Advent: a period of expectation unprecedented in history (I)

"The time of the coming of the Messiah was foretold by the Jewish state, the pagan state, the Temple state, and the number of years: the four monarchies, the scepter taken from Judah and the seventy weeks had to come about at the same time, and all this before the second Temple was destroyed" (Blaise Pascal - Pensées 708 and 709).

Since the pagans also received partial prophecies, we observe an improbable focus, the peak of an expectation, precisely around the years in which Jesus appeared. This is a proven historical fact: inexplicable as it may seem, the world's attention in the first century was turned to a single point: that distant Roman province.

Mary carried in her heart this world-wide expectation more than any other, as she prayed to the Holy of Holies. It was to be fulfilled for her and for all Christians in the coming of the Savior, at the fullness of the appointed time

But for those who did not recognize him, the missed appointment would long be wondered at. As the Talmud testifies, "all the dates that were calculated for the coming of the Messiah are now past" (Sanhedrin Treatise 97). And in their disappointment, the Doctors of Israel eventually tried to reinterpret the Messianic expectation.

In the meantime, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk 1:14). The course of human tribulations seemed to be suspended for a moment and to come to a standstill when Augustus granted the world one of the very rare periods of peace in history, the pax romana, during which the star announcing the coming of the Prince of Peace shone above Palestine.

Excerpts from Hypothèses sur Jésus by Vittorio Messori, Mame, 1978