For I say unto you, you shall not see me again, till you shall say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Quaest. Ev., i, 36: This species has the greatest affection for its brood, insomuch that when they are sick the mother sickens also; and what you will hardly find in any other animal, it will fight against the kite, protecting its young with its wings. In like manner our mother, the Wisdom of God, sickened asit were in the putting on the flesh, according to that of the Apostle, “The weakness of God is stronger than men,” protects our weakness, and resists the Devil that he should not make us his prey.
Euch. 97:. Where is that omnipotence, by the which He did whatsoever pleased Him both in heaven and in earth, if He would have gathered the children of Jerusalem and did not? Was it not that she would not that her children should be gathered by Him, and yet He did, notwithstanding, gather those of her children whom He would?
Till you say, blessed is he that cometh. Hereafter you shall own me for your Messias, and the world's Redeemer, at least at the day of judgment. (Witham)
The time here foretold, when they should say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, is the day of general judgment. When our Saviour says, henceforth, we must understand it of all that time, which intervened between the time of his speaking and his passion. (St. Chrysostom, hom. lxxv.)
It may also be understood of the Jews, who are to be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ towards the end of the world. (Menochius)
By “Jerusalem” He means not the stones and buildings, but the dwellers there, over whom He laments with the feeling of a Father.
“I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me” That is to say, Unless ye shall do penitence, and shall confess that I am He of whom the Prophets have spoken, the Son of the Almighty Father, ye shall not see My face. Thus the Jews have atime allowed for their repentance. Let them confess Him blessed who cometh in the name of the Lord, and they shall then behold Christ’s face.
For he who having seen many sinning yet remains uncorrected, but rather does the same or worse, is obnoxious to heavier punishment.
The Lord next turns to address the city, desiring to instruct His bearers thereby. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem:” this repetition of the name is a mark of compassion and intense love.
Foreseeing the destruction of the city, and the blow it would receive from the Romans, He called to mind the blood of the saints which had been, and should yet be, shed in it. Thou killedst Esaias who was sent unto thee, and stonedstmy servant Jeremias; thou dashedst out the brains of Ezechiel by dragging him over stones; how shalt thou be saved, which wilt not suffer a physician to come nigh thee?And He said not, Didst kill and stone; but,“Killest,” and “Stonest;” that is, This is a common and natural practice withthee to kill and stone the saints. She did to the Apostles the same things which she had once done to the Prophets.
Then He threatens the punishment of which they were ...
And this is the language of one that loves earnestly, earnestly drawing them unto Him by the things to come, not merely warning them by the past; for of the future day of His second coming does He here speak.
What then? Did they not see Him from that time? But it is not that hour which He means in saying, Henceforth, but the time up to His crucifixion.
For since they were forever accusing Him of this, that He was a kind of rival God, and a foe to God, He moves them to love Him by this, namely, by showing Himself to be of one accord with His Father; and He indicates Himself to be the same that was in the prophets. Wherefore also He uses the same words as did the prophets.
And by these He intimated both His resurrection, and His second coming, and made it plain even to the utterly unbelieving, that then most surely they should worship Him. And how did He make this plain? By speaking of many things that were first to be, that He should send prophets, that they should kill them; t...
Non occ.: Let heretics then cease to assign to Christ a beginning from the Virgin; let them leave off to preach one God of the Law and another of the Prophets.
. Twice He says the name Jerusalem, pitying and calling out to her with compassion. For as a lover vehemently justifies himself to his beloved, intending to punish her for having spurned him, so Christ accuses Jerusalem of being a murderess. And many times He desired to show mercy to her but she did not want it, but trusted in the devil who scattered her and led her away from the truth which unites, and she did not accept the Lord who gathers together. For there is nothing which disbands and scatters us from God so readily as does sin; just as there is nothing which gathers us back to God as readily as does a good conscience. He gave the example of the hen to show His affection. But as you do not want My affection, I leave the temple empty and abandoned. From this let us learn that God inhabits the temples for our sake, but when we have forsaken God, then the temples are abandoned [by God] as well. Therefore "Ye shall not see Me henceforth" until the second coming. But then, willing or...
