I have received the letter of your Reverence in which you
Christ—W ord of God and Lord of Man 263
6. Letter 199
I have received the letter of your Reverence in which you urge on us the great good of loving and longing for the coming of our Saviour. In this you act like the good servant of the master of the household who is eager for his lord's gain and who wishes to have many sharers in the Jove which burns so brightly and constantly in you. Examining, therefore, the passage you quoted from the Apostle where he said that the Lord would render a crown of justice not only to him but to all who love His coming, we live as uprightly as he and we pass through this world as pilgrims while our heart constantly expands with this love, and whether He comes sooner or later than He is expected, his coming is loved with faithful charity and longed for with pious affection. Doubtless, that servant who says: "My lord is long a-coming," and who strikes his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, does not love His coming; his mind is shown by his behavior, The good master was careful, however briefly, to explain this conduct, that is, pride and riotous living, lest his saying "My lord is long a-coming" be attributed to a longing for his Master in the same way as the Psalmist longed for Him when he said: "My soul hath thirsted after the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?" For by saying "When shall I come?" he showed his impatience at the delay, because, even though it be quickened in time, it seems slow to his longing. But, how is His coming slow or how is it far in the future when the very apostles, while they were still in the flesh, said: "It is the last hour," although they heard the Lord say: "It is not for you to know the times"? Therefore, they did not know this any more than we know it—I am speaking for myself and for those who share this lack of knowledge with me—yet, those to whom He said: "It is not for you to know the times which the Father hath put in his own power," loved His coming and gave their fellow servants meat in due season; did not strike them by lording it over them, nor revel with the lovers of the world, saying: "My Jord is long a-coming."
Therefore, not to know the times is something different from decay of morals and love of vice. For, when the Apostle Paul said: "Be not easily moved from your mind nor be frighted, neither by word nor by epistle as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand," ®" he obviously did not want them to believe those who thought the coming of the Lord was already at hand, but neither did he want them to be like the wicked servant and say: "My lord is long a-coming," and deliver themselves over to destruction by pride and riotous behavior. Thus, his desire that they should not listen to false rumors about the imminent approach of the last day was consistent with his wish that they should await the coming of their Lord fully prepared, with their loins girt and lamps burning. He said to them: "But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief, for all you are the children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness." ®3 On the other hand, the one who says: "My lord is long a-coming," and then strikes his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, is not of light but of darkness, and therefore that day will overtake him as a thief, because everyone ought to fear the last day of his life here. In whatever state his own last day finds each one, in that state the last day of the world will overtake him; such as he is on the day of his death, such each one will be judged on that last day.
What is written in the Gospel of St. Mark has a bearing on this: "Watch, for you know not when the lord of the house cometh, at even or at midnight or at the cock crowing or in the morning, lest coming on a sudden he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch." Who are the "all" to whom He says this if not His elect
521 Thess. 2:2. 63 I Thess. 5:4, &.
Christ—W ord of God and Lord of Man
and His beloved, the members of His body which is the Church? Therefore, He said if not only to those who then heard Him speaking, but also to those who came after them and before us, as well as to us and to those who will come after us until His final coming. Is that day going to find all in this life or is anyone likely to say that these words are also addressed to the dead, when He says: "Watch, lest coming on a sudden he find you sleeping"? Why, then, does He say to all what concerns only those who will then be living, unless it concerns all in the way I have explained it? For that day will come to every single one, when the day comes for him to go out of life, such as he is, to be judged on the last day. For this reason, every Christian ought to watch lest the coming of the Lord find him unprepared. But that day will find unprepared anyone whom the last day will find unprepared. This at least was certainly clear to the Apostles, that the Lord was not likely to come in their times, while they were still living here in the flesh, yet who would doubt that they watched most carefully and observed what He said to all, lest coming on a sudden He find them unprepared? CuapTers 1-3
VII THE CHURCH AND
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