Sermon 223G

Sermon 223

On the Vigils of Easter

This festival indicates what eternity will have at the end of time.

This, brothers, holy celebration, which took night from night, driving away the darkness with these lights, and cheering our faith as if it were the day of the heart, is remembered, as you know, in the memory of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. For what could be more fitting than that our vigil should celebrate His awakening from the dead, so that the body, though still destined to sleep, might keep watch for the head which is now always awake, and likewise will awake, and with Him, without any sleep, keep perpetual vigilance and reign? For such a great feast fittingly marks a fixed time, which eternity will have without the end of time. Let us watch therefore with the awake Christ, and let us abstain a little as much as we can from sleep, in honor of Him whom sleep does not hold. Let us be in His keeping according to the spirit of true Israel: For He will neither slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel. Keeping watch with annual solemnity for this ever-watchful guardian, let us bind our heart in the bond of faith in His hand, that being suspended by this religious devotion we may not fall from Him who knows not to sleep; until, whole and entire, having consumed mortality and corruption, we are gathered in His strength, where we can no longer sleep or slumber.

Not every vigil is praiseworthy: the end of our vigil does not have an end.

This is the fruit of our vigils, this is the end of our intentions not by the eyes of the flesh but of the spirit, this is the just and holy purpose of restraining and curbing sleep, this is the incorruptible reward of labor borne and love awakened, that He, to whom we stay awake by resisting a little earthly drowsiness, may give us life, where there is watchfulness without labor, day without night, rest without sleep. Therefore, staying awake is not praiseworthy in itself, for even thieves stay awake; but they do so to sneak up on the sleep of husbands and reach their wives during the tempting night. Practitioners of magical arts also stay awake; but they do so to serve demons, and with their help commit abominable acts. It is long and unnecessary to recount all the vigils of criminals. But to speak also of certain innocent vigils, craftsmen, farmers, sailors, fishermen, travelers, merchants, administrators of various matters, judges, lawyers, buyers and sellers of letters, those invested with power, those subject to powers, and whatever is in the arts or industry by which human life is conducted, also stay awake; but with the aim that the land may be inhabited more conveniently or more decently by their speedy work. Finally, the end of all such vigilance, whether illicit, is condemned to eternal death, or licit, is consumed by temporal death. But the end of the law is Christ for the righteousness of everyone who believes; in whose view we stay awake, the end is perfection, redeeming us from the end of either damnation or consumption. Therefore, those staying awake either maliciously or innocently still look upon and seek a perishable end; however, our end has no end. Finally, those stay awake in the matter to which they desire to attain, not having a permanent residence; we stay awake and pray that we may not enter into temptation. For thus we overcome the attacker of our journey; thus we grasp the Savior with whom we will stay.