Our Lord’s Death and Charity: sermon on Quinquagesima Sunday

By a Dominican Friar   |   26 February 2025

“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.”

If we were asked, how it was that our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed the world by His death, there are several answers we might give. We might point out that the One who suffered for us was not a mere man, not even the noblest of men, but that He was and is the God-man, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Or we could talk about how precious was the thing that He gave to His Father as the price of our salvation, namely His own soul divinised by its union with the Word. But our attention is drawn today to a third answer to the question: Christ redeemed the world because of the immense charity that animated Him both in life and in death.

What, then, is charity? St Paul answers the question, but notice that he begins by telling us what charity is not. It is not the same as being ready to “distribute all my goods to feed the poor”, or even to “deliver my body to be burned”. Now charity can prompt both those things; think of St Dominic, selling all his books when he was a student to buy wheat for the hungry in time of famine, or of St Joan of Arc, giving her virginal body to the flames because of her great love for God, and His Church, and her country. Yet such things as that can be done without charity also, either from a kind of passing enthusiasm, or even from a desire to make a name for oneself.

And so, having said what charity is not, St Paul goes on to tell us what it is. What is it that’s even greater than to deliver our goods to the poor and our body to be burned? He answers, “Charity is patient, is kind.” It seems, perhaps, rather an anti-climax. “Is that all?” we may think. Somehow, it doesn’t sound so impressive. We are too prone to value external displays over what lies within. So, in order see the greatness of charity, it may help us to read St Paul’s words as a description of our Lord Himself, especially in His passion.

“Charity is patient”

Think of the patience of Jesus, not only with the apostles, but with the scribes and Pharisees. They were forever trying to catch at His words, to misrepresent Him, to accuse Him of some fault against the Law. He was their God! He could have withered their tongues, as once He withered a fig-tree to be a sign of their barrenness. But instead He let them speak against Him, and to carry on speaking to the very end. They were still doing it as He died: “If he be the king of Israel, they said, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe.”

“Charity is kind”

Remember how kindly He spoke to the woman caught in adultery: “Go, and sin no more.” Or think of those long days spent healing the sick, often, we may suppose, while receiving no very great thanks. That episode of the ten lepers, nine of whom take their cure for granted, was probably not an exceptional one.

“Charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely”

Our Lord did not envy the elders and chief priests their positions of power in Jerusalem. He had the right to command them, but He preferred the way of humility that His Father set before Him. “Dealeth not perversely”, since He did not have hidden intentions different from His declared ones. “I have always spoken openly before the world,” as He said to the high priest at His interrogation. And then to the soldier who struck Him: “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?”

“Charity is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own”

Why was our Lord not ambitious? Because He was too magnanimous for that. Ambition is only for those who want to be praised by the world.  But He says, “The Father who sent me giveth testimony of me. And “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

“Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things”

Jesus did not have the theological virtues of faith and hope, since unlike us He saw the Father. Yet the certainty that faith and hope give to us, Christ’s charity gave to Him. He knew that His Father would raise Him from the dead; so He went “up to Jerusalem”, to suffer all those things “which were written by the prophets concerning” Him. And although His charity could not grow, as it could not diminish, it never appears more majestic then when from the Cross itself He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

This, then, is the example that the Church sets before us on Quinquagesima Sunday, just before the start of Lent. As we go up to Jerusalem once more with Jesus and His apostles, may our penances allow His charity to grow within us.