Quinquagesima
Quinquagesima Luke 18.31
To day is Quinquagesima last Sunday was Sexagesima and the Sunday before that was Septuagesima, but what do such strange names mean.
The names are from the Latin and can be dated back to the sixth century.
Quinquagesima means fifty days before Easter, which it actually is and is the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.
Some churches change they vestments on this day to purple while others wait until Ash Wednesday to do so.
The word Alleluia is not said at any of the church services until Lent is over from today, while again some churches wait until Ash Wednesday before not doing so.
In earlier times you would not eat meat from Quinquagesima until after Lent.
Sexagesima means sixty days before Easter but is only fifty seven days, as it is the name given to the second Sunday before Lent and the eighth Sunday before Easter.
Septuagesima means seventy days before Easter but is actually only sixty four days; it is the third Sunday before Lent and the ninth Sunday before Easter.
The Church of England in their new Prayer Book have dropped these names, and just refers to these Sundays as;
The Sunday before Lent, the Sunday next before Lent and the third Sunday before Lent.
This coming Tuesday is know as Shrove Tuesday and dates back to the Middle Ages, and was the day that you confessed your sins in final preparation for Lent.
It is also know as Pancake Day as it was the day that you used up all your eggs and fat as they were forbidden to be eaten during Lent and could not be kept until Easter.
This brings us to Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent which is six and half weeks before Easter.
In a lot of churches on Ash Wednesday the worshiper receives a cross marked on the forehead as a sign of penitence, this is done with the ashes obtained by burning the palms used on the previous Palm Sunday.
Lent consist of forty days, as we do not include the Sundays and use to be forty days of fasting which represent Jesus forty days of fasting in the desert.
To days Gospel points us towards Lent and the Cross:
“Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.
For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death, and the third day He shall rise again.
And they understood none of these things.”
Luke tells us that the sufferings of Christ are the fulfilling of the scriptures.
All things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man, especially the hardships, He should undergo, was to be and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Prophets like Isaiah (53) which we had to day as an Old Testament reading, foretold Christ sufferings, and the glory that should follow,
Christ turned the offence and disgrace of the cross to an honour, and something to be looked up to.
The other Gospels say that He would be mocked, but here Luke added, Jesus shall be spitefully treated, he shall have scornful insults and contempt poured upon Him.
When Christ spoke of his sufferings and death, He also spoke of his resurrection, but the Disciples did not really understand.
As it was so contrary to the notions they had had of the Messiah and his kingdom.
The Disciples had been so intent upon those prophecies that spoke of Christ’s glory that they overlooked those that spoke of Christ’s sufferings, as they could not believe that anything could be accomplished in the disgrace and death of the Messiah.
As the Disciples went with Jesus to Jerusalem we follow them during the period of lent, the only difference being the Cross, to them they thought it was the end, but to us it was the beginning.
The cross has become a sign for Christian throughout the
world, and is one of the principal symbols of the Christian religion.
The Cross recalls to us the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the redeeming benefits of His Passion and Death.
The cross is both a sign of Christ himself and of the faith of Christians.
Before the time of the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Christians were extremely careful about using the sign of the cross in any way, because too open a display of it might expose them to death.
After Constantine converted to Christianity, he abolished crucifixion as a death penalty and promoted the cross as one of the main symbols of the Christian faith,
For several centuries after Constantine, Christian devotion to the cross centred on the victory of Christ over the powers of evil and death, and realistic portrayal of his suffering was avoided.
The earliest crucifixes depict Christ alive, with eyes open and arms extended, by the 9th century this changed to show Christ's suffering and His death.
The early Crucifixes often show a royal crown upon Christ's head, but this was later replaced with a far greater crown, the crown of thorns.
In the 20th century a new emphasis emerged showing crucifixes with Christ vested as a king and priest, and the marks of his suffering are much less prominent.
Ever time we go in to a church we will see a cross sometimes on the altar or behind it and some times above it, a cross will also be seen in other places in a church like over a pulpit.
Some churches have even been built in the shape of a cross.
The cross and Jesus death shows us the depths of God’s love for us.
As a result of this great love, we can be reconciled both to God and each other.
It is through the cross that all the powers of evil are defeated.
The cross is also a dramatic symbol of the sort of life Christians ought to live.
Saint Luke tells us in his Gospel that Jesus called his follows to take up their cross and follow Him. (Luke 9.23)
Jesus called his follows to a life of self-sacrifice.
As they must give up their own claims over their lives, and live in the power of the new life which God gives them.
Saint Paul, we know by his letter to the Galatians understood what this really meant by his own experience;
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me;
And the life, I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal.2.20)
As we, in the next few days prepare ourselves for Lent, lets us remember the Disciples who went with Jesus to Jerusalem.
Who at first did not understand what was happening to Jesus, but later did come to understand, so that we may understand too?
