17 My statement, however, promised to declare also the time of the Saviour's and the place: and I must not go away convicted of falsehood, but rather send away the Church's novices well assured. Let us therefore inquire the time when our Lord came: because His coming is recent, and is disputed: and because Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. Moses then, the prophet, says, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like me: but let that “like me” be reserved awhile to be examined in its proper place. But when comes this Prophet that is expected?
Recur, he says, to what has been written by me: examine carefully Jacob's prophecy addressed to Judah: Judah, may your brethren praise you, and afterwards, not to quote the whole, A prince shall not fail out of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until He come, for whom it is reserved; and He is the expectation, not of the Jews but of the Gentiles. He gave, therefore, as a sign of Christ's advent the cessation of the Jewish rule. If they are not now under the Romans, the Christ is not yet come: if they still have a prince of the race of Judah and of David, he is not yet come that was expected.
For I am ashamed to tell of their recent doings concerning those who are now called Patriarchs among them, and what their descent is, and who their mother: but I leave it to those who know. But He that comes as the expectation of the Gentiles, what further sign then has He? He says next, Binding his foal unto the vine. You see that foal which was clearly announced by Zachariah.
Source: Catechetical Lectures (New Advent)