Quinquagesima Sunday AD 2026

God doesn’t save anyone by force. Today’s Gospel tells of a blind man who begs Jesus to have mercy on him. Before Jesus heals this man, He asks him: “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?” And the man regains his sight after Jesus says to him, “Thy faith hath saved thee!“

This doesn’t mean that our faith is some kind of service to God for which God should reward us. Faith is a gift from God, and it is interesting to observe how Saint Paul speaks alternately of our faith in Jesus Christ and the faith of Jesus Christ. To understand the latter, it is necessary to know that the corresponding Greek word means both faith and faithfulness and trustworthiness. Our faith springs from the faithfulness of Christ.

So too, our hope springs from Christ’s  trustworthiness, and our love from His self-giving, sacrificial love. As Saint Paul shows in today's Epistle, our love must be like the love of Christ: ready to give oneself up to the end for the sake of the one we love. It is a love that never ends and is greater than everything else.

But love cannot be forced. So God doesn’t force His love on us, nor does He save anyone by force. He calls us, He waits for us, He wants us to find eternal life and happiness with Him – but He does not force us to accept it. God is faithful, He is trustworthy, and we can always count on Him, His love never fails. In His Son, Jesus Christ, He has done everything so that we would not perish, but could be saved.