the faith, much generosity, much willingness to shed blood for the faith.
(All in the first few chapters of Acts we find these things).
So how did we get to the idea that being part of the Church was just a minimalist thing, of getting baptized and confirmed and going to Mass at Christmas and Easter, otherwise being just the same as everyone else?
It was just the erosion of time on the first fervour of conversion. At the beginning we are ready to scale any mountain, slay any dragon. After a few years we are happy just to fall over the line, happy just to qualify.
This is just weariness, which can be refreshed, so it is not a permanent problem. We need to be refreshed and rekindled, and this season of repentance will enable us to recapture some of that lost fervour.
One of the things to overcome is any sense of resentment that it takes so long, that so much seems to be required of us for salvation.
Others have invented easier formulae – just believe, for instance – but we cannot make it easier than God Himself makes it.
If God makes it so, it must be good for us to work so hard. He gives us thereby a way of showing our love for Him. We don’t mind doing things if we love the one for whom they are done.
The saints teach us to be cheerful in the Lord’s service. How can one be cheerful if being scalped by savages, or fed to the lions? Because it is done for One we love. Once we discover that love the rest follows easily.
May the Lord revive us in these next ‘septuagesima’ (70) days, by awakening all our best resolutions and keeping us fervent till the end.
