with its annual recurrence renews and refurbishes the memory of the Lord's
SERMON 223E
AT THE EASTER VIGIL
Date: uncertain
Watch and pray lest we enter into temptation
1. All the splendor and solemnity of this vigil, brothers and sisters, which with its annual recurrence renews and refurbishes the memory of the Lord's resurrection, is a reminder to us to recall and act upon what he said himself to the disciples as his passion loomed up ahead of him: Watch and pray, lest you should enter into temptation (Mk 14:38). Let us watch, therefore, and pray lest we should enter into temptation, not on this night only, but for the whole time of this life, which is a temptation and a trial on earth. That, you see, is what's written: Is not human life on earth a temptation? (Jb 7:1). So if entering into temptation simply means being led or carried into temptation, that is, being deceived and caught, or in any way, to put the whole thing in a nutshell, being overcome by temptation, what else is to be done during the whole night of this life, in which we, through the light of faith, ought to be day, but what the Lord urged upon his disciples: Watch and pray, lest you should enter into temptation?
The mind keeps watch lest faith should go to sleep, hope wither away, and charity grow cold.2 But with faith awake, hope in full bloom, charity glowing hot, let us pray assiduously throughout the whole time we spend in the night of this age, and say, Lead us not into temptation (Mt 6:13). That's how, with his help, we do what the Lord says, Watch and pray, lest you should enter into temptation.
If, however, we really shouldn't be afraid of entering into temptation, when we can also come out of it, according to what the apostle James says: Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations (Jas 1:2),3 it remains for us to put our hope in what the apostle Paul said: God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above what you can cope with; but he will also with the temptation make a way out, so that you can endure (1 Cor 10:13). We can take it, without absurdity, that the holy canticle reminds us of this way out, where we read, May the Lord guard your going in and your coming out (Ps
121:8). That is, may he allow us not only, like well-made earthenware jars, to enter the furnace, but also to come out of it whole and entire, just as it is written: