Expectation And The Cry

Nos itaque, juxta consilium Apostoli, sobrie, et juste, et pie vivamus in hoc saeculo, exspectantes beatem spem, et adventum gloriae magni Dei. Est pietas hominis ad Dominum, justitia ad proximum, sobrietas ad seipsum. Perniciosus est nobis Adventus Domini, nisi ipsum cum pietate et sobrietate et justitia exspecemus. Tres sunt adventus Domini: primus in carnem, secundus ad animam, tertius ad judicium. Primus in media nocte fuit, secundus in mane, tertius in meridie. Ut de primo adventu verba veritatis evangelicae prosequamur: Media nocte clamor factus est: Ecce sponsus venit. Mediam noctem fuisse intelligo, cum in medio silentio cursum suum nox ageret. Nox apud Judaeos erat, quorum oculos obscuraverat malitia, ne viderent. Sicut et populus gentium, ambulabat in tenebris. Venit Sponsus, et factus est clamor. Ruptum est silentium noctis. Venit enim qui illuminat abscondita tenebrarum; abstulit noctem, et fecit diem. Nox, inquit Apostolus, praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit. Et quid est quod media nocte clamor factus est, nisi quod in medio silentio omnium, dum cursum suum nox ageret, atque omnipotens sermo a regalibus sedibus descendere destinasset, prophetae cognoscentes adventum Christi, in vocem clamoris et gaudii proruperunt, et medium silentium ruperunt? Petrus Blenensis, Sermo III, De Adventu Domini Source: Migne PL 207.569b-d

Thus we, according to the counsel of the Apostle, should live soberly and righteously and piously in this world, looking toward the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God. 1 Piety is for the Lord, righteousness for one's neighbour, sobriety for oneself. For us the Lord's advent is wicked unless we expect it in piety and sobriety and righteousness. There are three advents of the Lord, first in the flesh, second for the soul, third for judgement. The first was in the middle of the night, the second in the morning, the third at midday. Concerning the first advent let us attend to the words of the true Gospel: 'In the middle of the night there was a cry, Behold the groom comes.' 2 I understand the middle of the night to be when in the midst of silence night had made its way. The night was with the Jews, whose eyes it obscured with wickedness, and likewise with the people of the Gentiles, who walked in darkness. 'The groom comes, and there was a great cry.' 2 The silence of the night is broken. For He came who illuminates the gloom of the darkness. He came who took away the night and made the day. 'Night is passing and the day is near,' the Apostle says. 3 And what is the cry in the middle of the night, unless what happened in the midst of the silence of all things, while the night made its way and the all powerful Word was destined to descend from the royal seats, and those prophets who knew the advent of Christ with a voice of clamour and joy broke forth, breaking out in the midst of the silence? Peter of Blois, from Sermon 3, On The Advent Of The Lord 1 Titus 2.12-13 2 Mt 25.6 3 Rom 13.12