On Quinquagesima

1 Corinthians 13; Luke 18.31-43

Lent is about love.

This statement may come as something of a surprise. We tend to associate it with discipline, fasting, penitence, asceticism, and to be sure Lent is about all these things. The prayer book lessons for the first day of Lent, from Joel 2 and Matthew 6, will focus on fasting, and many of the readings throughout the season will focus on sanctification. But the Quinquagesima lessons, and especially the long Epistle (the whole of 1 Corinthians 13!), provide us a specific lens for the season: love. What these lessons do for us on the cusp of Lent is remind us that the aim of our Lenten disciplines is growth in charity, and that this charity is grounded in faith in Christ’s cross.