Jerusalem's Doom—Christ's prophecy of chastisement
The Final Sunday after Pentecost features Christ's dramatic prophecy of the doom, chastisement and destruction of Jerusalem—foreshadowing what will come at the end of the world.
Jerusalem’s Doom—Part I
Over the final Sundays after Pentecost (the spare Sundays, transferred from after Epiphany), the Roman Liturgy presents us with a dual sense of dread and confidence.
On the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, we see the Apostles battered by a terrible storm on the Sea of Galilee—which Our Lord alone can calm
On the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Our Lord’s Parable of the Wheat and the Cockle warns us that his faithful will have to live side by side with heretics and the wicked—until the harvest at the end of the world
On the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Our Lord’s parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven primarily deal with the state of the Church in this world, but St Matthew’s final comment points towards a terrible chastisement of the “Chosen People.”
On the final Sunday of Pentecost—the “24th Sunday” which is delayed, depending on when Easter fell that year—we see what this chastisement was to be.
What’s more, we see that the chastisement of Jerusalem and the Jews is a foreshadowing and a warning of what is to come for the whole world at the end of time.
In this chapter, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How Our Lord’s prophesied Doom of Jerusalem is made up of four distinct components
That the first three pertain to the punishments of false teachers, wars and persecutions of the Church
How this terrible prophecy nonetheless contains a promise and encouragement for Christ’s faithful.
The Doom of Jerusalem
From
Passiontide—Part I
Fr Henry James Coleridge, 1889, Ch. XIII, pp 224-232
St. Matt. xxiv. 1-28; St. Mark xiii. 1-23; St. Luke xxi. 5-24;
Story of the Gospels, § 144.
Sung on the 24th and Last Sunday of Pentecost-tide
The Doom of Jerusalem and of the World
The sacred historians tell us that when our Lord was leaving the Temple He lingered awhile, and that His disciples drew His attention to the magnificence of the buildings, which had lately been completed.
On this, He remarked that all was soon to be destroyed, and this led to the question which was asked when He had proceeded some way up on the Mount of Olives and was sitting opposite to the Temple.
The question was twofold, and undoubtedly the disciples who asked it hardly understood that there was so great a separation between the two events which were mentioned as was actually the case.
The first part of the question related to that which they had in their minds more immediately, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem.
The second part referred to the greater and more distant event of the end of the world, which they were accustomed to consider as almost simultaneous with the former event of the destruction of the city.
But they certainly distinguished plainly the one event from the other, and our Lord distinguished them with equal plainness in His answer.
Characteristics of the Last Prophecy
He spoke throughout with the indistinctness as to time which is common in all prophecies. It is no part of prophecy, in its ordinary statements, to mark off all the intervals that may be made historically between one point of the prediction and another. The perspective, so to speak, is often wanting in the words, though it may have been ever so clearly defined by the mind of the prophet.
That is what constitutes, ordinarily, the chief difficulty of predictions which embrace successive and perhaps long-separated events, and it is especially to be held in mind when the earlier of a succession of events which are foretold are types and anticipations of those which are to come after them.
This prophecy certainly differs from all others in the Sacred Text, in that it is spoken immediately by our Lord Himself through no other channel than His Sacred Humanity. Our Lord’s previsions could have had nothing partial or incomplete about them as they lay before His own mind, as may have been the case with the previsions of the prophets, to which the saying of St. Paul may be applied, ‘We know in part, and we prophesy in part.’1
But in delivering His prophecies He spoke in the manner in which former prophets of His had spoken before Him, and sometimes in their language. The prophecy is meant to adapt itself to the minds of those to whom it is delivered, as well as to the purpose for which it is given of warning and preparing them in all necessary manners for that which it predicts.
Our Lord's word's about the Temple
‘And Jesus being come out of the Temple, went away. And as He was going out of the Temple, one of the disciples saith to Him, Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And some saying of the Temple, that it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts’
… a topic which might have been suggested by what had just been seen as He was sitting in the treasury…
‘… and His disciples came to show Him the buildings of the Temple. And Jesus answering said, Seest thou all these great buildings? Do you see all these things? Amen, I say to you, these things which you see, the days shall come in which there shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down, that shall not be destroyed.’
These words of their Blessed Master must have recalled to the minds of the disciples those others which He had used a few days before, on the Day of Palms, when He had wept over Jerusalem, and had predicted in very circumstantial language the destruction of the city.
‘For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground and thy children who are in thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.’
It was habitual with the Apostles to treasure up our Lord’s words, and this, which seems to have been almost the first pronouncement of the kind upon Jerusalem, must have sunk deep in their hearts, and perhaps have been the subject of surmise and conversation among them during the days that had passed since.
The desolation of the city had been foretold by Daniel2 in a passage which was, no doubt, much in the minds of the devout Jews of our Lord’s time, for it was in that prophecy that the time for the coming of the Messias had seemed to be fixed, just as in that of Micheas the place had been assigned for His Birth at Bethlehem.
This prophecy of Daniel ended with the prediction of the cutting off of the Messias and the destruction of the city. It was natural therefore for the disciples to ask about this when they had before their eyes what seemed to be so inconsistent with that prophecy in the splendid buildings of the Temple, which seemed to defy destruction.
Question of the four disciples
‘And when He was sitting on Mount Olivet, over against the Temple, they asked Him, the disciples came to Him privately…’
… and we are told by St. Mark that those who came to Him were four, apart from the others… ‘
‘… Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him apart, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and when all these things shall begin to come to pass, and be fulfilled, and of the consummation of the world?’
The coming of our Lord, as is well known, is a phrase which is used in various senses in the two Testaments, and by our Lord Himself.
It sometimes means the time of death, sometimes some great event, as the destruction of Jerusalem, and sometimes the greatest event and destruction of all, the end of the world and the Day of Judgment.
In this context it cannot mean the day of death to any individual soul, because that day is to come without signs preceding it such as can be discerned publicly. But here the coming of our Lord is to have signs that go before it to warn those that are on the lookout.
We understand it in this prophecy to refer first to that event of which our Lord had more than once lately spoken to His disciples, that is, His coming to destroy the city and Temple of Jerusalem in punishment for the treatment He had received and was to receive at the hands of the nation, and also, as the last words of the question suggest, to the end of the world.
These two things being both included in the question, our Lord answers each, and we have now to consider what His reply teaches us concerning each.
Our Lord's answer—First, false teachers
‘And Jesus answering said to them, began to say to them,’ that is, the first thing He said to them in answer, was, ‘Take heed that no man seduce you, for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ, I am He, and the time is at hand, and they will seduce many, go ye not therefore after them.’
This then is the first statement in the prophecy, that there will be much danger of seduction to many, and our Lord’s first note is a note of warning.
Second, Wars and rumours of wars
A second prediction follows,
‘And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, of wars and seditions. Fear ye not, be not terrified, see that ye be not troubled. These things must first come to pass, but the end is not presently. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.’
The second head of prophetic warning is therefore that they are not to be troubled about political and social disturbances, as if they implied at once the destruction either of the city or the existing fabric of society.
‘Then He said to them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be pestilences and famines, and great earthquakes in divers places, and terrors from heaven, and there shall be great signs. Now all these things are the beginning of sorrows,’ or more literally of ‘travail pains…’
… as if from them a new state of things was to be born. Here then is the third head of this prophecy. There are to be wars between nation and nation, kingdom and kingdom, accompanied by signs in the physical universe and the providential order of the world, such as famines, and pestilences, earthquakes, terrors from heaven, and great portents.
Third, Persecution and Apostasy
The next portion of the prophecy begins with the treatment which the disciples of our Lord are themselves to meet with before the fulfilment of the whole takes place.
‘But look to yourselves. Before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, dragging you before governors and kings for My name’s sake, and they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake, for a testimony unto them, and it shall happen unto you as a testimony, and to all nations the Gospel must first be preached.’
And He adds here the precept He has already given, not to think beforehand what they shall say,
‘And when they shall lead you and deliver you up, be not thoughtful beforehand what you shall speak, lay it up therefore in your hearts, not to premeditate before how you shall answer, but whatsoever shall be given to you in that hour, that speak ye, for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay.’3
This promise has been already explained.
There follows another and more mournful prediction.
‘And many shall be scandalized, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And the brother shall betray the brother unto death, and the father his son, and children rise up against their parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsfolk and friends, and some of you they will put to death.’
‘And many false prophets shall arise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of the many shall grow cold.’
Fourth, Promise made at the end
Then lastly comes the promise to perseverance.
‘But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. And you shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake. But a hair of your head shall not perish. In your patience you shall possess your souls. But he that shall endure to the end, he shall be saved. 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.’
This prediction may be considered as separate, foretelling that the Gospel is to be preached everywhere before the end of the world. Thus we have these several great points in the prophecy.
Our Lord says that there is to be great danger of seduction from the multitude of false teachers,
That there are to be great civil commotions, nation rising against nation, wars and rumours of wars, signs of the anger of God, as pestilences and famines,
That there are to be great persecutions of the Church, that many shall be scandalized and fall away, and that the prevalence of lawlessness will chill the mutual charity of brethren.
We may add to these the promise last made, of the universal preaching of the Gospel ‘as a witness,’ and of the salvation of those who persevere.
The prophecy refers to two events
We may pause here for awhile, to consider more particularly the clauses in the prophecy which have already been enumerated.
There are, as has been said, two distinct subjects in the same prophecy, and the whole question must be which part refers to one, which part to the other, and which to both.
But it must be remembered that when we say that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Last Day may be spoken of with equal truth under the phrase of the coming of our Lord, we imply what is otherwise certain, that both these events resemble one the other in many respects, and that the first in time may well be considered as an anticipation of the second.
If this is true, then it is also true that the words which apply to the one may also apply to the other, and may be equally true of both. They are true of the first in time, in a less perfect sense, true of the latter in time in a more perfect sense.
On the other hand, there are many passages in the prophecy, especially that part of it which has not yet been recited, which can hardly have this double application. The passage which immediately follows about the abomination of desolation, and the last verses which have been now quoted, are among these portions of the whole, and the fact that they are so is a sufficient reason for our pausing before proceeding further.
Two questions answered
Thus in what our Lord has said, He seems generally to be answering both the questions asked Him at once. That is, He sets forth in His answer those signs and warnings which may belong to the period before the destruction of Jerusalem, and also to the times which shall precede His Second Coming, and indeed, in some measure, to the whole history of the Church.
If we examine the clauses of the prophecy in order, we may see how far this holds good.
In the next part on this dramatic prophecy of doom, Fr Coleridge will explain…
How the false teachers in the Apostolic age worked
How this prophecy was fulfilled then—as a warning fo the future
How the “Creed of Science” and other modern errors fulfil this final prophecy.
Subscribe now and never miss it!
From Fr Henry James Coleridge, Passiontide—Part I
Here’s why you should subscribe to The Father Coleridge Reader:
Coleridge provides solid explanations of the entirety of the Gospel
His work is full of doctrine and piety, and is highly credible
He gives a clear trajectory of the life of Christ and all its stages.
If more Catholics knew about works like Fr Coleridge’s, then other works based on sentimentality or dubious private revelations would be less attractive.
Sourcing and curating the texts, cleaning up scans, and editing them for online reading is a labour of love, and takes a lot of time.
Will you lend us a hand and hit subscribe?
Read next:
Follow our projects on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram:
1 Cor. xiii
Dan. ix. 26.
St. Luke xxi. 24. See also St. Matt. x. 19; St. Luke xii. 11; St. Mark xiii, 11.