Jerusalem's Doom – Persecution of Christians
Christ warns that the persecution of the Church would be a sign of the chastisement of Jerusalem and the end of the world.
Christ warns that the persecution of the Church would be a sign of the chastisement of Jerusalem and the end of the world.
Editor’s Notes
Jerusalem’s Doom—Part V
At the Mass of the final Sunday of Pentecost – the “24th Sunday” after Pentecost – the Church reads Christ’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Our Lord presents this chastisement of Jerusalem and the Jews as a foreshadowing and a warning of what is to come for the whole world at the end of time.
And time seems to be very short now.
In this chapter, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How Christ foretold that hatred would be the Church’s constant portion under Satan’s dominion.
That the world’s enmity springs from the Church’s rebuke of its lies and its claim upon souls.
Why early Christians were charged with atheism and cannibalism through twisted reports of the Eucharist.
He shows us that calumny has ever been Satan’s sharpest weapon against Christ’s faithful.
For more context on this episode and its place in the liturgical year, see Part I.
The Doom of Jerusalem
Passiontide—Part I
Chapter XIII
St. Matt. xxiv. 1-28; St. Mark xiii. 1-23; St. Luke xxi. 5-24;
Story of the Gospels, § 144.
(Read on the 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost)
Particular clauses of the prediction
In the first place, it will be observed that the clause, ‘You shall be hated by all men for My name’s sake,’ seems to be repeated more than once, or at least, if not repeated, it is inserted by different Evangelists at different stages of the prediction. St. Matthew puts it at the very outset of that part of his prophecy which relates to the treatment of the disciples themselves.
St. Mark and St. Luke place it towards the end of the same portion, after the betrayal of one another by Christians, and brethren, and children, and also the murder of some.
Hatred of the world
It seems probable that the ‘hatred of all men’ is, in one sense, the inheritance of the Catholic Church, as our Lord predicted.
‘If the world hate you, know you that it hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’1
The Church rebukes the principles of the world, denies its authority, exposes its impostures, and threatens it with judgment. The world must always, therefore, instinctively hate it.
Besides, the world is not merely an impostor and a liar, but one that knows its own lies to be lies, and its own impostures to be impostures.
It is also under the dominion of Satan, who hates the Church as he hated our Lord. All the instincts of the kingdom of Satan are against the Church, and as long as her children, and especially her rulers, are faithful to her, they fight against Satan and attack his kingdom.
This brings all the force of the hatred of the world not only upon the Church as such, but upon individual Christians who keep her laws and are faithful in their allegiance to her rights.
It is not astonishing that the more men come to resemble our Lord, and avow their obedience to the Church, the more they incur the world’s enmity, which may not always rage against them openly, but which is stung to the quick by their lives, which rebuke its maxims, and which are always felt to threaten them with the punishment they deserve, and, as we see, to threaten them in a manner which causes discomfort in their hearts.
The work of the Apostolic ministry includes the government of the Church, and the maintenance of unity and discipline, in particular, is almost certain, if loyally performed, to bring with it the hatred of men, because it implies the duty of reminding them of their obligations and insisting on their discharge. Thus the words of our Lord may have different senses in the different passages.
In the Apostolic age
Another remark to be made on this part of the prophecy is that St. Matthew omits the paragraph which conveys the injunction of the faithful not to premeditate when they have to answer before tribunals, and the like, because the Holy Ghost will put words into their mouth at such times.
For St. Matthew has already given this same precept, in substance, in an earlier part of his Gospel, in his account of our Lord’s charge to the Apostles before sending them forth to preach.2 This seems to be the reason why this Evangelist omits it here.
It is true that St. Luke inserts it both here and in another place,3 and that it is unusual in him to have to repeat what he has already said. But this part of St. Luke’s Gospel is not so crowded with details nor so much marked by compression of those details as the parallel chapters of St. Matthew.
Again, the promise to perseverance, ‘He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved,’ comes in two somewhat different connections in the respective Evangelists. St. Matthew puts it after the prediction of the decay of charity.
‘The charity of the many shall grow cold, but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.’
St. Mark puts it after the prediction of the hatred of the world.
‘And you shall be hated by all men for My name’s sake; but he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved.’
The words may well have been spoken in both connections, and we learn from them what it is that we are to persevere in—the outward unity of the faith in the Catholic Church, and the observance of God’s law, in all those points especially which excite the anger of the world.
Father Coleridge Reader is a labour of love. But curating, cleaning up and publishing these texts takes real work.
To keep this project going, and to make more of this treasury available, we rely on reader support. Some posts are reserved for members to sustain this mission.
We’re trying to keep something precious alive.
If you’ve benefited, consider joining us as a subscriber. It makes a real difference.