our adversary the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, seeking whom he
SERMON 223F
AT THE EASTER VIGIL
Date: 4001
The sermon, like the vigil itself, a reminder of what you already know
1. What we are celebrating in this vigil, dearest brothers and sisters, is the solemn anniversary of that night in which the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. I'm not now teaching you this, because you know it; I'm just reminding you, in case you forget it. The celebration itself, after all, coming round at its appointed time every year, doesn't have the effect of making us know something strange to us, but of preventing us from effacing by forgetfulness what is perfectly familiar to us; I mean, it renews our memory, it doesn't add to our knowledge. In a similar way my sermon, while not being addressed to ignorant listeners, still requires listeners who are attentive; because even though it doesn't have the effect of your hearing something you didn't know, I would still like it to have the effect of your recalling joyfully what you do know.
Two very different lions—Christ and the devil
2. So let us watch and pray, lest we should enter into temptation,2 because our adversary the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pt 5:8). But that lion of the tribe of Judah, about whom it was foretold so long ago, You have gone up; lying down you have slept like a lion; who will rouse him ? (Gn 49:9), went up on the cross, when he suffered, because he was hung up there out of his own free merciful will, not out of sinful necessity. Lying down he slept, when bowing his head, he gave up the spirit (Jn 19:30). Like a lion, though, because even in his very weakness he was strong; after all, what is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:27). Who was it roused him, but the invisible God? The reason it asks who, is that it was not apparent to human eyes, just as the only-begotten Word of God himself is also invisible with the Father.
So he roused him from the dead, and bestowed on him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend (Phil 2:9-10), and