The Eleventh Hour: Preparing for the Journey Home

Septuagesima is the Church’s merciful call to begin preparing for the Lenten journey, reminding believers that earthly life is a temporary exile and a pilgrimage back to the heavenly Jerusalem. Drawing on biblical symbolism of the number seventy and St. Gregory the Great’s interpretation of the laborers in the vineyard, the message emphasizes that we live in the “eleventh hour,” yet are promised the same reward of eternal life by God’s generosity rather than our merit. Pre-Lent is described as a motherly warning to simplify life, practice temperance, and prepare through fasting, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and renewed spiritual discipline. Holding together sorrow for sin and hopeful joy in Christ’s healing, the sermon urges the faithful to respond with humility and urgency, remembering that time is short and the Master still calls all into His vineyard of repentance and resurrection hope.