Why does the world instinctively hate the Church and her faithful children?
Satan's weapon of lying now wields greater power through the press than all persecuting emperors – but patience under such assault wins the soul its salvation.
Satan’s weapon of lying now wields greater power through the press than all persecuting emperors – but patience under such assault wins the soul its salvation.
Editor’s Notes
Jerusalem’s Doom—Part VI
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 patience under trial wins the soul its salvation and fills it with charity.
That the Church has faced undying hatred from her birth, and has always been attacked with the weapon of lying.
Why the modern press wields more power against truth than all the persecuting emperors together.
He shows us that each day’s trials, met with patience, leave behind a rich harvest of merit.
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)
How close are we to Judgement Day? Here’s what Christ’s signs tell us
Why does the world instinctively hate the Church and her faithful children?
Claims of the Church
The claims of the Church to authority and the exclusive possession of the truth, together with the purity of her law and the strictness of her discipline, were naturally odious to human pride, while the material interests of large bodies of men, the priests among the Jews, and the tribes of dependents on the Temple worship among the pagans, were arrayed against her.
She came into the world with the inextinguishable hatred of the nation which had given her birth and crucified her Founder already kindled to the utmost, a hatred which never rested or relented, and shrank from no cruelty or falsehood in its warfare against her.
She taught many new and sublime doctrines which were capable of the foulest perversion and misrepresentation among the ignorant, and there were things in her system which the impure minds of the heathen could easily fasten on as grounds for the gravest charges, which were confirmed by the lying avowals of apostates and the detestable parodies of heretics.
Warfare of Satan—The modern press
The ‘strong man armed’1 of whom our Lord spoke did not let his house be broken into and his goods rifled without a stubborn resistance, and he had all the power of the world at his disposal.
And he has struggled on even to the present day, when many of the arms he used of old have been broken or wrested from his hand, but when he still uses against the Catholic Church the one weapon which is more powerful than all the rest—the weapon of lying.
The might of written speech in the world is a hundredfold greater in our days than in any that have preceded them. The Press has more power against the truth than the whole series of persecuting Emperors.
In different shapes, in order that they may be the more efficient for the purpose, the old undying lies are dressed up for successive generations, and the modern enemies of the Church have only to give them the very slightest colour of novelty to find thousands of readers greedy to believe anything that can cast a stain on the religion of Jesus Christ.
These later notes, therefore, given in the prophecy, may seem to have been very remarkably fulfilled in the days before the destruction of Jerusalem. But they must be admitted to characterize great prominent features in the perpetual warfare against the Church which can be limited to no special period, and which are, in principle, as rife in these latter days as in any before them.
Not a hair to perish—‘In patience you should possess your souls’
It is characteristic of St. Luke that he is the one of the Evangelists who inserts, after the promise to perseverance, the two loving sentences of our Lord which He then added:
‘Not a hair of your heads shall perish’
‘In your patience you shall possess your souls.’
The first of these sayings was the proverbial expression about the ‘hairs of the head,’ which was used by the Jews and others to express the great value set upon a person, whose preservation was very dear and much thought of, and here it reminds us of our Lord’s words that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Providence of God.
The sentence promises the Divine protection to the Apostles and their followers, not meaning, of course, that they shall not be put to death or subjected to ill-treatment of various kinds, when it is the will of God that they shall suffer for His glory, their own great profit, and the good of the Church, but that everything of this kind shall be carefully and lovingly meted out and regulated according to what is best.
The second sentence is not perfectly clear in the English version, on account of the meaning of the word which is translated ‘possess.’ The word means to acquire, gain, and in that sense ‘possess’ or become possessor of something. There is also a difference in the reading in various manuscripts, so that it is sometimes in the future tense, ‘ye shall possess,’ sometimes, ‘possess ye.’
The meaning, however, is simple. The words mean that by their patience and endurance the Apostles, and those who follow them, are to gain their own souls, that is, the salvation of their souls hereafter, and the possession and command of them here. Their salvation does not depend on their being free from trouble or pain or danger or difficulty; it does not depend on the success of their work for the souls of men, or on the splendour of their miracles, still less on things external, such as the applause or favour of men.
They may gain a great many things in that way, and yet they may lose themselves, by vanity or self-satisfaction. But the one thing they will gain, by their patience and endurance under all the various trials to which they are exposed, is salvation.
As every day passes, bringing with it an ever fresh crop of annoyances, labours, toils, disappointments, dangers, alarms, it will, if they meet all these with patience, leave behind it a rich harvest of merit and of great increase in virtue and strength, and at the end they will find themselves in possession of salvation.
Thought repeated by the Apostles
We find this idea repeated for us by the Apostles, as if they had cherished up the words of our Lord in which they are conveyed. St. Peter, in his first Epistle,2 writes to the Christian Jews of the ‘Dispersion,’ who were evidently beginning to feel the heavy weight of persecution for the faith:
‘The time is that judgment should begin at the house of God. And if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the Gospel of God? And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commend their souls in good deeds to the faithful Creator.’
These words exactly convey the idea of the ‘patience’ mentioned in the text. St. James takes up the strain in his Epistle, written to Christians similarly circumstanced with those whom St. Peter addressed.
‘My brethren, count it all joy when you shall fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience, and patience hath a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.’3
St. Paul draws out the doctrine more fully to the Romans. ‘We glory,’ he says, ‘in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.’ But that is not all.
‘Not only so, but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial [or proof] and trial hope, and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Who is given to us.’4
The crown and reward of all their patience is the gift of heavenly charity poured into their hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Second part of the prophecy
We may now proceed to what may be considered the second portion of this great prophecy, which beyond all doubt refers mainly and directly to the destruction of Jerusalem.
In the next part on this dramatic prophecy of doom, Fr Coleridge will explain…
What were the actual historic signs that warned Jerusalem’s Christian’s to flee
How Jerusalem’s initial victory against Cestius sealed it’s fate
How the chastisement of the Jews by Rome was terrible but just.
Subscribe now so as not to miss it!
The Doom of Jerusalem
How close are we to Judgement Day? Here’s what Christ’s signs tell us
Why does the world instinctively hate the Church and her faithful children?
Here’s why you should subscribe to The Father Coleridge Reader and share with others:
Fr 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, its drama and all its stages—increasing our appreciation and admiration for the God-Man.
If more Catholics knew about works like Coleridge’s, then other works based on sentimentality and dubious private revelations would be much less attractive.
But 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?
Follow our projects on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram:
Twitter (The WM Review)
St. Matt. xii, 29.
I St. Peter iv. 17.
St. James i. 3, 4.
Rom. v. 2-5