On Quinquagesima Sunday, as we stand at the threshold of Lent, the Church gives us St. Paul’s great hymn to charity (1 Cor. 13) and the healing of the blind man at Jericho (Luke 18) to teach that without supernatural love (caritas) we are spiritually blind and all our orthodoxy, sacrifice, knowledge, or zeal are “as sounding brass.” Our Lord announces His Passion—“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem”—yet even the Apostles do not understand, reminding us that pride and self-reliance darken the intellect, while humble perseverance—“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”—restores sight. True Catholic life, especially in times of trial and exile, demands both unwavering fidelity to doctrine and crucified charity: faith must be living, hope steadfast, but charity supreme, for it alone endures eternally.

Sexagesima Sunday stands at the Church’s solemn threshold to Lent, a warning and a mercy from Holy Mother Church. By silencing the Alleluia and clothing the altar in violet, the Church reminds us that the Christian life is not comfort but combat. In the Epistle, St. Paul lays bare the cost of fidelity—sufferings, humiliations, and weakness—yet he glories in them, for “power is made perfect in infirmity” (2 Cor. 12:9, Douay-Rheims). The Church teaches us here that grace does not flourish in ease, but in humility and perseverance. As pre-Lenten history shows, these Sundays were established to awaken souls from spiritual negligence and prepare them to enter Lent as disciplined soldiers of Christ, not passive observers of faith.

In the Gospel, Our Lord’s Parable of the Sower confronts each soul with a serious question: not whether the seed is good, but whether the soil is ready. The Word of God bears fruit only in hearts that hear, keep, and endure with patience (Luke 8:15). From the Traditional Catholic and Vatican in Exile view, the crisis of our age is not a failure of the Gospel but a failure to cultivate the soul through doctrine, discipline, and obedience. Sexagesima Sunday calls both clergy and faithful to examine their interior ground, uproot distractions and compromise, and prepare now—before Lent begins—to receive Christ’s Word deeply, so that it may bear lasting fruit unto salvation.

Septuagesima Sunday Summary:
On Septuagesima Sunday, Holy Mother Church awakens us from spiritual complacency by silencing the Alleluia and calling us back to discipline, vigilance, and conversion; through Saint Paul’s warning that even the baptized can be lost if they do not persevere, and Our Lord’s parable of the laborers in the vineyard, we are reminded that grace is freely given but must be faithfully cooperated with, for privilege without effort leads to presumption, not salvation; from the perspective of the Vatican in Exile and the perennial teaching of the Church before 1958, this season summons both clergy and faithful to renewed self-mastery, penance, and holy fear, so that we may run the race not merely to start, but to finish well and obtain the crown.