Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Advent

Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:39–45)

Not yet born, already John prophesies and, while still in the enclosure of his mother’s womb, confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy since he could not do so with his voice. For Elizabeth says to holy Mary: As soon as you greeted me, the child in my womb exulted for joy. John exults, then, before he is born, and before his eyes can see what the world looks like he can recognize the Lord of the world with his spirit. In this regard I think that the prophetic phrase is apropos which says: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you. Thus we ought not to marvel that, after he was put in prison by Herod, from his confinement he continued to announce Christ to his disciples, when even confined in the womb he preached the same Lord by his movements.

Maximus of Turin, Sermon 5.4

Believe what says the angel who was sent
From the Father's throne, or if your stolid ear
Catch not the voice from heaven, be wise and hear
The cry of aged woman, now with child.
O wondrous faith! The babe in senile womb
Greets through his mother's lips the Virgin's Son,
Our Lord; the child unborn makes known the cry
Of the Child bestowed on us, for speechless yet,
He caused that mouth to herald Christ as God.

Prudentius, The Divinity of Christ 585–93.

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Advent

Rejoice, O daughter of Zion!
        Make a proclamation, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Rejoice and enjoy yourself from your whole heart,
    O daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away your injustices;
        he has ransomed you from the hand of your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst,
        you shall not see evil any longer.
In that time the Lord will say to Jerusalem,
“Take courage, Zion!
        Do not let your hands get weak.
The Lord your God is among you;
        the Mighty One will save you.
And he will bring upon you the festivity
        and renew you in his affection,
and he will rejoice because of you in delight
        as in a day of festival.
And I will gather together those who are crushed.
        Alas, who took up a reproach against her?
Behold, I will act among you for your sake
        in that time,” says the Lord.
“And I will save the oppressed one
        and the rejected one.
I will gather them for glory,
        and they will be renowned in all the earth.
And they will be ashamed in that time,
        when I do well for you,
and in the time when I will gather you,
        because I will give you renowned ones,
and for glory among all the peoples of the earth,
        when I return your captives before you,” says the Lord.

(Zephaniah 3:14–20 LXX)

As far as the factual account goes, he clearly promises them peace after the return from Babylon, when their former faults are forgotten and God promises to accompany and protect them. On the other hand, as far as the deeper meaning goes, he necessarily ordered them to rejoice exceedingly, and as well to be glad with their whole heart at the removal of their sins—through Christ, obviously. That is to say, the spiritual and holy Zion, that is, the Church or vast company of the believers, has been justified by Christ and by Him alone; we have been saved through Him and by Him, escaping harm from the unseen foe, with Him as our mediator appearing in a form like ours as God and King of all, the Word of God the Father. Because of Him, we shall witness troubles no longer, that is, we shall be liberated from everyone able to do harm; after all, He is the instrument of benevolence, He is peace, the wall, the provider of immortality, the dispenser of crowns, who repels war waged by the spiritual Assyrians and annuls the schemes of the demons.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Zephaniah 3.14

I am aware that some commentators understood this of the return from Babylon and the renovation of Jerusalem, and I do not contradict their words: the prophecy applies also to what happened at that time. But you can find a more exact outcome after the Incarnation of our Savior: then it was that He healed the oppressed in heart in the washing of regeneration, then it was that He renewed human nature, loving us so much as to give His life for us. After all, “greater love than this no one can show than for one to lay down one's life for one's friend,” and again, “God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son so that everyone believing in Him might not be lost but have eternal life.” … The salvation of human beings rests with divine lovingkindness alone: we do not earn it as the wages of righteousness; rather, it is a gift of divine goodness. Hence the Lord says, “on your behalf I shall save and welcome” and make My own what has become another's, render it conspicuous, make it more famous than all others, free it from its former shame, and from being captives and slaves I shall make them free people and My own. Now, as I have said, this He both made a gift of to those returning from Babylon at that time and also granted to all people later: we who were once in thrall to the devil, but are now freed from that harsh captivity and unmindful of the error of polytheism, have become God's own, being famous beyond pagans and barbarians, according to the prophecy, and we who were once far off have become near, according to the divine apostle.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Zephaniah 3.16–20

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Advent

St John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert, Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will observe the way before my face. And immediately, the Lord, whom you seek, will come into his own temple. And the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes,” says the Lord Almighty. “But who will endure the day of his entrance, or who will stand in his appearance? Because he enters as a fire of a furnace and as a kind of cleansing. He will sit, smeltering and cleansing, as if it were silver and as if it were gold; and he will purify the children of Levi and pour them out just like gold and like silver, and they will become those who bring to the Lord a sacrifice in righteousness. And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, just as in the days of old and just as the previous years. And I will approach you with justice, and I will become a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulteresses and against the ones who swear oaths in my name, against liars and against the ones who withhold wages of workers and the ones who oppress the widow and the ones who maltreat orphans and the ones who pervert justice of the resident alien and the ones who do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty. “Because I am the Lord, your God, and I do not change. (Malachi 3:1–6 LXX)

And so, that we might not inquire of what God the Word became flesh, He Himself teaches further, There was a man, one sent from God, whose name was John. He for testimony, to bear witness to the light … he was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. By what God, then, was John sent—the forerunner who bore witness concerning the light? It was indeed by that God of whom Gabriel is the messenger, who also announced the good news of His birth. By the God who also promised through His prophets that He would send His messenger before the face of His Son, and He would prepare His way, that is, bear witness concerning the light in the spirit and power of Elias. And Elias, in turn, of what God was he servant and prophet? Of Him who made heaven and earth, as he himself acknowledges. Therefore, if John was sent by the Creator and Maker of this world, how could he bear witness concerning that light which descended from the beings that are unnameable and invisible? For all the heretics have given out as certain that Demiurge is ignorant of the power that is above him, of which John is recognized to be the witness and the revealer. On this account the Lord said He considered him more than a prophet. For all the other prophets announced the coming of the Father’s light; moreover, they desired to be worthy of seeing Him whom they prophesied. But John both foretold Him, just as the others had, and saw and pointed Him out when He came, and persuaded many to believe in Him, so that he held the office of both prophet and apostle. In this he is more than a prophet, because first are apostles, then prophets. But all things come from one and the same God.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies, 3.11.4

Of these two comings the Prophet Malachi says: “And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek”; that is one coming. Of the second coming he says: “And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying.” In what immediately follows the Savior Himself says: “I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers.” It was with this in view that Paul says in due warning: “But if anyone builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—the work of each will be made manifest, for the day of the Lord will declare it, since the day is to be revealed in fire.” Paul indicates these two comings also in writing to Titus in these words: “The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, in order that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Do you see how he speaks of a first coming, for which he gives thanks, and of a second we are to look for? We find the same lesson in the wording of the Creed we profess, as delivered to us, that is, to believe in Him who “ascended into heaven and sat down on the right of the Father, and is to come in glory to judge living and dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end.”

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 15.2