November 27

hrist's final coming will be like his first. As prophets and people of upright life expected him and thought that he might reveal himself in their own day, so also today, because he did not disclose the day of his coming, all believers desire to welcome him in their own lifetime.

But his chief reason for secrecy was so that no one would think that he who ordains times and seasons was himself subject to a decree or a time. He himself determined the time of his coming and told us what its signs would be. How then could it have been concealed from him? He drew attention to those signs so that from that day on all generations and ages would expect him to come in their own time.

Be on the watch. When the body sleeps our nature takes control of us and our actions are performed not by our own will but through the compulsion of natural impulse. And when the soul is overpowered by the heavy sleep of faintheartedness and dejection, the enemy takes control and performs through it actions which are against its will. Nature is governed by instinct; the soul by the enemy.

The vigilance enjoined by the Lord, therefore, is prescribed for both parts of the human person: the body should stint itself of sleep; the soul should guard itself against lethargy and timidity.

From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.

HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman