“He cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
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Today is the feast day of St. Valentine, the martyr and saint from 3rd century Rome. We all know how this day has been commercialized to the point that the man himself is often just forgotten! In addition the whole emphasis of the day is on romantic love. This is not, necessarily, a bad thing but what is often forgotten is that there are many different types of love, and each one of them comes from one source, God himself. When we talk about God as love, we are then talking about one specific type of love out of which all other love flows, and that is called charity. Today it also happens to be Charity Sunday as you all heard from our Collect (one of the few that is actually from Reformation) and Epistle reading.
It is important to realize that our one English word love, covers a variety of meanings. Paul’s exhortation in 1 Cor 13 about love is marvelous–one of those rapturous moments in the NT that catches our attention. But if we take this passage to be about romantic love or just filial love, we will end up in some very tough situations. For instance, if we insist that love must bear all things and believe all things, as Paul says, what happens in situations where someone is abusive or lies? Must we as Christians return and bear more? Or just hope that the lies will stop? Of course not! This passage, in fact, is not about romantic love primarily–it is about the heavenly virtue of charity which was given to us at baptism. And this love is the love towards God. So, a good paraphrase of Paul’s passage would be: “Charity bears up under all things, continues to entrust one’s well-being to God in all situations, keeps on looking to God’s finality come what may, and awaits his resolutions for my life and the life of the world whether my personal circumstances appear to be good or bad at the moment.”
The virtue of charity is what points us towards God throughout all life, in all situations, at all times. Remember what the Collect says for this week: “O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.” God desires his people to live for Him, so that they dedicate each of their actions toward Him. He desires this so much that he actually gives us Charity as a gift! We now have the ability to love God as He desires to be loved. St. Paul describes it so well:”Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
This is Divine Love. Notice that this type of love, this divine type of love that we call charity has little to do with how you feel, because this type of love is not the love of emotions. Charity is a type of love that has to do with your will, what you choose. And as St. Paul describes this so well, our Gospel shows it forth in the person of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of Divine Love.
Jesus told His disciples what was coming because He is heading to Jerusalem of His own Will, not compelled or forced. Because Christ went towards His passion knowing what was to come, it was an act of His will, a perfect act of charity.
This journey of love is our journey as well as we respond to His love. As Jesus approaches his intense agony during our annual liturgical cycle, and we again have a chance to either join Him in that journey or again let Him pass by. The purpose of the liturgical calendar is to bring us closer to God in time and space. In Lent, in particular, we do this as we repent from the sin in our lives, gain perfect remission of those sins, and receive from God a new and contrite heart. It is a journey of sorrow in order to gain joy, to dedicate our lives to God. I like to think of the blind man from the Gospel as our Lenten guide, for he is our example of how to reach out towards Divine Love.
We reach out to God by crying for God to have mercy on us. St. Gregory the Great understands the people who try to silence the blind man as our own vices: “We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision, they disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our petition” (Hom. 13, 96). So we must persist in our prayers and not be bound by the chains of sin in our lives. Lent is a time to cast off those sins that hinder us, to enjoy the freedom of walking in Charity with Jesus in our sight. Do not let your sins hold you back from following Jesus in whom you believe. As bitter as they might be, you must face those sins and repent.
The Church has already set out the best way to do this, which is the Sacrament of Penance — Confession. It is in Confession that you can bare your soul to Jesus in absolute secrecy, to let go of all the sins that are holding you back, plead to God for His mercy and receive complete freedom from those sins through the Absolution. Every week we say the General Confession during the Mass, and the priest does give a full absolution. But if you have a hard time thinking that you have “truly and earnestly repented of your sins,” or if your conscience is not at peace after this Confession, you need to come to private Confession. Our own Prayer Book puts it this way: “if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other Minister of God’s Word, and open his grief; that he may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may tend to the quieting of his conscience, and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness.” The blind man cried out above the crowds that tried to press him down in order to receive the healing touch of Love. We must do the same by seeking out Confession, be freed from your bondage, and live out this Lent in charity.
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“He cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”