Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
All Commentaries on Matthew 24:29 Go To Matthew 24
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But immediately after the tribulation, &c. Christ passes from the destruction of Jerusalem to the destruction of the world, and the signs which shall precede it.
Tribulation. Understand the persecutions and temptations which shall arise from false Christs and false Prophets, of which the23d verse speaks; or rather the tribulation which came upon the Jews at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. For this only did He call tribulation a little above in ver21. Where observe, with S. Chrysostom, Jerome, and others, that Christ, in order to keep His disciples and those who succeeded them in constant expectation of His Advent and the Day of Judgment, and to urge them to be always prepared for it, seems to favour the mistake of the Apostles, and to speak as though the end of the world would follow immediately upon the destruction of the city, but in a different way from that in which the Apostles understood it. For although1560 years have elapsed since the destruction of Jerusalem, and many more will yet elapse before the end of the world, nevertheless all this period, long as it seems to us, whose span of life is so short, yet compared with the eternity of God, who is the true Measurer of times, is but very small, yea, only as it were a moment. Thus answers S. Peter ( 2 Peter 3:8), "One day is with God as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. This is why the Prophets and Apostles call the period of Christ and of the Gospel Dispensation, the last time and the last hour, as appears from 1 John 2:18; 1 Corinthians 10:11; James 5:8; Hebrews 10:37. For the same reason Haggai 2:4 says that there shall be but a little while to the coming of Christ, and yet there were517 years still to elapse before He came. There is also this to be considered, that the tribulation of the world shall immediately follow the tribulation of the city, in the sense that no very remarkable and exceptional tribulation of the Jews shall intervene between those two events, so that the one shall very closely succeed the other, not as regards time, but in type, similitude, and fearfulness. For a similar reason Isaiah ,, Jeremiah , and the rest of the Prophets, when they describe the destruction of Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, and of Juda by the Chaldeans, pass on at once to the antitype, the destruction of the world, as though it were about to take place immediately. And they set forth how dreadful shall be the former events by the signs and horrors which shall take place at the latter event. This appears by Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 15:9; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10.
From what has been said, it would seem that Alcazar (in Revelation 6:12), from the expression "thus" in this verse of S. Matthew , gathers incorrectly that all the things which are here spoken of refer literally, not to the end of the world, but to the destruction of Jerusalem. By the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars, this writer understands literally the blindness of the Jews, their calamities, and the slaughter which was made of them by Titus. By the shaking of the powers of the heavens, he understands the flight of the Christians from the city, by whose holiness it was sustained. But every one can see that these meanings are mystical and symbolical.
The sun shall be darkened. Observe that this sign and those which follow are not after the General Resurrection, as SS. Jerome and Chrysostom suppose, but previous to it, as is plain from S. Luke 21:26, and Joel 2:31. As to the meaning, S. Augustine (Epist80 , ad Hesych.) says, "The sun, i.e, the Church, shall be darkened, because in those tremendous temptations and tribulations which shall be in the end of the world, many who had seemed as bright and as firm as the sun and the stars shall fall from the faith." This is the allegorical sense, and is just and apposite.
You will ask, what will be the cause of this great obscuration of the sun before the Judgment Day? SS. Hilary, Jerome, Chrysostom answer, that it will be because the excessive brightness of Christ"s glorious body will make the sun grow pale. But I have already observed that these signs will take place before the General Resurrection, and therefore before Christ"s coming to judgment. So that I reply, the sun will be darkened because God will take away from it, not its light indeed, but its power of illuminating, by which it shall come to pass that in the sun there will be light, but upon the earth nothing but darkness. Thus was it at the Passion of Christ. Again, God will hide the sun by means of thick clouds and smoke. Perchance also there will be extraordinary and miraculous eclipses, as may be gathered from Lactantius.
Of this darkening of the sun at the end of the world, the calamities and prodigies which took place at the destruction of Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, Iduma, &c, were types. When, therefore, the Prophets speak of them, they speak by catachresis of the horribleness of the destruction, by saying that the sun and moon and stars shall be darkened. For such dreadful calamities bring on men giddiness and blindness. Thus those overthrows were types and foreshadowings of the destruction of the world, when the heavenly luminaries will be literally darkened.
And the moon, &c. For when the sun is darkened, the moon must necessarily be so likewise, since she derives her light from him.
Symbolically: Auctor Imperfecti says, "When the master of the household dies, his whole household is troubled; his family make lamentations and rend their garments. Song of Solomon , in like manner, when the human race, for whom all things were made, is about to come to an end, all creation languishes, the powers of the heavens mourn, and laying aside their brightness, are clothed with robes of darkness."
And the stars, &c1. Because at the end of the world the stars also shall be darkened, so that they shall appear to men to have fallen from the heavens. For Holy Scripture often speaks of things not as they are in themselves, but as they appear unto men.
2. Stars, i.e, comets and such like bodies, which are formed in the atmosphere, shall then fall upon the earth. This may be gathered from Joel ii30.
S. Chrysostom and Euthymius add, that at the end of the world stars, properly so called, shall fall from the heavens to the earth. But this must be understood of very small stars, and such as are invisible to us. For as to the visible stars, they are larger than our whole earth, and cannot therefore fall upon it.
And the powers of the heavens, &c. Origen, S. Chrysostom, &c, understand by these powers the sevenfold choirs or orders of the angels, which are called powers (Lat. virtutes) because they excel in strength (virtute). And the meaning would be, that the angels, mighty as they are, when they behold the sun and moon become dark, and the stars fall from heaven, and many other dreadful prodigies multiplied at the end of the world, will stand, as it were, astonished and stupefied at such great changes and terrible sights.
Here may be mentioned the opinion of Suarez (3 p. qu59 , art6 , disp56 , sect3), "The powers of the heavens," saith Hebrews , "are the angels, who, by their surpassing strength, cause the heavens to revolve; because they, as the ministers of the Divine justice and vengeance against the wicked, shall change the accustomed order of motion of the heavens. Thus there shall be utter confusion in this lower world."
But more simply, by the powers of the heavens, you may understand the stars themselves and their influences. The meaning Isaiah , that at the end of the world the very great and very strong stars of heaven shall change their motions, appearances, influences, and in consequence everything upon earth shall be in perturbation, so that the world shall be shaken by unwonted movements, the sea shall overflow, and the atmosphere shall be troubled with comets, thunderbolts, meteors, whirlwinds, so that all things will seem to be utterly in confusion.
Lastly, and most plainly, by the powers, &c, you may understand their poles and hinges. These are δυνάμεις, Heb. gibburoth, the strength and props, as it were, of the heavens. It means, that at the end of the world the whole heavens shall be shaken, all plucked from their poles and hinges, so that they will seem to fall down, so as to strike terror into the wicked, and to set forth the wrath of an angry Christ. I have treated of this matter more at length in Revelation 6:14. There is an allusion to Job 26:11, "The pillars of heaven shall tremble, and shall fear by reason, of His rebuke;" and to Isaiah 39:4, "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree." For as Bede says (in Luc. xxi25), "As when trees are shaken to their fall, they are wont to show premonitions of the coming crash; so likewise when the end of the world draweth nigh, shall the elements nod and tremble as though they were in fear;" and the heavens burning with fire, and as it were perishing, shall rise again with the Saints, and shall be renewed in a glorious state of felicity.
