Vigils Reading – 1st Sunday Advent

THE COMING OF

YOUR ETERNAL JUDGE

From a commentary by St Gregory the Great1

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The Lord says: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not

pass away. He means: Nothing that is lasting in your world lasts for eternity

without change; and everything that in Him is perceived as passing away is kept

firm, without passing away. His utterance, which passes away, expresses

thoughts that endure without change.

Therefore, my friends, do not love what you see cannot long exist. Keep in

mind the apostle’s precept, in which he counsels us not to love the world or the

things in the world, because if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is

not in him. The day before yesterday…you heard that an old orchard was

uprooted by a sudden hurricane, that homes were destroyed and churches

knocked from their foundations. How many persons who were safe and

unharmed in the evening, thinking of what they would do the next day, suddenly

died that night, caught in a trap of destruction?

We must reflect that to bring these things about our unseen Judge caused

the movement of a very slight breeze; he called a storm out of a single cloud and

overthrew the earth; he struck the foundations of many buildings, causing them

to fall. What will the Judge do when he comes in person, when his anger is

burning to punish sinners, if we cannot bear him when he strikes us with an

insignificant cloud? What flesh will withstand the presence of his anger, if he

moved the wind and overthrew the earth, stirred up the air and destroyed so

many buildings? Paul referred to this severity of the Judge who is to come and

said: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Dearly beloved, keep that day before your eyes, and whatever you now

believe to be burdensome will be light in comparison with it. The Lord says of

this day through the prophet: Yet once more and I will shake not only the earth

but also the heavens.

You see how he moved the air, as I said, and the earth did not withstand it.

Who then will bear it when he moves the sky? What shall we call these terrors we

see but heralds of the wrath to come? We must reflect that these troubles are as

much unlike the final one as the herald’s role is unlike the judge’s power. Give

hard thought to that day, dearly beloved; amend your lives, change your habits,

resist and overcome your evil temptations. The more you now anticipate his

severity by fear, the more securely will you behold the coming of your eternal

Judge.