MATTHEW 24:44 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. The you must be ready conclusion from the thief analogy: the unexpected hour of the coming makes constant readiness the only rational response. The hour you do not expect is the specification that makes all hour-calculation futile: the very act of calculating and deciding I expect it at that hour makes that hour the wrong prediction.
Church Fathers on Matthew 24:44
Having declared that 'of that hour knoweth no man, but the Father only,' He shews that it was not expedient for the Apostles to know, that being ignorant they might live in perpetual expectation of His coming, and thus concluding the whole, He says, 'Watch therefore, &c.' And He does not say, 'Because we know not,' but 'Because ye know not,' shewing that He Himself is not ignorant of the day of judgment.
He would have them ever ready, and therefore He says, 'Watch.'
To watch is to keep the eyes open, and looking out for the true light, to do and to observe that which one believes, to cast away the darkness of sloth and negligence.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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