Sermon 223D
Sermon 223/D
ON THE VIGILS OF EASTER
Why is the night of Easter preferred over all others?
It is well known to you, dearest brothers - for you are not ignorant of what you are doing - that this vigil dedicated to the Lord, and above all vigils held for the worship of God, is held in such high esteem because it renews in an annual solemnity the memory of the Savior, who was handed over for our offenses and rose for our justification; so that His entire Church, which is His body, can sing: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will be glad in God my Savior.
Why the Lord rose at night.
For there will be for us, after the night of this age has passed, a resurrection of the flesh unto the kingdom, whose example has preceded us in our Head. For this reason, indeed, the Lord wished to rise at night, because according to the Apostle: "God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts." Therefore, the Lord signified light shining out of darkness by being born at night and also rising at night. For light out of darkness, Christ is from the Jews, to whom it was said: "I have likened your mother to the night." But in that people, as in that night, the Virgin Mary was not night, but in a certain way the star of the night; whence also a star marked her birth, which led the distant night, that is, the Magi from the East, so that they might worship the light; so that in them also what was said might come to pass: "Light shining out of darkness." So that the resurrection and birth of Christ might agree, just as in that new tomb no one had been placed dead before, nor afterward; thus in that virginal womb, no mortal was conceived before, nor afterward.
The Paschal vigil prefigures the expectation of the Lord's coming.
Although, therefore, in this our vigil the Lord is not yet awaited as if about to rise again, but the memory of His resurrection is renewed by its annual solemnity, nevertheless, by celebrating this, we remember the past in such a way that we also symbolize something through this same vigil that we do by living in faith. For all this time, during which this age runs like the night, the Church keeps watch with the eyes of faith focused on the holy Scriptures as on nightly lights, until the Lord comes. Hence what the apostle Peter says: We have the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. For this reason, the Savior Himself commands us to keep a spiritual vigil, where, speaking about His sudden coming, He says, "Watch, therefore, for you do not know the day nor the hour." Just as now, I came to you in the name of the Lord and found you watching in His name, so also the Lord Himself, in whose honor this solemnity is celebrated, will find His Church watching with the light of the mind when He comes, so that He may also awaken it from the tombs where the body sleeps.