Sermon 223E

Sermon 223/E

ON THE VIGILS OF EASTER

Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation. Not every temptation is to be feared, but the one in which no way out is given.

The great brightness and solemnity of this vigil, brothers, reminding us with annual return of the memory of the Lord's resurrection, admonishes us to recall and do what He Himself said to His disciples about His impending passion: "Watch and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation." Therefore, let us watch and pray, so that we do not enter into temptation, not only on this night but for our entire life, which on earth is a temptation. For it is written: "Is not human life a temptation on earth?" Therefore, if entering into temptation is nothing other than being led or brought into temptation, that is, being deceived and captured, or in any way, to put it briefly, being overcome by temptation, what else is to be done through the entire night of this life, in which we must be the light of faith during the day, than what the Lord advised His disciples: "Watch and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation?" To keep vigilance of the mind means that faith does not sleep, hope does not wither, and charity does not grow cold. With faith vigilant, hope strong, and love fervent, through all this time in which we live in the night of this world, let us say with constant prayer: "Do not lead us into temptation." Thus, by His help, we do what the Lord said: "Watch and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation." If indeed it is not to be feared to enter temptation when we can also exit from it, according to Apostle James saying: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds," then hope remains in what Apostle Paul said: "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." Concerning this way out, it can be understood without absurdity, as we are reminded in the holy Canticle where it reads: "May the Lord guard your coming and going," so that just as clay jars are allowed not only to be well formed when entering the furnace but also to exit whole from it, as it is written: "The furnace tests the potter's vessels, and the trial of affliction tests righteous men." If this is the case, indeed when the Lord said to the disciples: "Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation," he saw that the weight of His passion was impending so greatly that He did not want them to enter into that temptation from which He saw they were not yet ready to be allowed to exit. For this reason, He had also said to the most blessed Apostle Peter: "You cannot follow me now, but you will follow later." Although Peter believed he could not only follow but also precede, saying: "I will lay down my life for you," when the strong winds of the Lord's passion besieged and the sea on which they sailed was greatly and deeply troubled, he would have been plunged by the questioning of a single maidservant if he had not immediately been freed by the right hand of the Lord, having obtained mercy through tears. Therefore, brothers, let us watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation that we cannot bear, and, in whichever we enter, we may either endure it with a given way out, or exit from it with given endurance; so that we do not enter into temptation without exit, like feet into shackles, like a beast into nets, like birds into snares.

Through baptism, just as through the Red Sea, we are freed from darkness.

So that we may not suffer, he to whom we sang will grant us: For gloriously he has been magnified; he who already in the washing of regeneration hath granted us that which we sang: he has cast the horse and the rider into the sea. For he has submerged and destroyed in baptism all our past sins, which followed us like from behind. These our darknesses, like their beasts, that is, aids, the unclean spirits did guide, and like riders, they drove where they wanted; and therefore the Apostle calls them rulers of this darkness. Since we are freed from them through baptism, as if through the Red Sea, that is, by the bloodied sanctification of the crucified Lord, let us not turn back in heart to Egypt, but through other temptations of the desert with him as protector and guide, let us strive towards the kingdom.