"Lent is near": why we need the Gesima Sundays

In TEC BCP 1979 and Canada's Book of Alternative Services (1985) the Sundays after Epiphany stretch on until the Sunday before Lent.  Following after the liturgical reforms the Roman communion, the Gesima Sundays were suppressed.  After all, if Lent itself is a season of preparation for Easter, how is it possible to have a time of preparation for a season of preparation?  The Gesima Sundays were an untidy medieval accretion, to be dispensed with as the liturgical year was returned to a more pristine form.

With the publication of the CofE's Common Worship, however, a change could be detected, a change also seen in the CofI BCP 2004.  'Sundays before Lent' appeared, beginning on the Sunday after Candlemas.  This was a partial recognition of the wisdom of the Gesima Sundays.

The collects of the Fourth and Fifth Sundays before Lent have themes that can be identified with Lent - "the fraility of our nature", "the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity".  On the Second Sunday before Lent, the collect and readings recall creation, echoing the traditional link between the Gesima Sundays and Genesis.  The Sunday before Lent is given over to celebration of the Transfiguration, which has an obvious sense of preparation for Lent, seen in the collect's petition "that we may be strengthened to suffer with him".

The emergence of 'Sundays before Lent' is witness to the folly of suppressing the Gesima Sundays.  A time of transition is needed, between the Sundays after the Epiphany and the Lenten season.  We need time to prepare ourselves for the fasting and discipline of Lent.  Indeed, without a time of preparation, there is an implication that Lenten fasting and discipline is not a particularly serious matter, that it is a matter which does not require from us preparation. 

What the 'Sunday before Lent' lack, however, is the coherence of the Gesima Sundays.  There is considerable incoherence in jumping from creation on the Second Sunday before Lent, to Transfiguration on the Sunday before Lent, to the Lord's fasting in the wilderness on the First Sunday in Lent.  Furthermore, there is no coherence to these Sundays year to year.  In 2018 there were only two 'Sundays before Lent'.  This year there are four.  This instability does not assist in the catechetical and pastoral task of establishing the significance of preparation for Lent.

By contrast, the Gesima Sundays carefully and coherently orient us towards the Lenten fast.

This is seen in the Gesima collects.  On Septuagesima we are reminded that we "are justly punished for our offences" and yet "mercifully delivered by thy goodness", a tension revealed in Lenten penance.  On Sexagesima, even as we prepare for the disciplines of Lent, we confess "that we put not our trust in any thing that we do".  On Quinquagesima, the collect petitions for that gift without which our Lenten disciplines will be fruitless - "all our doings without charity are nothing worth".

Similarly, the Gospels of the Gesima Sundays are a rich source of preparation for Lent.  On Septuagesima we hear the call to enter into the labour of Lent: "Go ye also into the vineyard".  On Sexagesima, we are urged to have hearts which are "good ground" to "bring forth fruit with patience" - a call echoed in the 1662 Commination for Ash Wednesday, "seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance".  On Quinquagesima, we are told "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem", and we hear the account of the Lord giving sight to the blind, just as we seek the renewal of our interior sight through the discipline of Lent.

The wisdom and the coherence of the Gesima Sundays open us in heart and soul to the Forty Days of Lent.  We need this time of orientation, of being prepared for penitential disciplines, the serious work of Lent.  As John Betjeman, that great 20th century poet of the Anglican imagination, wrote:

The Gesimas – Septua, Sexa, Quinc
Mean Lent is near, which makes you think.