Fragmenda

Scripture

Matthew 24

Matthew 24

Christ foretells the destruction of the temple, with the signs that shall come before it and before the last judgment. We must always watch.

1 

And Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. And his disciples came to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2 

And he answering, said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you, there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed.

3 

And when he was sitting on mount Olivet, the disciples came to him privately, saying: Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the consummation of the world?

4 

And Jesus answering, said to them: Take heed that no man seduce you.

5 

For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ. And they will seduce many.

6 

And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass: but the end is not yet.

7 

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And there shall be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places.

8 

Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows.

9 

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

10 

And then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

11 

And many false prophets shall rise and shall seduce many.

12 

And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.

13 

But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.

14 

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations: and then shall the consummation come.

15 

When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.

16 

Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains:

17 

And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house:

18 

And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat.

19 

And woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days.

20 

But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath.

21 

For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be.

22 

And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.

23 

Then if any man shall say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there: do not believe him.

24 

For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.

25 

Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

26 

If therefore they shall say to you, Behold he is in the desert: go ye not out. Behold he is in the closets: believe it not.

27 

For as lightning cometh out of the east and appeareth even into the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

28 

Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.

29 

And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be moved.

30 

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. And then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.

31 

And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them.

32 

And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh.

33 

So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors.

34 

Amen I say to you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.

35 

Heaven and earth shall pass: but my words shall not pass.

36 

But of that day and hour no one knoweth: no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone.

37 

And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38 

For, as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark:

39 

And they knew not till the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.

40 

Then two shall be in the field. One shall be taken and one shall be left.

41 

Two women shall be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken and one shall be left.

42 

Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come.

43 

But this know ye, that, if the goodman of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open.

44 

Wherefore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come.

45 

Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season?

46 

Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing.

47 

Amen I say to you: he shall place him over all his goods.

48 

But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming:

49 

And shall begin to strike his fellow servants and shall eat and drink with drunkards:

50 

The lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not and at an hour that he knoweth not:

51 

And shall separate him and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Catechism

Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part 4, Chapter 8, Section 7

God's Care For Us Seen In The Love He Has Ever Shown To Man

And here the pastor should especially praise and proclaim the treasures of God's goodness towards the human race. Though from the time of our first parents and from the moment of our first sin down to this very day we have offended Him by countless sins and crimes, yet He still retains His love for us and never renounces His singular solicitude for our welfare.

To imagine that He has forgotten us would be an act of folly and nothing short of a most outrageous insult. God was angry with the Israelites because of the blasphemy they had been guilty of in imagining that they had been abandoned by providence. Thus do we read in Exodus: They tempted the Lord, saying: "Is the Lord amongst us or not?" and in Ezechiel the divine anger is inflamed against the same people for having said: The Lord seeth us not: the Lord hath forsaken the earth. These examples should suffice to deter the faithful from entertaining the criminal notion that God can ever possibly forget mankind. To the same effect we may read in Isaias the complaint uttered by the Israelite. against God; and, on the other hand, the kindly similitude with which God refutes their folly: Sion said: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me." To which God answers: Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have engraven thee in my hands.

Although these passages clearly establish the point under discussion, yet thoroughly to convince the faithful that never for a moment can God forget man or cease to lavish on him tokens of His paternal tenderness, the pastor should still further confirm this by the striking example of our first parents. They had ignored and violated God's command. When you hear them sharply accused and that dreadful sentence of condemnation pronounced against them: Cursed is the earth in thy work, with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth; " when you see them driven out of Paradise; when you read that to preclude all hope of their return a cherub was stationed at the entrance of Paradise, brandishing a flaming sword turning every way; and finally, when you know that, to avenge the injury done Him, God had afflicted them with punishments, internal and external, would you­ not be inclined to think that man's case was hopeless? Would you not consider that not only was he bereft of all divine help, but was even abandoned to every misfortune? Yet, surrounded as he then was by so many evidences of divine wrath and vengeance, a gleam of the goodness of God towards him is seen to shine forth. For the Lord God, says Sacred Scripture, made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them, which was a very clear proof that at no time would God abandon man.

This truth, that the love of God can be exhausted by no human iniquity, was indicated by David in these words: Will God in his anger shut up his mercies? It was set forth by Habacuc when, addressing God, he said: When thou art angry thou wilt remember mercy; and by Micheas, who thus expresses it: Who is a God like to thee who takest away iniquity and passest by the sin of the remnant of thy inheritance? He will send his fury in no more, because he delighteth in mercy.

And thus precisely does it happen. At the very moment when we imagine ourselves to be utterly lost and altogether bereft of His protection, then it is that God in His infinite goodness seeks us out in a special way and takes care of us. Even in His anger He stays the sword of His justice, and ceases not to pour out the inexhaustible treasures of His mercy.