Liturgical Study - Usus Antiquior - Septuagesima Sunday - 1962 Missal
SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY
Theme: Man’s Fall, God’s Sovereignty, and the Storm Before Lent
Proper Readings
• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24–27; 10:1–5
• Gospel: Matthew 20:1–16 — The Workers in the Vineyard
Liturgical Context:
Septuagesima marks the threshold of Lent. Alleluia disappears. Purple returns. The Church stops pretending that the world is ordered — and begins teaching why it is not.
1. Septuagesima — The Forgotten Season of Truth
Septuagesima is the Church’s intervention against spiritual amnesia.
Before Lent demands penance, Septuagesima explains why penance is necessary. It recalls the Fall. Man’s exile. The loss of Eden. The long labor of redemption.
The liturgy shifts tone because history itself is wounded.
2. EPISTLE — 1 Corinthians 9–10
Discipline in a Fallen World**
St. Paul speaks like a coach in wartime.
“I chastise my body and bring it into subjection.”
Grace does not eliminate struggle. Baptism does not abolish discipline. Even the Israelites — delivered from Egypt — fell in the desert.
The Epistle demolishes presumption. Sacraments save — but they do not excuse negligence.
Septuagesima declares war on complacency.
3. GOSPEL — Matthew 20:1–16
Grace Is Sovereign, Not Earned**
The parable of the vineyard is not about fairness. It is about God’s sovereignty.
Those who labor longest do not earn more grace. God gives according to His generosity — not human calculation.
This shatters merit-based religion. Grace is not wages. It is gift.
The late-called laborers represent sinners, Gentiles, the unworthy — and ultimately all of us.
4. Theological Unity — Exile, Discipline, and Sovereign Grace
Septuagesima teaches three truths modern man resists:
• The world is fallen
• Man must struggle
• God owes nothing
Paul teaches discipline because man is wounded.
The Gospel teaches generosity because God is free.
Together they form the logic of redemption: effort is required — but salvation is not earned.
5. Patristic and Scholastic Illumination
St. Augustine teaches that the vineyard represents salvation history — from Adam to Christ.
St. Gregory the Great teaches that envy at grace reveals pride still alive.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that merit operates only within grace, never apart from it.
6. Practical Application — Entering the Combat
Septuagesima demands preparation:
• Fast before fasting is commanded
• Discipline desire
• Abandon entitlement
• Submit to God’s generosity
The Church removes Alleluia because joy must now be purified.
The Long Road Back to Eden
Septuagesima reminds us:
We are not yet home.
The vineyard is not ours.
The wage is mercy.