And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other

 

 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.  And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you all beforehand.  Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

 

- Matthew 24:15-31 

 

On Saturday we read that Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  And Jesus answered and said to them:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.  Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

 

"Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.  And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes."   My study Bible remarks that Daniel's prophecy of the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11) was fulfilled in AD 70, when the Roman general Titus entered the Most Holy Place and had a statue of himself erected in the temple before having the temple destroyed.  The Lord's phrase when you see indicates that many of the disciples would still be alive at that time.  The words whoever reads, let him understand, my study Bible says, are commonly understood to be inserted by Matthew into Christ's speech as an encouragement to his early Christian flock who may have witnessed this event.  His warnings that begin here an emphasize an urgent need to flee, and to do so with all haste, even without possessions.

 

"But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!"  Jesus gives a clear sign of the calamity and horror to come.  In Luke's Gospel, Christ gives a blessing to the barren women as an acknowledgement of the overwhelming pain a mother endures seeing her children suffer, and whom they cannot save (see Luke 23:29).  My study Bible cites the commentary of St. John Chrysostom:  "Mothers are held by the tie of feeling for their children, but cannot save them.  How can one escape the bonds of nature?  How can she who nurses ever overlook the one she has borne?"

And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.  For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.  For false Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you all beforehand."  My study Bible comments that the severity of winter weather or respect for the Sabbath would prevent many faithful from fleeing quickly in a time of desperation.  In patristic tradition there is also a spiritual interpretation, which sees the Sabbath as symbolizing idleness with regard to virtue, and winter as indicating fruitlessness with regard to charity.  Therefore, the person who departs life in that kind of spiritual state will suffer judgment.  

 

"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together."  My study Bible asks the question, in what manner will Christ come back?   Here Jesus makes it very clear that this event will be unmistakable to the whole world.  If there is any question or doubt, then that alone is evidence that He has not returned.  As Christ's return will shine from the east, whenever possible since the earliest times of the Church, Christians worship facing eastward in symbolic hope and anticipation of His second and glorious coming.  

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken."  According to patristic teaching which is cited by my study Bible, the sun will not be destroyed, but darkened in relation to the glory of Christ.  In other words, it says, the sun will appear to be dark by comparison when Christ returns in the fullness of His splendor.

"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."  The sign of the Son of Man, my study Bible says, is the Cross, which will be revealed as the standard for Christ's impending judgment.  At His first coming, Christ came in humility and mortality.  But at His second, He will be revealed in power and in great glory, reflecting the truth of His divine nature as shared with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

It seems to me that when Jesus says that the sun will be darkened, the moon won't give its light, the stars will fall, and that the powers of the heavens will be shaken, He's indicating something like a tremendous dimensional change taking place.  Of course, we can't really know fully what He's talking about and what He's describing, but whatever it is, it will be a time when even "the powers of the heavens will be shaken," that is, a time when all that we know and all the things we relate to within our world and perception of the universe will be shaken and put aside.  What He seems to describe is an entirely new life, even a new nature of life, and no going back to the old.  My study Bible refers us to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, noting that it is one of the clearest New Testament passages on the Second Coming of Christ.  In the Didache (the earliest teaching document of the Church, written in the first century), it notes, there are three signs listed that will mark the return of Christ:  (1) "the sign spread out in the heavens" -- Christ and His hosts; (2) "the sign of the trumpet"; and (3) "the resurrection of the dead."  In this passage of 1 Thessalonians, as written by St. Paul, there he clearly notes that those who are alive in the earth will mingle together with those who have fallen asleep in Christ.  This is another indication of the suspension of the normal realities that govern our cosmos, our world and universe, for not only will those who have died live, but it is an indication that time no longer applies.  So this is one more sign that at the coming of Christ, the reality we know will disappear, and a different life begins.  All of that suggests the unmistakable quality and signs of that time; that this event will not be hidden from anyone, but, as my study Bible says, will be clearly evident.  The second thing it seems to teach us is that it is a radical ending and new beginning, where even the laws of physics we know will no longer apply. That's quite powerful to ponder, nearly impossible to realize in any but the briefest sense.  But it does seem to teach us that there will be an end to things, and that even as we live today in the world we understand the finitude of life as we know it.  I don't think the Scriptures nor Christ Himself nor St. Paul, among others, would leave us with this sense that there is an end to the things we know, except in preparation for it, and in preparation for Christ's return.  Thus it becomes very important that we consider these things not simply as staggering events to come -- and, in the case of the Siege of Jerusalem, as one of the terrible and terrifying events of history -- but that we understand our lives are temporary. Even the world itself, the creation that God proclaimed to be "very good" (Genesis 1:31), will eventually shift in its very nature, and that there will be a kind of transformation and merging of life into a different life, in which all will be gathered together.  I feel that this is something we can count on, a deliberately given promise, and one that gives a sharp focus not on some far away future, but in effect on our very lives today.  For what it does is highlight that this life is temporary, that there are things that we are to be about, that there is an eventual and certain outcome in which Christ returns and we will be understood in terms of our own contribution, our life of faith, our place within His kingdom.  It should give us pause to consider that our lives are precious, our moments limited, our time especially valuable for its briefness and emphasis on how we live while we are here.  Make every moment count, give it the value it deserves, and make it rich with the blessings God offers to those who seek to live His life that He offers.   Our treasure in heaven is what we build while we live in this world.