For wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together.
All Commentaries on Matthew 24:28 Go To Matthew 24
Jerome
AD 420
Wherein He shows that His second coming shall be not in lowliness as His first, but in glory; and therefore it is folly to seek in places little and obscure for Him who is the Light of the whole world.
By an instance from nature, which we daily see, we are instructed in asacrament of Christ. Eagles and vultures are said to scent dead bodies even beyond sea, and to flock to feed upon them. If then birds, not having the gift of reason, by instinct alone find out where lays a dead body, separated by so great space of country, how much more ought the whole multitude of believers to hasten to Christ, whose lightning goeth forth out of the east, and shines evento the west? We may understand by the carcase here, or corpse , which in the Latin is more expressively ‘cadaver,’ an allusion to the passion of Christ's death.
They are called eagles whose youth is renewed as the eagle’s, and who take to the mselves wings that they may come to Christ’s passion.
Or otherwise ; This may be understood of the false prophets. At the time of the Jewish captivity, there were many leaders who declared themselves to beChrists, so that while the Romans were actually besieging them, there were three factions within. But it is better taken as we expounded it above, of the end of the world. Thirdly, it may be understood of the warfare of the heretics against the Church, and of those Antichrists, who under pretext of false science, fight against Christ.
Or by this, “in the desert,” or “in the secret chambers,” He means that in times of persecution and distress, the false Prophets always find place for deceiving.
