Sermon 223C

SERMON 223/C

OF THE HOLY NIGHT

The sleep of Christ was of will, not of necessity.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, near His Passion, whereby He paid what He did not owe for our debts, so that the bond by which we were held might be canceled by His blood, said to His disciples: "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation." From this exhortation of His, this celebration has been established: that we keep vigil on the anniversary return of that day on which His resurrection was awaited. May He, who slept for our salvation, hear us keeping vigil in His celebration. Indeed, it had been said in prophecy regarding this very matter and in His own person: "I have slept and taken my rest; and I have risen up, because the Lord has taken me up." As if to say: Let not the Jews seem to have prevailed over me; I slept, it was by will, not by necessity. He Himself, indeed, slept as though of His own will, not as though overpowered; He who had the power to lay down His life and to take it up again. Nevertheless, the Jews were not without guilt because He slept by His own power; to demonstrate their crime, He said in another Psalm: "I have slept troubled." For this He referred to them who thought they had troubled Him, whom they insulted as if defeated, and yet, although they had demanded His death with wicked voices, they tried to absolve themselves from His killing; so that it might seem not their act but Pilate's, who handed Him over to be crucified by his soldiers. Therefore the same Psalm immediately says: "Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." As if to say: And even if not by your own hands, yet by your own mouth you killed Him, whose death you demanded. But what does He say in another Psalm? "Shall not he who sleeps also add that he will rise again?" Behold, He who had slept has risen; He has watched, and He has been made like a solitary sparrow in the rooftop, that is, above heaven, where He intercedes for us, where He now does not die, nor does death have anymore dominion over Him; because He who keeps us neither sleeps nor slumbers. Behold those who thought they had harmed Him, even that kingdom where they did not want Him to reign has been rooted out and perished; so that what He said when about to sleep might also be visibly fulfilled: "Awake me, and I will return it to them." Therefore, humbling our souls, let us celebrate these vigils, so that with a vigilant heart we may hope and await His coming, whose voice will wake all the sleeping even from their tombs: those who have done good unto the resurrection of life; those who have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. For He is the one, of whose sleep on the cross, Jacob, exalted so long before, prophesied: "Thou hast climbed, lying down, thou hast slept like a lion." He, indeed, has prevailed, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; for Jacob said this when blessing Judah. Since the Lion thus slept, He was counted among the dead; but because the Lion has prevailed, He will come to judge the living and the dead.