Sermon 230

SERMO 230

IN THE DAYS OF EASTER

If you want to be the day which the Lord has made, live well.

As we have sung to our Lord, so let us, with His help, act. For every day is made by the Lord: yet it is not without reason that it is especially written of a certain day: This is the day which the Lord has made. We read, when God created the heavens and the earth, that He said: Let there be light; and there was light. And God called the light, day; and the darkness, night. But there is another day, certain to us and especially commendable, of which the Apostle says: Let us walk honestly as in the day. This common daily day is completed by the rising and setting of the sun. There is another day, on which the word of God shines in the hearts of the faithful and drives out the darkness, not of the eyes, but of evil habits. Let us therefore acknowledge it, let us rejoice in it. Let us hear the Apostle saying: For we are children of the light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Let us walk honestly as in the day: not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its desires. If you do this, you sing with all your heart: This is the day which the Lord has made. For what you sing, you are if you live well. How many through these days get drunk? How many through these days, it is little that they get drunk, even disgracefully and cruelly they quarrel? Such do not sing: This is the day which the Lord has made. The Lord replies to them: You are darkness; I did not make you. If you wish to be the day which the Lord has made, live well; and you will have the light of truth, which will never set in your hearts.