Augustine, Sermones 217-233 (Classis II, de Tempore)

drink also had hyssop (John 19:28–29), which is a lowly herb said to cling to rock with a very strong root. For there were among that people those for whom this crime was being reserved, so that the soul might be humbled by repenting and afterwards [the crime] cast off. He Himself knew them, Who received the hyssop with the vinegar. For He also prayed for them, as another evangelist testifies, when, hanging on the cross, He said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34).

Chapter XII. — 12. The last word and the bowing of the head. In that He said, It is finished, and with head bowed gave up the Spirit (John 19:30), He showed not the necessity but the power of His death, waiting until all the things that had been prophesied concerning Him should be fulfilled: for this too had been written, And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Ps. 68:22); as one having power to lay down His life, as He Himself also testified (John 10:18). And He gave up the Spirit through humility, that is, with head bowed; being about to receive it back through the resurrection, with head raised. That this death and bowing of the head were of great power, the patriarch Jacob foretold in the blessing of Judah, when he says, You went up, lying down, you slept like a lion (Gen. 49:9): signifying death by the going up, and power by the lion.

Chapter XIII. — 13. The legs broken for the thieves, not for Christ. Now as to the fact that the legs of those two were broken, but His were not, because He was dead: why this was done, the Gospel itself has declared. For it was fitting that by this sign also it should show that the Passover of the Jews had been commended in the prophecy foretold concerning Him, where this is commanded, that they should not break the bones of the sheep.

Chapter XIV. — 14. Blood and water from the wound in the side. That the side, pierced by the lance, poured out blood and water upon the earth: without doubt these are the sacraments by which the Church is formed, just as Eve was made from the side of the sleeping Adam, who was a type of the one to come.

Chapter XV. — 15. Joseph and Nicodemus burying. That Joseph and Nicodemus bury Him (John 19:31–42): as some have interpreted the names, Joseph is interpreted 'Increased'; as for Nicodemus, since the name is Greek, it is known to many that it is composed of 'victory' and 'people'; for nikos is victory, demos people. Who then is increased by dying, but He Who said, A grain of wheat, if it does not die, remains alone; but if it dies, it is multiplied (John 12:24–25)? And who also by dying conquered the persecuting people, but He Who by rising again will judge them?

Sermon 219. On the Vigil of Easter, 1.

The holy vigil. How it is to be celebrated. The blessed apostle Paul, exhorting us to imitation of himself,

among many other marks of his virtue, says also: In watchings often (2 Cor. 11:27). How much more eagerly, then, ought we to keep watch in this vigil, as the mother of all holy vigils, in which the whole world keeps watch? Not that world of which it is written: If anyone has loved the world, the charity of the Father is not in him: for all things that are in the world are the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the age, which is not from the Father (1 John 2:15–16). For such a world, that is, the sons of unbelief, the devil and his angels rule: against whom the same apostle says that we have a wrestling, where he says, Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against princes and powers, and the rulers of the world, of this darkness (Eph. 6:12). Which we too were once, but now light in the Lord. By the light of vigils, therefore, let us resist the rulers of darkness. It is not, then, that world which keeps watch at this solemnity: but that of which it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses (2 Cor. 5:19). And yet so bright is the celebration of this vigil throughout the whole circle of the earth that it compels even those to keep watch in the flesh who in heart are, I will not say asleep, but buried in hellish impiety. They too keep watch on this night, on which is also visibly fulfilled what was promised so long before: And the night shall be lit up as the day (Ps. 138:12). This takes place in the hearts of the godly, to whom it was said: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). This takes place also in the rivals of all, both in those who see in the Lord and in those who envy the Lord. On this night, therefore, both the hostile world and the reconciled world keep watch. The one keeps watch, set free, to praise the physician: the other keeps watch, condemned, to blaspheme the judge. The one keeps watch, glowing and shining with godly minds: the other keeps watch, gnashing with his teeth and pining away. In short, charity does not permit the one, iniquity the other; Christian vigour the one, diabolical envy the other, to sleep at all in this celebration. Hence by our very enemies, without their knowing it, we are admonished how we ought to keep watch for ourselves, if for our sake even those who envy us keep watch. For of those who are in no way sealed with the name of Christ, yet on this night many from grief, many from shame, and some also who are drawing near to the faith, now from the fear of God, do not sleep. By diverse causes this solemnity rouses them. How then ought the friend of Christ to keep watch rejoicing, when even the enemy keeps watch grieving? How should the Christian burn to keep watch in so great a glory of Christ, when the pagan blushes to sleep? How is it fitting for him who has entered this great house to keep watch at so great a festival of it, when he who plans to enter is already keeping watch? Let us keep watch, then, and pray; so that we may celebrate this vigil both outwardly and inwardly. Let God speak to us in His readings; let us speak to God in our prayers. If we hear His words obediently, He Whom we ask dwells in us.

Sermon 220. On the Vigil of Easter, II.

Who died for us. The solemnity of Easter.

We know, brothers, and hold with most firm faith, that Christ died once for us: the Just for sinners, the Lord for slaves, the Free for captives, the Physician for the sick, the Blessed for the wretched, the Rich for the needy, the Seeker for the lost, the Redeemer for the sold, the Shepherd for the flock, and, what is more wonderful than all, the Creator for the creature: yet keeping what He always is, handing over what He became; God hidden, man appearing; giving life by power, dying by weakness; unchangeable in divinity, passible in flesh; as the Apostle says, Who was handed over for our offences, and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). That this was done once, you know very well. And yet the solemnity, as though it happened more often, repeats with the turning of the seasons what the truth proclaims with so many voices of the Scriptures to have been done once. Yet truth and solemnity are not contrary, as though the latter lied and the former spoke true. For what truth shows to have been done once in actual events, solemnity renews to be celebrated more often in devout hearts. Truth discloses the things that were done just as they were done; solemnity, however, not by doing them but by celebrating them, does not allow past things to pass away. Finally, Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7). He was indeed slain once, Who now dies no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). Accordingly, according to the voice of truth, we say that the Pasch was done once and will not be hereafter; but according to the voice of solemnity, we say every year that the Pasch is coming. Thus, I think, should be understood what is written in the Psalm: The thought of man shall confess to Thee, and the remnants of thought shall celebrate a solemn day to Thee (Ps. 75:11). For unless thought committed to memory what is told of things done in time, it would find no remnants after that time. Therefore the thought of man, beholding the truth, confesses to the Lord; but the remnants of thought, which are in memory, do not cease to celebrate the solemnities at the appointed times, lest thought be judged ungrateful. To this belongs the so splendid solemnity of this night, in which by keeping vigil we as it were work out through the remnants of thought the resurrection of the Lord, which, done once, we more truly confess by thinking upon it. Those, therefore, whom the truth preached has made learned, far be it that a forsaken solemnity should make irreligious. This [solemnity] has made this night illustrious throughout the whole world. This displays the hosts of the Christian peoples, this confounds the darkness of the Jews, this overturns the idols of the pagans.

Sermon 221. On the Vigil of Easter, III.

That in Genesis days are reckoned from the light, but now from the night.

It must be said why, with such great celebration, it is above all on the present

night that we keep vigil. That the Lord Christ rose from the dead on the third day, no Christian doubts. But that this was done on this night, the holy Gospel bears witness. For it is not doubtful that the whole day is reckoned from the preceding night: not according to the order of days which is recorded in Genesis, although there too darkness went before. For darkness was upon the abyss when God said, Let there be light; and light was made. But because that darkness was not yet night, for day had not yet gone before, God indeed divided between the light and the darkness, and first called the light day, then the darkness night; and from the making of the light until the next morning one day is recorded (Gen. 1:3–5): it is manifest that those days began from light, and that, the light having passed, each was ended at morning. But after man, once created, turned aside from the light of justice into the darkness of sin, from which the grace of Christ frees him, it came about that we now reckon days from nights: because we strive to come not from light to darkness, but from darkness to light, and with the Lord's help we hope to do so. As the Apostle also says: The night has gone before, but the day has drawn near: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the arms of light (Rom. 13:12). The day of the Lord's passion, then, on which He was crucified, followed its own night already past; and therefore it was closed and ended at the Parasceve, which the Jews also call the Pure Supper, beginning the observance of the sabbath from the onset of its night. Then the day of the sabbath, beginning from its own night, was ended at the evening of the beginning night, which belongs to the beginning of the Lord's day: since the Lord consecrated it with the glory of His resurrection. Of that night, then, which belongs to the beginning of the Lord's day, we now celebrate the memory in this solemnity: we spend that night in vigil, in which the Lord rose again; and we meditate on that life of which we were speaking a little before, where there is neither any death nor sleep, which He began for us in His own flesh, which He so raised from the dead that He no longer dies, and death shall no more have dominion over Him. For when those by whom He was lovingly sought, coming to His tomb at dawn, did not find the body, and received the answer from the Angels that He had already risen, it is manifest that He rose on that night of which that dawn was the end. Then He to Whom, rising again, we sing in a somewhat longer vigil, will grant that we may reign with Him, living without end. And even if perhaps at these hours, in which we keep this vigil, His body was still in the tomb and had not yet risen, even so we are not unfitting in keeping vigil: because He slept that we might keep vigil, Who died that we might live.

Sermon 222. On the Vigil of Easter, 4

Vigil must be kept against the devil. The rulers of the world are the devil and his angels. In what heavenly places they dwell. The devil cast out from the hearts of the godly.

Since, most beloved, the very solemnity of this holy night exhorts you to keep vigil and to pray, yet an address from us is also solemnly owed to you, so that the shepherd's voice too may rouse the Lord's flock against the hostile and envious powers and the rulers of darkness, as against beasts of the night. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, as the Apostle says, that is, against human beings weak in a mortal body; but against the princes and powers, and the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). Yet do not on that account suppose that the devil and his angels, whom the Apostle signifies by these words, are rulers of this world of which it is written, And the world was made through Him (John 1:10). For when he had called them rulers of the world, lest anyone should understand the world which in very many places of the Scriptures is designated by the name of heaven and earth, he at once added, as if by way of explanation, of this darkness, that is, of the unbelieving. Wherefore he says to those who are now believers, You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). These spiritual [forces] of wickedness, then, are in the heavenly places; not where the stars shine in their appointed order and the holy angels dwell, but in the murky dwelling of this lowest air, where the cloud too gathers; and yet it is written, Who covers the heaven with clouds (Ps. 146:8). Where the birds too fly about; and yet they are called the winged creatures of heaven (Ps. 49:11). In these heavenly places, therefore, not in that higher tranquillity of the heavenly beings, dwell those most wicked spirits, against whom a spiritual wrestling is proclaimed for us: so that, the evil angels having been overcome, we may enjoy that reward by which we shall be made companions of the good angels in incorruptible eternity. Hence in another place the same apostle, when he would signify the dark dominion of the devil, says: According to the spirit of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, who now works in the children of unbelief (Eph. 2:2). What therefore the spirit of this world is, that the rulers of the world are. And just as there he explained what he meant by world, in the children of unbelief, so here also, when he added, of this darkness. And what he says there, the prince of the power of the air, [he says] in this place, in the heavenly places. Thanks therefore to the Lord our God, Who has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:12–13). Set apart, then, from that darkness by the light of the Gospel, and redeemed from those powers by precious blood, keep vigil and pray, that you may not enter into temptation (Matt. 26:41). For whoever of you have faith which works through love (Gal. 5:6), the prince of this world has been cast out of your hearts (John 12:31); but outside, like a roaring lion, he goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Do not therefore give place to the devil, who wishes to break in from whatever side; but let Him Who cast him out by suffering for you dwell within you against him. When he lorded it over you, you were once darkness; but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light. Against the darkness and its rulers keep vigil in mother light, and pray to the Father of lights from the bosom of mother light.