Post-feast of the Transfiguration; Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence (249-51).
Dormition Fast.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6; Matthew 24:13-28.
Read Matthew 24:13-28
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today’s Gospel reading contains a fearful description of the conditions surrounding the destruction of the Jewish temple. Jesus refers to Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:23), which was fulfilled in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus entered the Holy Place and had a statue of himself erected in the temple, before having it destroyed.
The temple was constructed after the pattern of the cosmos, it was the heart of Jewish life, the place where God dwelt and was worshiped and encountered among His people. Its destruction would have seemed very much like the end of the world to those alive at the time.
According to St. Maximus the Confessor man is created after the pattern of the cosmos. He is in fact a microcosm, containing and summing up all creation within himself. Mankind encapsulates both created worlds (visible and invisible) within itself, as St. Maximus says, man is both a heavenly being and an earthly one, “though weak in comparison with other animals, on the earth, like an angel he was able to worship God, with the senses as well as the intellect.”
Given the parallel here, on a personal level we might understand the setting up of the abomination of desolation, as ejecting God from our hearts and replacing him with an idol of ourselves. This willful self-centeredness is what ultimately leads to the destruction of our temple.
It is no coincidence that the Church places this reading about the end of the world at the end of the liturgical year. It is also a time when the seasons are turning towards Fall, the leaves are beginning to yellow and nature shows its decay. All of this reminds us that one day our time on this earth will also draw to a close, whether that be our personal end, or the end of all things.
Today Jesus tells his disciples that in preparation for the things to come, they should “pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (verse 20). The Fathers see the Sabbath as representing idleness with regard to virtue, and winter as indicating fruitlessness with regard to charity. It is this lack of virtue and defect of Charity that represent the greatest threat to our eternal salvation at the coming of Christ, and it is in these we must strive to persevere – as Christ tells us today – He who endures to the end will be saved.