of any such custom in Augustine's time as watching at the altar of repose during the night of Maundy
SERMON 223C 223 has woken up, and become like a sparrow alone above the roof (Ps 102:7), that is, above the sky, where he intercedes for us (Rom 8:34), where he dies no more, nor does death lord it over him any further (Rom 6:9); because he that guards us will neither sleep nor slumber (Ps 121:4). Look, there they are; they thought they had done him harm, and they have been uprooted from the very kingdom1 2 3 4 5 6 7 where they did not wish him to reign over them,8 and have vanished from it; so that what he said in the same psalm, as he was about to fall asleep, Raise me up, and I will pay them back (Ps 41:10), would even be visibly fulfilled.
Let us therefore humble our souls as we celebrate the vigil, so that with watchful hearts we may hope for and await the coming of him, whose voice will arouse all that are sleeping even from their graves; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, to the resurrection of the judgment (Jn 5:29). He, after all, is the one about whose sleep, as he was lifted up on the cross, Jacob had so long before foretold, You have gone up lying down, you have slept like a lion (Gn 49:9). He, the lion, has conquered, from the tribe of Judah (Rv 5:5); because Jacob too said that when he was blessing Judah. So since the lion slept, he was reckoned among the dead;9 but because the lion has conquered, he will come to judge the living and the dead.
NOTES
1. See Sermon 223B, note 1. 2. See Ps 69:4.
3. See Col 2:14. 4. Extremely unlikely; it was a different night. There is no evidence, however (as far as I know), of any such custom in Augustine's time as watching at the altar of repose during the night of Maundy Thursday. So as the Easter vigil stood alone, the transfer of the Gethsemane vigil of Jesus to this night was natural enough for a preacher.
5. See Jn 10:18. 6. As usual, Augustine is harsher on the Jews even than John, who represents them only as charging Jesus before Pilate because it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death (Jn 18:31). In this sermon, he is indeed more than usually vindictive against the Jews.
7. Reading ex regno ipso instead of the text's etiam regnum ipsum. This accusative does not fit grammatically into the sentence. I am supposing that the stenographer heard my proposed reading as the text's reading. With the nasalization of the Latin final m, the two would sound practically the same.
8. See Lk 19:14. 9. See Ps 88:5.