By your patience possess your souls

 

 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

 

- Luke 21:5-19 

 

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus was disputing in the temple with the religious authorities, He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."' Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."

 

  Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  This is a prophecy of the destruction of the temple that was to be fulfilled in 70 AD at the Siege of Jerusalem.  The text references the adornment of the temple with beautiful stones and donations.  We should remember that this is the temple as it was expanded and rebuilt into one what was considered one of the architectural marvels of the world, by Herod the Great (also known as Herod the Builder). 

 

 So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them."   My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7 - 12; Mark 13; Matthew 24; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  It notes that Christ's emphasis is on watchfulness, and the practice of virtue rather than on constructing timetables of things that have not yet happened.  Here in Luke's Gospel, Jesus first warns His disciples about what is to come in their lifetimes.  He warns them not to be deceived by false reports of His Return, and that they are not to be terrified in hearing about wars and commotions, for these must come first before the end.   He then goes on to describe the tribulations that will come as we await His Second Coming.  

 

Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven."  All of this period in which we have lived the Christian era is included in the tribulations Christ describes.  My study Bible comments that these wars include the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (when the temple was destroyed, and not one stone was left upon another, but all was thrown down.  It says that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

 

"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist."   And here is the tribulation for the Church, again, covering the entire period of the Christian era, and not simply a specific final time before His return.  This persecution of course began in the earliest period of the Church, but it yet continues today, even as the gospel has spread to the world.  Certainly most of those to whom He was speaking, with the exception of John the Evangelist, would go on to martyrdom.  John himself was in exile, even as the Church was persecution in the synagogues and by the Romans.  But let us pay close attention to what Christ tells us about times of persecution:  they are an occasion for testimony.  

"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  Here Christ's prophecy becomes even personal.  In the Letter to the Hebrews, St. Peter writes, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).  If the word of God is truth that cuts deeply into the heart of each one, then we understand how also it may cut between ourselves and even those most closely bound to us in a worldly sense.  Here Christ is preparing the disciples for the type of hatred and betrayal to come.  Of course, we might wonder at this seeming contradiction, that some will be put to death, yet not a hair of your head shall be lost.  But in so doing, we lose sight of the Kingdom among us, and that so much emphasis is placed on the eternal reality of that Kingdom, and not on the events of this world which so often deceive, and mask the true work of God going on "behind the scenes," so to speak.  Those who follow Him, as is evidenced in the Epistles of St. Paul, do so with the understanding of the eternal nature of life in that Kingdom, and not simply a temporal existence.  St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians of those brothers and sisters in the Church who have passed ("fallen asleep"), "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).  

 

 Jesus' final words in today's reading are, "By your patience possess your souls."  These are words that are addressed to us in our modern world today as much as they are to Christ's disciples during this final week of His earthly life, as given in today's reading.  What does it mean for us, "By your patience possess your souls?"  First of all, Christ's warnings about wars and upheavals, natural disasters of all sorts, famines and pestilences, still apply to us.  We see them every day, and we cannot help but hear about them the more the world is interconnected through mass telecommunications of all sorts.  Moreover, lest we who live in countries where we are quite free to practice our faith forget, persecutions of the Church continue into the present day and have never stopped.  In the previous century, many of those persecutions came at the hands of governments and political movements opposed in principle to religion.  The twentieth century's first great persecution, indeed that which would produce the term "genocide" as a legal term defined in the law, was the persecution in the Ottoman Empire of its Christian populations during the years of World War I, beginning in 1915 with the Armenian Genocide.  Today even a nominally Christian country has moved to ban a rival Church during a period of war, perhaps portending a new involvement to manifest divisions in the Church through warfare and the manipulations of governments.  Moreover, and perhaps far more threatening in effect, today our brothers and sisters in the Middle East continue to suffer under attack from armies of extremists bent on exterminating all those who do not share their nominal sectarian beliefs.  Such extremist militias are even sent to other countries across Africa, striking terror into the Christian populations there, using rape, murder, torture, and abduction of child soldiers as their weapons, even using slavery as a means of procuring wealth.  In these ways, in headlines we can read in today's news if we but look to find them, the Church and Christian believers still suffer under persecution and tribulation.  As we head toward the celebration of the birth of our Lord, and we enter into the Christmas season, keep a special place in your prayers and hopefully also in your charitable gifts for those brothers and sisters of ours, all over the world, and perhaps in a different denomination from ourselves, who suffer tribulation for their faith.  Let us, together with them, share in their suffering if we might in order to help alleviate their pain and the destruction to their communities.  For Jesus preaches not only to those who suffer, but to all of us who must share in the message, "By your patience possess your souls."   Let us through our compassion participate in prayers for our patience, extended to each one through all of us, even across the world to the faithful who suffer today.  We all must come to understand the ways in which we are meant to participate in the sacrifice of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-21, Revelation 13:8).   For in this way shall we possess our souls, and gain the peace of Christ that passes all understanding, if we abide in His love -- and for one another -- as He has taught us to do.

By your patience possess your souls

 

 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

 

- Luke 21:5-19 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus said to the religious leaders who were questioning Him in the temple in Jerusalem, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?" Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."

 

  Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, during the Siege of Jerusalem, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  There were rumors that there was gold between the stones of the magnificent temple, which had been rebuilt and refashioned with many architectural additions by Herod the Great, who was also known as Herod the Builder.  The temple was meant to be preserved, but in the fury of the fighting and midst a great fire that resulted in Jerusalem, the temple -- then considered one of the architectural wonders of the known world -- was leveled.  All that remained was one retaining wall, long known as the Wailing Wall, now called the Western Wall.

 

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them."    My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7 - 12; Matthew 24:3-31; Mark 13, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  As we can read here, and we will read in the continuation of this discourse on Monday, Jesus' emphasis is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue, rather than on constructing timetables of things that haven't yet happened.  Jesus here first gives warning about deceptions:  false Christs and false reports of His return.

 

"But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven."  His emphasis is a warning of wars and violence to come on many levels and involving many places and times; this also involve natural disasters of different types, including fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  All these the world has experienced since.  My study Bible says that the wars here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but also include subsequent wars.  Wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but the opposite -- "these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately" (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

 

But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."   Finally, Jesus turns specifically to the persecution of the Church, which will come "before all these things."   His emphasis is on endurance and reliance upon God, through hatred and persecutions, even the falling away of friends and family.  But, He says, not a hair of your head shall be lost, meaning that even death cannot destroy the life in Christ that is promised.  My study Bible says that the period of the great tribulation includes the entire Christian era, and is not limited to the final years before Christ's return, as is witnessed by history.  But, it notes, all these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel.  Indeed, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls being converted.  It notes that St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus teaches the disciples, "By your patience possess your souls."  These are words not only for the disciples standing in His immediate presence at the temple in Jerusalem twenty centuries ago, but the words apply to us today as well.  Can we understand what He means, that "not a hair of your head shall be lost," even though "you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death."  How do these two things go together?  The key is in His teaching, "By your patience possess your souls."  There is something that the world cannot take away from us, because it is the thing guaranteed by our communion with Christ, and that is the power of the soul to endure and to remain one's own.  There are always things guaranteed to take our attention away from this primary concern of possessing our own souls, of choosing what we will worship, and where our life is fastened and held.  If we find our lives in Christ, if this anchored mooring is the place in which we thrive as faithful, then to have patience is to forbear all the things that want to take us away from that deep place of refuge, the rock of Christ to which we are to cling.  For it is patience we need to put up with all the temptations that come to simply be unanchored from our purpose, to lose track of what is most important in the moment when calamity hits, or when fears of destruction and violence overtake our lives.  In times of a natural disaster or emergency we are distracted with every new piece of news or need.  When we face adversity, it is easy to think of compromise, with the loss of support or with antagonism from those whom we trusted or loved ones, we find ourselves facing a deep choice.  But it is the patience of forbearance that keeps us in that place where we can remember who we are and focus on finding where Christ wants us to go.  In our next reading, on Monday, Jesus will warn the Church of events to come in Jerusalem even in their immediate lifetimes, and so by tradition we understand they were able to flee at the signs He names.  But for now let us consider with what patience we will continue to possess our souls, even through death and persecutions.  For life is more than just physical survival only, more than immediate events and distractions, more than the sadness we endure of witnessing suffering, or the heartbreak of losing those we love because of our faith, even enduring the hatred of others for His name's sake.  The soul thrives on something deeper and something more, and its sovereignty is linked firmly to the sovereignty of God over all, even over death.  It is there we must take root and remain, there we rely on God for testimony, there we find a real mission that encompasses and eclipses everything else.  For in anchoring ourselves to Him and His truth we find ourselves, and there we find the sense in which we lose not a hair of our heads. 

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

 

 Then 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 may 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."

 

- Matthew 24:1-14 

 

In yesterday's reading, we were given the last part of Christ's final sermon, a great indictment of the corruption in the temple and among the scribes and Pharisees:   "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" 

 

Then 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."  My study Bible notes that Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.   This prophesy proved vividly true, as Roman soldiers believed there was gold between the stones of the temple.  All that remained was one retaining wall, long known as the Wailing Wall, today more commonly called the Western Wall.

 

 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?"  My study Bible notes here that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7 - 12; Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Revelation).  Christ's great emphasis in His response to the disciples is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue -- rather than on the construction of timetables of things that have not yet happened.  Here in Matthew's account, the end is described as encompassing first the initial sorrows, then the great tribulation, and finally the coming of the Son of Man.  The period of the great tribulation, my study Bible remarks, includes the entire Christian era.  It is not limited only to the final years before Christ's return.

 

And Jesus answered and said to them:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For may will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."  Christ gives the greatest priority to warnings against deception.  Of particular significance is His warning against following a false Christ.  Jesus will stress this repeatedly; see also verses 11, 23-27.  

"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."  My study Bible says that the wars here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but in the verses that follow we understand He includes subsequent wars also.  My study Bible comments that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather of the opposite:  that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

"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."  Here is a virtual list of things that characterize the period of history since Christ's Incarnation; let us understand that it is borne out in the history of the Church and the faithful.   But note that Christ's warnings are given in order to convey the message of endurance in faith through difficulties and disasters, that "he who endures to the end shall be saved."  My study Bible comments that all these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel.  Indeed, it says, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls being converted.  St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising (in the Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70), they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Jesus names many disasters that befall humankind, most of which any one of us has likely seen in our lifetimes.  There are human, man-made disasters and also natural disasters.  But even the natural disasters such as famines, and in some cases even earthquakes, can be the result of human action.  But these are just "the beginning of sorrows" in Jesus' prophesy of the times in which we live.  But then He speaks of tribulation, in which the faithful will be killed, and hated for His name's sake.   There are those in the Church who will be offended, betray one another, and hate one another.  He speaks again of false prophets and deceit -- and of the lawlessness that will abound, with the result that the love of many will grow cold.  All of these things we may think we see or have seen.  But the key, to my way of thinking, in Christ's warning is that "he who endures to the end will be saved."  He preaches to us watchfulness and endurance, which amount to virtually the same thing, because our endurance is not possible without watchfulness.  We need to be alert to deception and alert to when the disasters and myriad distractions around us start to veer us off our course,  taking away the love of God in our hearts so that we grow cold to the things on which we must build our lives.  He virtually assures the disciples that into the life of the Church and of the faithful all of these things will come, but we are to watch and know what we are to be about.  We are, above all, to endure through it.  That is, to endure in our faith and the practice of our faith, the carrying out of His commands, of love of God and love of neighbor, as best we can.  These are the things in which we must endure and which we must pursue.  We are to remember what is the "blessed life" He teaches us in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), and all the ways He teaches us to be His disciples.  We have to hold fast to what it is that makes us salt and light, and reflect that light and God's glory back into the world (Matthew 5:13-16).  Throughout the difficulties, for over so many centuries since Christ's Incarnation, this is what the saints and the faithful of the Church have done, under any and all circumstances.  There is one saint I will take as an example who is inspirational to me.  She is St. Philothei of Athens, a woman who lived in the 16th century in Athens, Greece.  She lived in a time of oppressive Ottoman rule over Greece's mostly Christian citizens.   At a young age she became a very wealthy widow and devoted herself to monastic life.  She established on her property a women's monastery, where young women were taught various crafts and skills with which they could work.  She was active in philanthropy and charity, extended outside her immediate environment.  Among other things, she was active in buying the freedom of Greeks who'd been taken as Ottoman slaves, especially women taken to harems.  She took in and hid fleeing slaves, many of them women who were pregnant.  She spent extensive monies for bribes and ransoms for such people, and was heavily taxed and fined.  Her monasteries were plundered and agricultural lands destroyed.  For her work in hiding and smuggling out women who sought refuge in her monasteries, her fame grew and so did animosity against her.  She was beaten and imprisoned and eventually released.  Finally, four mercenaries broke into her monastery during an evening vigil and beat her severely; after a lengthy attempt at recuperation she died of her injuries, a martyr for faith.  Today much of central Athens remains a part of her legacy, and her bones are enshrined in the Metropolitan cathedral.  There, too, one may also find remnants of the chains of St. Paul, another reminder that in the endurance of our faith, we are free even in the face of the tribulations of the world and all the things that would enslave us.  Let us set these extraordinary examples before us, and understand that to endure is to truly live our faith and hang on to its priceless, matchless value, its love and light.  Notice that Jesus finishes by saying that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations."  Let us remember, also, that we witness by living our faith every day, and enduring in so doing.

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

 

 Then 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.

 

- Matthew 24:1-14 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus preached the end of His final public sermon, to the religious leaders in the Temple:   "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" 

Then 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."   My study Bible reminds us that Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  In connection with Jesus' words to the religious leaders in yesterday's reading, we note that there was a forty year lag between this prophecy and the Siege of Jerusalem, time for individuals in an entire generation to come to repentance.

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?"  My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7-12; Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  The Lord's emphasis is on watchfulness and on the practice of virtue, rather than making timetables of things that haven't yet happened.  My study Bible breaks down the pattern given in Matthew's Gospel, which encompasses (1) the initial sorrows (verses 4-14), (2) the great tribulation (verses 15-28), and (3) the coming of the Son of Man (verses 29-31).  This period of the great tribulation includes the whole of the Christian era, and is not limited to the final years before Christ's return.

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."  My study Bible asks us to note that it is these warnings against deception to which Jesus gives the most emphasis.  Of particular importance is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus will stress again in verses 11, 23-27.

"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."  The wars here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, my study Bible says, but they also certainly include subsequent wars.  Wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

 

"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."  All of these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel, my study Bible says.  Indeed, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls being converted, it adds.  St. John Chrysostom is cited here, who marveled that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What do end times look like?  While we might find ourselves and others frequently asking this question, and wondering about it since quite soon (relatively speaking) after Christ's Ascension, what we can see from His description is that there are features of the time that look remarkably like our own.  We are familiar with wars; we are familiar with famines, pestilences, and earthquakes.  We know of the tribulation the early Church experienced, and we should be familiar with tribulation and persecution that have continued throughout the centuries and especially during the 20th century under various forms of government, and continues even violently today for many Christians around the world.  Jesus speaks of false prophets, betrayals, lawlessness.  He says that "the love of many will grow cold."  He speaks of hate, both against the Church and inside of the Church, saying that "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."  These are things that have been seen, and things we should remember.  But possibly His most important message is twofold.  Jesus says, "But he who endures to the end shall be saved."  This in itself is an important, lasting message to all of us.  Whatever we go through in life, what Jesus emphasizes is endurance.  We are to persist in a faithful life, living out His commandments, and being His disciples to the best of our ability.  The other part with which He leaves us at this juncture in the reading is, "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."  Whatever we see happening in the world and in our lives, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached and will spread.  Now, through sites such as this blog and uncountable others, the gospel of the kingdom is preached throughout the world, and continues to reach people, as well as through more conventional means and venues.  But these two things are important, and especially relevant to today.  We have the message that it is our endurance that He asks of us.  He does not ask the impossible, for great feats and miracles of faith, for astonishing works that dazzle others.  He asks for our endurance, and this means our endurance in faithfulness, in living as He asks us to live and resisting the temptations to lawlessness, letting our love grow cold, betrayals, and hatred.  We are to persist in the gospel and living His gospel.  We might find all kinds of things going haywire in our life, even experiencing betrayals and hatred of one sort or another, or possibly we experience the great upheavals of history such as famine and warfare, earthquakes and pestilences.  But in any case, what He asks of us as a goal is to endure to the end.  Through all things, we turn to Him, to His gospel of the kingdom, to one another, to prayer and to worship, to struggle with what it means to live out our faith as best we can, and to endure.  Let this be our prayer, as the gospel of the kingdom continues to be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations

 

 

By your patience possess your souls

Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

- Luke 21:5-19

In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He teaches daily in the temple, and has been disputing and being tested by various members of the ruling religious Council, as they wish to put Him to death.  But they fear the people, who love to listen to Christ.  Yesterday we read that He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:  'The LORD said to my Lord,  "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all of these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had."

Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  This prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when it was destroyed by the Romans.    It was rumored that the temple contained gold between the stones, and so this prophecy by Christ came quite true.  Only one retaining wall remained of the entire magnificent temple structure, which is today called the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall).

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  Christ's description of the destruction of Jerusalem -- and the time of the destruction of the temple -- is mixed with images of the end times of all of history.  It contains warning to the disciples of what is to come in their own lifetimes, and in the lifetime of the Church and her faithful.   My study bible comments here that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways.  Therefore no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7-12, Mark 13; Luke 21: 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Revelation).   Through all things, Jesus' emphasis to His disciples -- and therefore to us -- is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue; my study bible notes that this is deliberately in contrast to constructing timetables of things that haven't yet happened.  In the eyes of the Church, we are and have been living in "end times" since the death of Christ and His Resurrection.   Christ gives first priority to a warning about deception by a false Christ.  The warning of wars of course refers first of all to the coming destruction of Jerusalem, but it also characterizes all of history since.  My study bible comments that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).  All the calamities and all the opposition to the Church does not stop the spread of the gospel; frequently the persecution against the Church increases the number of souls being converted.  Finally, if we can but imagine what the destruction of the temple and the city would have meant to the Jews of Christ's generation, and that includes all of His followers, we could merely get a glimpse of the total devastation -- on so many levels -- He is prophesying for them.

Perhaps the most important emphasis here is on persecution as an occasion for testimony -- and Christ's emphasis that in the midst all of this violence, hatred, opposition, and destruction, as His followers we must "by your patience possess your souls."   He speaks even of the persecution by those who are closest to us:  parents, brothers, relatives, and friends.  While there may be few of us who can say this is literally true in their lives today, for those to whom He spoke and the generations following it certainly proved true according to the stories of early martyrs that we have.  But in our own lives, we may find similar conflicts and choices present themselves to us -- just not in the same formal settings involving state power (although this may still be the case depending upon where we live around the world).  He gives us a warning, but His emphasis is not simply on the opposition we will encounter to our faith.  His true emphasis here is on the opportunities to which we must remain alert and awake.  We are to endure and remain in our faith through our patience.  How can He say that through all of this persecution "not a hair of your head will be lost" after He has said that some will be put to death?  Jesus gives us an image of the soul:  intact, whole, fully within the grasp of God, and our own choices for faith.  We note that He teaches:  "Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist."   The striking tone of this particular instruction is not so much that He will give us our words in response to persecution, but rather that we are to settle it in our hearts not to meditate beforehand what we will answer.  That is, we are not to approach persecution with tremendous anxiety or even planning.  We are to remain alert, awake, in the here and now, to His Presence with us -- and remain fully dependent upon that awareness and understanding.  This is an instruction for courage, steadfastness -- the opposite of fear and panic.  Our faith is to keep us secure within its very reality in our hearts and in the presence of the kingdom of the gospel.  It is this place for which we prepare and study and pray; this condition of our hearts throughout the entirety of our lives for which we struggle as faithful -- for which we attend worship, pray, read and study Scripture, and meditate on His words and His presence in our lives.  These are words to take us through all things, and not merely times of overt and outward persecution.  They become a code for how we are to conduct the whole of our lives, and through all the struggles we may encounter in our lives.  It is a prescription for a particular attitude of trust in Him.  If we are dealing with terrible personal struggles, financial troubles, illness or death of a loved one, family strains -- we can read these words and understand that we are meant to have a type of patience in the midst that passes through all of these things.  We return -- even for the moments we are able -- to trust in Him to lead us through.  In all of our personal struggles, He says to us, He is there with us, and this is the one fact of which we must not lose sight.  At all moments, we are offered this choice.  We are to be mindful of His presence.  It will give us our patience, our endurance, our way of going through whatever it is -- and so it has proven true for so many of us and through so much struggle throughout the generations of faithful.  Christ's deep well is there to draw upon when all else has failed.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings in 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."

- Matthew 24:1-14

In yesterday's reading, Jesus completed His final sermon, given at the temple in Jerusalem.  This sermon began with Monday's reading (Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted), and Tuesday's (You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith).  Yesterday, we read its conclusion:  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house  is left to you desolate; for  say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings in 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."  My study bible says that "Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans."

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?"  My study bible has a long note on the passages to follow:  "The Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7-12; Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  The Lord's emphasis is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue rather than on constructing timetables of things that have not yet happened.  In Matthew's account here, the end is described as encompassing (1) the initial sorrows (vv. 4-14 [today's reading]), (2) the great tribulation (vv. 15-28), and (3) the coming of the Son of Man (vv. 29-31).  The period of the great tribulation includes the entire Christian era and is not limited to the final years before Christ's return."

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."  A note tells us here that Jesus' warnings against deception are what are given the most emphasis here.  "Of particular importance is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus stresses again in vv. 11, 23-27."

 "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."  My study bible says that the wars here refer "first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but certainly include subsequent wars.  Wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3)."

"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."   A note says, "All these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel, and indeed, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls being converted.  St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ."

The challenge we so often face seems to be that of our own expectations, and what they set up for us to believe.  Who would have thought it was possible for this great temple -- let alone the entire city of Jerusalem -- to be destroyed, even unto leaving "not one stone" upon another?  One has to imagine the temple as it was, a great building project of Herod the Great who was, in fact, called "the Great Builder" because of his expansive projects.  Herod, ruling just prior to his son Antipas who was by this time the tetrarch of Galilee, expanded the Second  Temple to include immense ambitious building projects, such as porticoes and colonnades and all manner of beautiful, even magnificent, architecture.  But Jesus' prediction was quite literally true.  In the year AD 70, in what is known as the siege of Jerusalem, the Romans destroyed both the temple and the city.  There was a rumor that gold lay between the stones of the temple, and so "not one stone" was left upon another.  All that was left was a retaining wall, now known as the Western Wall, or the "Wailing Wall," as Jews have come through the centuries to mourn and pray at what was left of the temple.  It is something quite "awesome" to consider that these predictions made by Jesus would occur within the span of a generation, and also at the same time, despite so many calamities and persecutions, the gospel would go out to all the world, via twelve Jews, the Apostles of Christ.  In this upheaval, in a time in which the world of certainty is turned upside-down, it is faith that prevails.  Jesus' emphasis on faith, perseverance, watchfulness and virtue, and particularly endurance, becomes the hallmark of what we must always remember.  What good does it do us to construct some sort of timetable?  It is every moment of our lives that count, every challenge, every second of that "good fight" we wage in the struggle of prayer and even of love, that really are emphasized and important.  It's our watchfulness that counts here.  We hear of wars and rumors of wars constantly in our world today at this moment.  Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes can now be found anytime one opens a computer or listens to the news in our now-globalized world -- in an instant, we may know what is happening elsewhere at all times.  Through it all we are to be reminded that our job is to endure and to be watchful, to live as He has taught us to live, and to grow in our faith.  Let us remember, at all times, how we are blessed with this gospel, and how we are taught to live it.