Translation of the Gospel According to St. Luke (21:25-33)
At that time Jesus said to His disciples: There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves: men withering away for fear and expectations of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And He spoke to them a similitude: See the fig tree and all the trees: when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.
A Message from St. Augustine’s Letter 199: To Bishop Hesychius
Certainly the servant who says, My master is slow in coming (Matt 24:48-49; Luke 12:45), strikes his fellow servants, eats and drinks with drunkards, does not at all long for his manifestation. For his frame of mind is apparent from his conduct. And so the good master took care to describe his conduct, though briefly, that is, his pride and dissoluteness, in such a way that his words, My master is slow in coming, would not be thought to be said out of a desire for his lord, the desire with which the psalmist was ablaze who said, My soul is thirsting for the living God. When shall 1 come and appear before the face of God? (Ps 42:3) For, by asking, When shall I come? he shows that he bears up under the delays with difficulty, because even what is speeded up in time seems slow for his desire. But how is his coming slow or how will it be far in the future if even the apostles at the time when they were still in the flesh said, It is the last hour (1 John 2: 18), though they heard from the Lord, It is not yours to know the times? They, then, did not know what we do not know either—I speak for myself and for those who with me do not know. And yet those to whom he said, It is not yours to know the times that the Father has established by his own authority (Acts 1:7), longed for his revelation and gave their fellow servants food at the proper time, and they did not strike them by lording it over them, nor did they behave dissolutely with the lovers of this world, saying, My master is slow in coming.
Not knowing the times is one thing; quite another is the deterioration of morals and the love of sins. For, when the apostle Paul said, Do not readily change your mind, and do not be frightened whether by word or by a letter supposedly sent by us, as if the day of the Lord were upon us (2 Thes 2:2), he certainly did not want them to believe those who thought that the coming of the Lord was already approaching, and yet he did not want them to say like that servant, My master is slow in coming, and to give themselves to pride and dissoluteness for their destruction. Rather, he did not want them to listen to false rumors about the last day’s approach, and yet he wanted them to await the coming of the Lord with loins girded and lamps lit. For he said to them, But, brothers, you are not in the darkness so that that day may catch you like a thief. For you are all children of the light and children of the day; we are not children of the night and of darkness. ( 1 Thes 5 :4-5) But that fellow who says, My master is slow in coming, so that he strikes his fellow servants and feasts with drunk ards, is not a child of the light but of the darkness. And for this reason that day will catch him like a thief because each of us ought to fear for the last day of our lives. For, as the last day of each of us catches us, so the last day of the world will catch each of us. For, as each of us is at death on our last day, so each of us will be when we are judged on the last day of the world.
The words in the Gospel according to Mark are pertinent here, Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house may come, late, in the middle of the night, at the cock ‘s crow, or in the morning, so that, when he comes suddenly, he does notfind you sleeping. But I say to all what I say to you: Watch! (Mark 13:35-37) Who are the all to whom he says Watch! but his chosen and beloved ones who belong to his body, which is the Church? Hence he did not say this only to those who heard him when he was speaking but also to those who came after them before us and to us and to those who will come after us up to his last coming. But is that day going to find all in this life, or is anyone going to say that the words, Watch so that, when he comes suddenly, he does not find you sleeping, also apply to the dead? Why, then, does he say to all what pertains only to those who existed then except because it pertains to all in the way I said? For that day will come for each of us when the day comes for us to leave this life as we will be when we are judged on the last day. And for this reason every Christian ought to watch so that the coming of the Lord does not find him unprepared. But that day will find him unprepared whom the last day of this life of his finds unprepared. Certainly it was clear at least to the apostles that the Lord was not going to come in their time, when they were still living in the flesh. Yet who would doubt that they were most watchful and observed what he said to all so that he would not come suddenly and find them unprepared?