Catena Aurea

32. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. 77.) Because He had said that these things should come to pass immediately after the tribulation of those days, they might ask, How long time hence? He therefore gives them an instance in the fig

JEROME. As much as to say, When the tender shoots first shew themselves in the stem of the fig tree, and the bud bursts into flower, and the bark puts forth leaves, ye perceive the approach of summer and the season of spring and growth; so when ye shall see all these things that are written, do not suppose that the end of the world is immediate, but that certain monitory signs and precursors are shewing its approach.

CHRYSOSTOM. He shews that the interval of time shall not be great, but that the coming of Christ will be presently. By the comparison of the tree He signifies the spiritual summer and peace that the just shall enjoy after their winter, while sinners on the other hand shall have a winter after summer.

ORIGEN. As the fig has its vital powers torpid within it through the season of winter, but when that is past its branches become tender by those very powers and put forth leaves; so the world and all those who are saved had before Christ’s coming their vital energies dormant within them as in a season of winter. Christ’s Spirit breathing upon them makes the branches of their hearts soft and tender, and that which was dormant within burgeons into leaf, and makes shew of fruit. To such the summer and the coming of the glory of the Word of God is nigh at hand.

CHRYSOSTOM. This analogy also adds credit to His foregoing discourse; for wherever He speaks of what must by all means come to pass, Christ ever brings forward parallel physical laws.

AUGUSTINE. (Ep. 199, 22.) That now from the Evangelic and Prophetic signs that we see come to pass, we ought to look that the Lord’s coming should be nigh, who is there that denies? For daily it draws ever more and more near, but of the exact time it is said, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons. (Acts 1:7.) See how long ago the Apostle said, Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Rom. 13:11.) What he spoke was not false, and yet how many years have elapsed, how much more may we not say that the Lord’s coming is at hand now, that so great an accession of time has been made?

HILARY. Mystically; The Synagogue is likened to the fig treeg; its branch is Antichrist, the son of the Devil, the portion of sin, the maintainer of the law; when this shall begin to swell and to put forth leaves, then summer is nigh, i. e. the approach of the day of judgment shall be perceived.

REMIGIUS. Or, when this fig shall again bud, that is, when the synagogue shall receive the word of holy preaching, as the preaching of Enoch and Elias, then we ought to understand that the day of the consummation is at hand.

AUGUSTINE. (Quæst. Ev. i. 39.) Or, by the fig tree understand the human race, by reason of the temptations of the flesh. When its branch is fender, i. e. when the sons of men through faith in Christ have progressed towards spiritual fruits, and the honour of their adoption to be the sons of God has shone forth in them.

HILARY. To give sure credit to the things which should come to pass He adds, Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. By saying Verily, He gives asseveration to the truth.

ORIGEN. The uninstructed refer the words to the destruction of Jerusalem, and suppose them to have been said of that generation which saw Christ’s death, that it should not pass away before the city should be destroyed. But I doubt that they would succeed in thus expounding every word from that, one stone shall not be left upon another, to that, it is even at the door; in some perhaps they would succeed, in others not altogether.

CHRYSOSTOM. All these things therefore mean what was said of the end of Jerusalem, of the false prophets, and the false Christs, and all the rest which shall happen down to the time of Christ’s coming. That He said, This generation, He meant not of the men then living, but of the generation of the faithful; for so Scripture uses to speak of generations, not of time only, but of place, life, and conversation; as it is said, This is the generation of them that seek the Lord. (Ps. 24:6.) Herein He teaches that Jerusalem shall perish, and the greater part of the Jews be destroyed, but that no trial shall overthrow the generation of the faithful.

ORIGEN. Yet shall the generation of the Church survive the whole of this world, that it may inherit the world to come, yet it shall not pass away until all these things have come to pass. But when all these shall have been fulfilled, then not the earth only but the heavens also shall pass away; that is, not only the men whose life is earthy, and who are therefore called the earth, but also they whose conversation is in heaven, and who are therefore called the heaven; these shall pass away to things to come, that they may come to better things. But the words spoken by the Saviour shall not pass away, because they effect and shall ever effect their purpose; but the perfect and they that admit no further improvement, passing through what they are, come to that which they are not; and this is that, My words shall not pass away. And perhaps the words of Moses and the Prophets have passed away, because all that they prophesied has been fulfilled; but the words of Christ are always complete, daily fulfilling and to be fulfilled in the saints. Or perhaps we ought not to say that the words of Moses and the Prophets are once for all fulfilled; seeing they also are the words of the Son of God, and are fulfilled continually.

JEROME. Or, by generation here He means the whole human race, and the Jews in particular. And He adds, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, to confirm their faith in what has gone before; as though He had said, it is easier to destroy things solid and immovable, than that aught should fail of my words.

HILARY. For heaven and earth have in their constitution no necessity of existence, but Christ’s words derived from eternity have in them such virtue that they must needs abide.

JEROME. The heaven and the earth shall pass away by a change, not by annihilation; for how should the sun be darkened, and the moon not give her light, if earth and heaven in which these are should be no more?

RABANUS. The heaven which shall pass away is not the1 starry but the2 atmospheric heaven which of old was destroyed by the deluge.

CHRYSOSTOM. He brings forward the elements of the earth to shew that the Church is of more value than either heaven or earth, and that He is Maker of all things.