Sermon 223K

Sermon 223/K

ON THE EVE OF EASTER

The sleep of the flesh and the sleep of the heart.

Blessed apostle Paul: "All of you," he says, "are children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us be vigilant and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But we who are of the day are sober." What kind of night is this, brothers, in which the Truth does not want us to be, in which He says those who sleep are? And what kind of sleep is this from which He distinguishes us, the children of light and day, and from which He speaks so that we do not sleep? Undoubtedly, this is not the night whose beginning is the setting of the sun, but the fall of man, nor is it the night which ends with the dawning of the aurora, but the renewal of the soul. In this night, even the evil wakeful ones sleep; in this night, even the sleeping good ones are not. This common night, by coming, ends the day; that damnable night took us away from that day which made this day. This sleep, which we now resist by being vigilant, receives an innocent death with dulled senses; that sleep, in which the unfaithful sleep in their hearts, pushes the inner eyes into death. Against this one, let us hear: "Watch and pray"; against that one, let us say: "Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death." Therefore, solemnly against the sleep of the body, we hold these lights in the night to be vigilant; truly, against that sleep of the heart, as if in the night of this world, we ourselves must be the lights.