Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Church Year

Giambattista Tiepolo, The Crucifixion

And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’ For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?” There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:27–43)

The superscription is written and placed above, not below the cross, because the government is upon His shoulders. What is this government if not His eternal power and Godhead? When asked, “Who are you?” He replied, “The beginning, who also speaks to you.” Let us read this superscription. “Jesus of Nazareth,” it says, “The King of the Jews.” The superscription is fittingly above the cross because Christ's kingdom does not belong to His human body but to His divine authority. The superscription is fittingly above the cross, because although the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He shines above the cross with the majesty of a king.

Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 10.112

Let us see, then, why one who is guilty of such misdeeds is so quickly promised paradise by the Savior while others with their many tears and frequent fasting only barely obtain the remission of their sins. The reason why, brethren, is significant and many-faceted. In the first place, this thief was so quickly converted by the fervor of his faith that he despised present suffering and prayed for future pardon, and he believed that it would be more beneficial to him to make a request with respect to eternal judgment than to petition concerning temporal punishment. For, remembering his misdeeds and acting penitently, he began to be anxious for what he hoped rather than to feel what he suffered. For, once believing in Christ, he would have been quite able to petition concerning present punishment, except that he had given more thought to the future. And then it is more meritorious from the point of view of grace that he believed in Christ the Lord on the cross; and the suffering, which constitutes a stumbling block for others, served to increase his faith. For the suffering of the cross was a stumbling block to many, as the Apostle says: But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block indeed to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

Rightly, then, does he merit paradise who considered the cross of Christ to be not a stumbling block but power, for the same Apostle says: to those Jews who have been called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Rightly indeed does the Lord also give paradise to him because on the gibbet of the cross he confesses the one whom Judas Iscariot had sold in the garden. This is a remarkable thing: the thief confesses the One whom the disciple denied. This is a remarkable thing, I say: the thief honors the One who suffers, while Judas betrayed the One who kissed him. Flattering words of peace are peddled by the one and the wounds of the cross are preached by the other, for he says: Remember me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom.

Maximus of Turin, Sermon 74: On the Thief 1–2

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

“Because behold, the day comes, burning as a furnace, and it will consume them and all foreigners, and all the ones who do evil will become like straw, and the coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord Almighty. “And neither a root nor a branch will be left of them. And the sun of righteousness will rise for you, the ones fearing my name, and there will be healing in its wings. And you will come and leap like little calves from the band spreading forth. And you will trample the evil ones, because they will be like ashes under your feet, on the day that I will make,” says the Lord Almighty. “And behold, I am sending to you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and famous day of the Lord comes, who will restore the heart of a father to a son and the heart of a person to his neighbor, lest I should come and strike the land entirely. Remember the law of my servant Moses, as I commanded him in Horeb with all Israel, with commandments and decrees.” (Malachi 4:1–6 LXX)

This applies both to the first coming of our Savior and the second: in the first He rose like a kind of sun for us who were seated in darkness and shadow, freed us from sin, gave us a share in righteousness, covered us with spiritual gifts like wings, and provided healing for our souls. In the second coming for those worn out in the present life He will appear either in accord with their will or against it, and as a just judge He will judge justly and provide the promised good things. Just as the material sun in its rising awakens to work those in the grip of sleep, so in His coming He raises up those in the grip of the long sleep of death.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Malachi 4.2

But since the Savior was the beginning of the resurrection of all people, it was fitting that the Lord alone should rise from the dead, by whom too the judgment is to enter the whole world, that they who have wrestled worthily may be also crowned worthily by Him, by the illustrious Arbiter. That is, He Himself first accomplished the course, and was received into the heavens, and was set down on the right hand of God the Father, and is to be manifested again at the end of the world as judge. It is a matter of course that His forerunners must appear first, as He says by Malachi and the angel, “I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite before the Day of the Lord, the great and notable day, comes; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth utterly.” These, then, shall come and proclaim the manifestation of Christ that is to be from heaven; and they shall also perform signs and wonders; in order that people may be put to shame and turned to repentance for their surpassing wickedness and impiety.

Hippolytus, On the Antichrist 46

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.… But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. (2 Thessalonians 2:1–8, 13–17)

Such is Paul's account. And we have reached the “falling away.” Men, that is, have fallen away from the true faith. Some proclaim the identity of Father and Son. Others dare to assert that one should believe Christ has come into existence out of nonexistence. Formerly heretics were quite evident, but now the church is full of masked heretics. For men have deserted the truth and want to have their ears tickled. Make a plausible case, and everyone is ready to listen to you. Talk of changing one's life, and everyone deserts you. The majority have fallen away from the sound doctrines and are readier to choose what is bad than to prefer what is good. So there you have the “falling away,” and the coming of the enemy is to be expected next. Meanwhile, he has begun to send out his forerunners here and there, so that the spoil may be prepared for him when he comes. Therefore, brothers, look to yourselves. Watch over your souls carefully.

The Antichrist just mentioned by Paul will come when the destined period of the Roman Empire has run its course and the subsequent end of the world is drawing near. Ten claimants to the empire will arise simultaneously, I suppose in different parts, but all wearing the purple at the same time. Antichrist will form an eleventh after them, having seized the imperial power by the use of magic arts. He will humble three of those who came to power before him and cause the remaining seven to be Caesars under him. At first he will feign mildness and will appear to be a learned and understanding man, with pretended prudence and kindness. Then he will take in the Jews, by making them suppose him to be their expected Messiah, by false signs and wonders produced by magical trickery. And afterwards his character will be written large in evil deeds of inhumanity and lawlessness of every kind, so as to outdo all wicked and godless men that were before him. He will display a murderous, most absolute, pitiless and unstable temper toward all people, but especially toward us Christians. He will act insolently for only three and a half years. Then he will be defeated by the second glorious coming from heaven of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus, the true Christ. He will destroy Antichrist “with the spirit of his mouth” and commit him to the flames of hell.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 15.9, 12