For wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together.
Read Chapter 24
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Lib. 83, Quaest., Q79: Here the Lord forewarns us that even wicked men shall do some miracles which the saints cannot do, yet are they not therefore to bethought to have a higher place in the sight of God. For the Egyptian magi werenot more acceptable to God than the people of Israel, because they could do what the Israelites could not; yet did Moses, by the power of God, work greater things. This gift is not bestowed on all the saints, lest the weak should beled astray by a most destructive error, supposing such powers to be higher gifts than those works of righteousness by which eternal life is secured. And though magi do the same miracles that the saints do, yet are they done with adifferent end, and through a different authority; for the one do them seeking the glory of God, the others seeking their own glory; these do them by some special compact or privilege And weought not to wonder at this when we believe not unreasonably that all that wesee happen is wrought by the agency of t...
Wheresoever the body This seems to have been a proverb or common saying among the Jews. Several of the ancient interpreters, by this body, understand Christ himself, who died for us; and they tell us, that at his second coming the angels and saints, like eagles, with incredible swiftness, will join him at the place of judgment. (Witham)
When he shall come to judgment, all, as it were by a natural instinct, shall fly to meet him, and receive their judgment. St. Hilary understands this literally; that where his body shall hang upon the cross, there will he appear in judgment, i.e. near the valley of Josaphat; in which place the prophet Joel (chap. iii. ver. 2,) declares, that the general judgment shall take place. (Tirinus)
Mor. xv, 61: When then Antichrist shall have wrought wonderful prodigies before the eyes of the carnal, he shall draw men after him, all such as delight in present goods, surrendering themselves irrevocably to his sway, “Insomuch that if it were possible the very elect should be led astray.”.
Hom. in Ev., xxxv, i: And as darts, when foreseen, are less likely to hit, Headds, “Lo, I have told you.” Our Lord announces the woes which are to precede the destruction of the world, that when they come they may alarm the less from having been foreknown.
Mor. xxxi, 53: We may understand this, “Wheresoever the carcase is,” as meaning, I who incarnate sit on the throne of heaven, as soon as I shall have loosed the souls of the elect from the flesh, will exalt them to heavenly places.
Notwithstanding, by reason of the great tribulation in which men shall be cast, false prophets promising to show aid present from Christ, will falsely affirm that Christ is present in divers places, that they may draw into the service of Antichrist men discouraged and distracted.
The false prophets, of whom He had spoken above, shall say of Christ one while,“Lo, He is in the desert,” in order that they may cause men to wander astray; another while, “Lo, He is in the secret chambers,” that they may enthral men under the dominion of Antichrist. But the Lord declares Himself to be neither lurking in a remote corner, nor shut up to be visited singly, but that He shall be exhibited to the view of all, and in every place, “As the lightning comet out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Sonof Man be.”
We are taught about the sacrament of Christ by the use of a natural example taken from daily life. Eagles and vultures are said to sense the presence of a carcass all the way across the sea and to gather their food in this way. If therefore these irrational creatures have the natural capacity to know where a small body lies, even though separated by so great a distance across land and sea, how much more ought we and the whole multitude of believers hasten to him whose splendor comes from the east and shines as far as the west! In Greek the body is called a pt&#;ma, but the Latin word for it, cadaver, is more illuminating because it comes from the word “to fall,” cadere, and implies that the body has fallen dead. We can understand this body to refer to the Passion of Christ because wherever Scripture says that we are gathered together, it is for the purpose of coming to the Word of God. For example, “A company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet,” “like a lamb ...
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...
When the Lord had finished all that related to Jerusalem, He came in the restto His own coming, and gives them signs thereof, useful not for them only, but for us and for all who shall be after us. As above, the Evangelist said, “In those days came John the Baptist,” not implying immediately after what had gone before, but thirty years after; so here, when He says, “Then,” He passes over the whole interval of time between the taking of Jerusalem and the beginnings of the consummation of the world. Wherefore, “If any man shall say unto you,Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe not.”.
He speaks here of Antichrist, and of certain his ministers, whom He calls falseChrists and false prophets, such as were many in the time of the Apostles; but before Christ’s second coming there shall come others more bitter than the former, “And they shall show great signs and wonders.” .
As He had above described in what guise Antichrist should come, so here He describes how He Himself shall come. For as t...
How then shines the lightning? It needs not one to talk of it, it needs not a herald, but even to them that sit in houses, and to them in chambers it shows itself in an instant of time throughout the whole world. So shall that coming be, showing itself at once everywhere by reason of the shining forth of His glory. But He mentions also another sign, where the carcass is, there also shall the eagles be; meaning the multitude of the angels, of the martyrs, of all the saints.
He says not this because it is possible for the divine election to be defeated, but because they, who to men’s judgment seemed elect, shall be led into error.
If the deceivers should come and say, "Christ has come, but He is hiding in the desert, or in a house within its inner chambers," do not be deceived. For the coming of Christ needs no one to point it out, but it will be utterly clear to all, like the lightning. For just as the lightning is sudden and seen by all, so too will the Lord’s coming be visible to everyone on earth. It will not be as in the first coming when He went about from place to place, but at the second coming He will appear in a twinkling of an eye. And as the eagles, that is, the vultures, swiftly converge on a corpse, so too all the saints, who soar in the heights, will come where Christ will be and they will be snatched up into the clouds as the eagles. Certainly the corpse is Christ Who died for us and lay as a corpse. As St. Symeon also says, "Behold, this child is laid out for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel" (Lk. 2:34).
