Advents Foretold

Facto vespere, dicitis: Serenum erit, rubicundum est enim coelum; et mane: Hodie tempestas erit, rutilat enim triste coelum. Faciem ergo coeli dijudicare nostis, signa autem temporum non potestis scire?   Hoc apud plerosque codices non habetur. Sed sensus manifestus est, etiam apud gentiles; unde Virgilius canit: Sol quoque exoriens, et cum se condet in undas, Signa dabit, solem certissima signa sequentur. Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris. Denqiue quid vesper serus vehat, unde serenas Ventus agat nubes, quid cogitet humidus Auster Sol tibi signa dabit. Solem quis dicere falsum Audeat. Constat igitur verum, quod ex elementorum ordine atque ex consonantia rerum, possint et sereni dies et pluviales quam saepe praenosci. Et ideo increpantur Pharisaei et Scribae, qui videbantur legis esse doctores, quod ex certiore prophetico vaticinio non poterant intelligere Salvatoris adbentum, de quo dictum erat: Descendet sicut pluvia in vellus, et sicut stillicidia stillantia super terram, orietur in diebus ejus justitia et abundantia pacis. Quae nimirum aperta et manifesta signa fuerunt, quibus deprehendi posset tempus adventus ejus. Idcirco increpantur, quod tempora ex aris qualitate nossent dijudicare, et deprehendere sibi utilia, utilia vero salutis suae non intenderent nec intelligerent, signa adventus Dei e coelo in carne. Ex quibus profecto verbis, mirabilis Dei responsio commendatur, in omnibus; quia illa humilitatem in Christo carnis et corporis contuentes, doctrinam ex his quae sub habitu hominis gerebat dedignabantur accipere, quorum insolentiam et inanitatem jactantiae irridens, multa eos de natura coeli conjicere solere respondit, cum aut ex ortu aurorae, aut ex vespere, serenum nimbosumque aerem praenuntient. Quibus ita praescitis et praecognitis valde stultissimum docet eos ignorate adventus sui signa, cum omnis lex et prophetae hunc annuntiaverunt esse venturum, et quando venturus esse, vel quomodo, praedixerunt; necnon et operum quae gerebat, indicia cum omni admiratione, jam eum perhibebant venisse. Ita ut quamadmodum fidem tempestatis coeli rubor matutini temporis vel vespertini reddit: ita manifestam temporum cognitionem, virtutum atque operum, indicium sui adventus praestare deberent, si caeci non essent. Et mira comparatio. Quia facto vespere sanguine passionis Christi in primo adventu, peccatorum indulgentia datur; et mane hodie tempestas valida secundi adventus. Rutilat enim triste coelum. Nam primus adventus ejus enim vesperi comparatur, quia in fine saeculi fuit. Unde licet rubeat ut rosa Christi sanguine purpuratus, tamen serenus valde fuit. Porro in secundo cum venerit quasi mane erit, sed tunc licet coelum rubeat aut rutilet, non serenum sed tempestas erit, profecto qui rubor ille non de sanguine, sed ex igne erit. Quoniam sicut in psalmo canitur: Ignis ante ipsum praecedet et in circuitu ejus tempestas valida; quod Graece hoc loco significantius dicitur πυῥῥάζει, quod nos ignitum possimus appellare; quia omnis illa tunc rutilatio de igne erit. Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber VII, Cap XVI Source: Migne PL 120.551b-552b

'With the coming of evening, you say: 'It shall be fair, for the sky is red,' and in the morning: 'Today there shall be a storm, for the sky is red.' Thus you are able to know the face of heaven, yet you are unable to know the signs of the times?' 1   This is not found in many copies. But the sense is obvious,  even among the Gentiles, whence Virgil sings: The sun too, rising, and when he sets beneath the waves, Shall give signs; most certain signs which follow the sun, Which with dawn he brings, and at star-rise. When in late evening it happens a wind brings Serene clouds, the sun shall give you signs what the humid south is thinking. And who says sun is false Let him dare. 2 It is established, then, that from the order of the elements and the harmony of things, they are able to foretell clear days and stormy days. And therefore the Pharisees and the Scribes are reproved, who seem to be learned in the law, because by certain prophecies of the Prophets they were not able to understand the coming of the Saviour, concerning which it was said, 'He shall come down like rain falling on the meadow, and like showers dripping onto the earth, and there shall rise up in those days His righteousness and an abundance of peace.' 3 Certainly the signs were overt and manifest by which they were able to grasp the time of His coming. Therefore they are reproved, because they were capable of knowing how to judge the days from the state of the sky, and to grasp the usefulness of it, however the usefulness of salvation they neither sought nor understood, the signs of the coming of God from heaven in the flesh. By which undoubtedly the wonderous response of God is to be commended, in all things, because they observing the humility of the flesh and body of Christ and refusing to receive the teaching which He brought beneath the habit of a man, He, mocking the vanity of their insolence and inanity, responded to them concerning the many things of the nature of heaven which they were accustomed to conjecture, either from the rising of the dawn, or at evening, foretelling clear skies and clouds. Which foreknowledge and precognition He taught them was extremely foolish when they were ignorant of the signs of His coming, when all the Law and the Prophets announced it, foretelling when He was to come, or how, and though the works were not yet done, with every admiration for the signs, already they held Him to have come. Thus He replied that as with their trust in the storms and the redness of the morning sky, or the evening sky, so is manifest the knowledge of the times, and of works of power, which should have stood out to them as signs of His coming, if they were not blind. And it is truly a wonderous comparison. Because the evening's redness is the blood of the passion of Christ in His first coming, giving forgiveness to sinners, and the morning redness is the great storm of the second coming. Indeed worryingly red is that sky. For His first coming is compared to the evening because it was in the bounds of this world, whence it reddens as the roseate blood of Christ empurpled, yet it was extremely calm. However, as for the second coming, when He comes it shall be like the morning when the sky is red and glowing, and it shall not be calm but a storm, and certainly that redness shall not be from blood but from fire. Because as it says in the Psalm, 'Fire goes before Him and around Him a great storm,' 4 in which place the Greek has 'pyrrazei' which we are able to express as 'set aflame' because all then shall be glowing red with fire. Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 7, Chap 16 1  Mt 16.2 2 Virgil Georgics 1.438-440,461-464 3 Ps 71.6 4 Ps 96.3, Ps 49.4