Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday of Advent

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:25–36)

“Watch” over your life. Do not let “your lamps” go out, and do not keep “your loins ungirded,” but “be ready,” for “you do not know the hour when our Lord is coming.” Meet together frequently in your search for what is good for your souls, since “a lifetime of faith will be of no advantage” to you unless you prove perfect at the very end. In the final days, multitudes of false prophets and seducers will appear. Sheep will turn into wolves, and love into hatred. With the increase of iniquity, people will hate, persecute and betray each other. Then the world deceiver will appear in the disguise of God's Son. He will work “signs and wonders,” and the earth will fall into his hands. He will commit outrages such as have never occurred before. Then humankind will come to the fiery trial, “and many will fall away” and perish. “Those who persevere in their faith will be saved” by the Curse himself. Then “there will appear the signs” of the Truth: first the sign of stretched-out hands in heaven, then the sign of “a trumpet's blast,” and third, the resurrection of the dead, but not all the dead. As it has been said, “The Lord will come and all his saints with him. Then the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of the sky.”

Didache 16.1–7

“Then, He says, they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Christ therefore will come not secretly nor obscurely, but as God and Lord, in glory such as becomes Deity; and will transform all things for the better. For He will renew creation, and refashion the nature of man to that which it was at the beginning. “For when these things, He says, come to pass, lift up your heads, and look upwards: for your redemption is near.” For the dead shall rise, and this earthly and infirm body shall put off corruption, and shall clothe itself with incorruption by Christ’s gift, Who grants unto those that believe in Him to be conformed unto the likeness of His glorious body. As therefore His disciple says, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens indeed shall suddenly pass away, and the elements being on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up.” And further, he adds thereunto, “Since therefore all these things are being dissolved, what sort of persons ought we to be, that we may be found holy, and without blame, and unreproved before Him?” And Christ also Himself says, “Be therefore always watching, praying that you may be able to escape from all those things that are about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.” “For we shall all stand before His judgment seat,” to give an account of those things that we have done. But in that He is good and loving to mankind, Christ will show mercy on those that love Him; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Homily 139

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Year

The Lord reigns; He clothed Himself with majesty;
The Lord clothed and girded Himself with power;
And He established the world, which shall not be moved.
Your throne is prepared from of old;
You are from everlasting.
The rivers, O Lord, lift up;
The rivers lift up their voices;
Because of the voices of their many waters,
Marvelous are the billows of the sea;
Wondrous is the Lord on high.
Your testimonies are very much believed;
Holiness is proper to Your house, O Lord,
Unto length of days. (Ps 93:1–5)

It was not just now, he is saying, that You received election as king: You possess eternal sway and everlasting kingship. About His kingship he says also in the forty-fourth psalm, “Your throne, O God, is for ages of ages.” And His unchangeableness and immutability he likewise taught us in the hundred and first psalm, “You are the same,” he says, “and Your years will not come to an end”: even though You became man, You did not lack divinity, nor were You separated from the Father or the all-holy Spirit, there being one substance of the undefiled Trinity, one kingship, one lordship.

You prophesied all this from of old, and announced it in advance through Your holy prophets, and it has been shown to be true by the testimony of the events. The addition of exceedingly was also good, meaning, a chance falsehood cannot be discerned in the prophecies, whereas everything now seen was prophesied precisely. Holiness befits Your house, O Lord, for length of days: the greatest and finest of all the good things is the fact that the enjoyment of the gifts is not transitory or limited to certain times in the style of the worship of Jews; rather, it is permanent, stable, and everlasting, this being suited and appropriate to Your new house. The divinely inspired Paul gave the name “house of God” to the assembly of the believers, to whom the inspired author said holiness is fitting. Accordingly, it behooves us, in keeping with the apostolic exhortation, to “purify ourselves of every defilement of body and spirit, and bring sanctification to completion in fear of God,” so that by preparing the house of God we may welcome the eternal guest.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 93.3, 6

The prophet spoke of the Lord’s coming, an event which he most truly foresaw. Now he expounds the nature of the praise, for the testimonies of the prophet were become exceedingly credible, when the saving incarnation of the Word which had been foretold to the world made its appearance. At His glorious coming was revealed all that was kept hidden in the sacred books. Which of the wise could have doubts about the promise of the gifts when the very Fullness which was promised arrived?…

The house of the Lord, then, is the universal Church, which we know is established round the circumference of the world. Holiness, in other words “the abundant blessing of Your coming,” becomes it. This is the beauty which can transcend all adornments, for it beautifies without ever forsaking it, and unifies so that it is wholly unfragmented. But this holiness, a beauty most outstanding, is not imparted for a moment, but is granted eternally; for length of days denotes an eternity which cannot be ended.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 92.5–6

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Heb 10:11–25)

If any of our own people inquire, not from love of debate but from love of learning, why He suffered death in no other way save on the cross, let them also be told that no other way than this was good for us, and that it was well that the Lord suffered this for our sakes. For if He came Himself to bear the curse laid upon us, how else could he have “become a curse” unless He received the death set for a curse? And that is the cross. For this is exactly what is written: “Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree.” Again, if the Lord's death is the ransom of all, and by His death “the dividing wall of hostility” is broken down, and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would He have called us to Him had He not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Thus it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people and with the other those from the Gentiles and unite both in Himself. For this is what He Himself has said, signifying by what manner of death He was ransom to all: “I, when I am lifted up,” He says, “will draw all men to myself.” For the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere and there, bearing rule over his fellow spirits, as the devil's peers in disobedience, not only works illusions by their means in them that are deceived but tries to hinder them that are going up. About this the apostle says, “Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,” while the Lord came to cast down the devil and clear the air and prepare the way for us up into heaven, as said the apostle, “Through the curtain, that is to say, His flesh”—and this must be by death. Well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass than by one which took place in the air, I mean, the cross? For only He that is perfected on the cross dies in the air. Therefore, it was quite fitting that the Lord suffered this death. For thus being lifted up, He cleared the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” and made a new opening of the way up into heaven, as He says once more, “Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors!” For it was not the Word Himself that needed an opening of the gates, being Lord of all; nor were any of His works closed to their maker; but it was we who needed it, whom He carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of all, so by it He once more made ready the way up into the heavens.

Athanasius, On the Incarnation 25

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to All Saints' Sunday

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev 7:9–17)

Those who are shepherded by Christ then, it says, will not be afraid of attacks by wolves, inasmuch as they [the wolves] will be sent to the “unquenched fire,” but instead they [who have washed their robes] will be spiritually shepherded towards the clean and clear fountains of the divine thoughts, being meant by the waters, characterizing the already abundant flow of the Spirit, as the Lord has said about “him who sincerely believes” in Him that “out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” The saints, those watered by it abundantly, will live endlessly in great joy and gladness, the “partial knowledge” being abolished, and they will possess perfect and escape the change of corruption.

Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.20

He says, And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Yet it should follow that robes dipped in blood would turn out to be scarlet rather than white. So how did they become white? Because baptism enacted into the death of the Lord, as Paul in his great wisdom said, purges all filth resulting from sin and renders those who are baptized in it white and pure. But participation in the life-giving blood of Christ also bestows this favor. For the Lord says concerning His own blood that it is being poured out “for many” and “on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins.” Thus these serve God forever, and God dwells among them. Indeed, the dwelling-place of God, said one of God’s saints, is where the souls of His saints continually remember Him; therefore God naturally dwells with those who serve him day and night.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5.7–8