You that are rich cannot do good works in the church, because your eyes, saturated with blackness and covered with the shadows of night, do not see the needy and the poor. Do you, rich and wealthy, think that you celebrate the Lord’s feast? You do not at all consider the offering. You come to the Lord’s feast without a sacrificial offering and take a part of the sacrifice that the poor offered. Look in the Gospel at the widow mindful of the heavenly commandments, doing good in the very middle of the pressures and hardships of poverty. She throws two mites that were her only possessions into the treasury. . . . She was a greatly blessed and glorious woman, who even before the judgment day merited to be praised by the voice of the Judge. Let the rich be ashamed of their sterility and their misfortunes. A poor widow is found with an offering. Although all things that are given are given to orphans and widows, she who should receive gives that we may know what punishment awaits the rich person. By this teaching, even the poor should do good. We should understand that these works are given to God and that whoever does these deserves well of God. Christ therefore calls these gifts of God and points out that the widow has placed two mites among the gifts of God, that it can be more apparent that he who pities the poor lends to God.

This may perhaps irritate some among the rich. We will therefore address a few remarks to them. You delight, O rich person, in the abundance of your possessions. . . . You offer not so much in proportion to your means as merely that which when you give, you will never miss—out of great abundance, a little. The woman offered two farthings, but she possessed nothing more than what she offered. She had nothing left. With empty hand but a hand bountiful of the little she possessed, she went away from the treasury. Did she not therefore justly carry off the crown? Did not the decree of superiority come to her by a holy judgment? Did she not surpass your bountifulness, in regard at least of her readiness?

While [Jesus] stood in the temple, he also gave the verdict of which we are speaking. In the following verses, you have: Jesus spoke these words in the treasury while teaching in the temple. And no one seized him.^[1] What is the treasury? It is the contribution of the faithful, the bank of the poor, and the refuge of the needy. Christ sat near this and, according to Luke, gave the opinion that the two mites of the widow were preferable to the gifts of the rich. God’s word preferred love joined with zeal and generosity rather than the lavish gifts of generosity.

Let us see what comparison he made when he gave such judgment there near the treasury, for with good reason he preferred the widow who contributed the two mites. That precious poverty of hers was rich in the mystery of faith. So are the two coins that the Samaritan of the Gospels left at the inn to care for the wounds of the man who had fallen among robbers.^[2] Mystically representing the church, the widow thought it right to put into the sacred treasury the gift with which the wounds of the poor are healed and the hunger of wayfarers is satisfied.

Although the spite of some people does not grow gentle with any kindness, nevertheless the works of mercy are not fruitless, and kindness never loses what is offered to the ungrateful. May no one, dearly beloved, make themselves strangers to good works. Let no one claim that his poverty scarcely sufficed for himself and could not help another. What is offered from a little is great, and in the scale of divine justice, the quantity of gifts is not measured but the steadfastness of souls. The widow in the Gospel put two coins into the treasury, and this surpassed the gifts of all the rich. No mercy is worthless before God. No compassion is fruitless. He has given different resources to human beings, but he does not ask different affections.

The future signs that are foretold in the Gospel according to Luke are the same as those in Matthew and Mark.^[1] These three tell how the Lord answered his disciples. They asked him when the events that he had foretold of the destruction of the temple would happen. They also asked him what was to be the sign of his coming and of the end of the world. There is no discrepancy in the Gospels as to facts, although one tells one detail that another passes over or describes differently. They rather supplement each other when they are compared, and they thus give direction to the mind of the reader. It would take too long to discuss them all now. The Lord answered their questions by telling what was to happen from that time on: the destruction of Jerusalem that prompted their inquiry, and his coming in the church in which he does not cease to dwell until the end. Christ is recognized when he comes to his own, while his members are daily born. He said of this coming, Hereafter you shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds.^[2]

Some of them showed Christ the mighty works that were in the temple and the beauty of the offerings. They expected that he would admire the spectacle as they did, although he is God and heaven is his throne. He did not allow any regard for these earthly buildings, since they were unimportant. Absolutely nothing compared with the mansions that are above. Dismissing the conversation about them, he turned to what was necessary for their use. Christ forewarned them that however worthy of admiration they might think the temple was, yet at a certain time it would be destroyed from its foundations. The power of the Romans would tear it down and burn Jerusalem with fire, and retribution would be required from Israel for the Lord’s murder. They had to suffer these things after the Savior’s crucifixion.

There is a true saying next to the points about the temple that Solomon founded. The enemy must first destroy this by the time of the judgment. Everything made by labor and by hand in either age will wear out or be destroyed by force or consumed by fire. . . .

When asked when the destruction of the temple would be and what would be the sign of his coming, the Lord warns of signs and does not think that the time should be made known. Matthew added a third question. The disciples asked about the times of the destruction of the temple, the sign of the coming, and the end of the world.^[1] Luke thought that enough was known about the end of the world if it were learned under the topic of the Lord’s coming.

Jerusalem certainly was besieged and taken by the Roman army . . . then, the desolation will be near since many will fall into error and depart from the true faith. . . . Then the day of the Lord will suitably come, and the days will be shortened for the sake of the chosen.^[1] Since the Lord’s first coming was to atone for sins, the second will be to prevent transgressions, fearing more might fall into the error of unbelief. False prophets^[2] and then famine will come. Tell me again of the times of Elijah, and you will find prophets of confusion, Jezebel, famine and drought on earth.^[3] What was the reason? Wickedness abounded, and love grew cold.^[4]

He explains what will happen at the consummation of the world and warns them. Before our Savior Christ comes from heaven, various false christs and false prophets will appear, coming before him. They will falsely take upon themselves his person, coming into the world like swirling smoke springing up from a fire about to break out. Do not follow them, he says. The only-begotten Word of God consented to take our likeness upon himself and to endure the birth in the flesh from a woman, in order that he might save all under heaven. . . . It was necessary that Christ should remain unknown during the time that preceded his passion. His second advent from heaven, however, will not happen secretly, as did his coming at first, but will be illustrious and terrifying. In the glory of God the Father, he will descend with the holy angels guarding him to judge the world in righteousness. He therefore says, When false christs and false prophets arise, do not go after them.

When this type of thing was chanted to you in the temple, The gods who protected Rome have not saved it now, because they no longer exist, you would say, They did save it when they existed.

We, however, can show that our God is truthful. He foretold all these things. You read all of them and heard them. I am not sure whether you have remembered them, you that are upset by such words. Have you not heard the prophets, the apostles, the Lord Jesus Christ himself foretelling evils to come? When old age comes to the world and the end draws near, you heard it, brothers and sisters, we all heard it together. There will be wars, turmoil, tribulations and famines.^[1] Why do we contradict ourselves? When these things are read, we believe them, but when they are fulfilled, we grumble.

Perhaps you are anxious, brothers and sisters, at the fact that we hear constantly of the tumult of wars and the onsets of battles. Perhaps your love is still more anxious since these are taking place in our times. The reason is the closer we are to the destruction of the world, the closer we are to the kingdom of the Savior. The Lord himself says, In the last days nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. When you see wars, earthquakes and famines, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. This nearness of wars shows us that Christ is near.

Jesus gives them clear and evident signs of the time when the consummation of the world draws near. He says that there will be wars, turmoil, famines and epidemics everywhere. There will be terrors from heaven and great signs. As another Evangelist says, All the stars shall fall, and the heaven be rolled up like a scroll, and its powers will be shaken.^[1]

In the middle of this, the Savior places what refers to the capture of Jerusalem. He mixes the accounts together in both parts of the narrative. Before all these things, he says, They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and to prisons and bringing you before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. This will be a witness to you. Before the times of consummation, the land of the Jews was taken captive, and the Roman armies overran it. They burned the temple, overthrew their national government, and stopped the means for legal worship. They no longer had sacrifices, now that the temple was destroyed. The country of the Jews together with Jerusalem itself was totally laid waste. Before these things happened, they persecuted the blessed disciples. They imprisoned them and had a part in unendurable trials. They brought the disciples before judges and sent them to kings. Paul was sent to Rome to Caesar. . . .

Christ promises, however, that he will deliver them certainly and completely. He says that a hair of your head will not perish.

Death comes to either the soul or the body. The soul cannot die, and yet it can die. It cannot die, because its consciousness is never lost. It can die, if it loses God. You see, just as the soul itself is the life of the body, so in the same way God is the life of the soul. As the body dies when the soul that is its life abandons it, in the same way when God abandons the soul, it dies. To make sure, however, that God does not abandon the soul, it must always have enough faith not to fear death for God’s sake. Then God does not abandon it, and it does not die.

It remains that the death that is feared is feared for the body. Even on this point, the Lord Christ reassured his martyrs. After all, how could they be unsure of the integrity of their bodies, when they had been reassured about the number of their hairs? He said that your hairs have all been counted.^[1] In another place he says even more plainly, For I tell you, that not a hair of your head shall perish. Truth speaks. Does weakness hesitate?

We should have no doubt that our mortal flesh also will rise again at the end of the world. . . . This is the Christian faith. This is the Catholic faith. This is the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when he says, Not a hair of your head shall perish. Putting aside all unbelief, consider how valuable you are. How can our Redeemer despise any person when he cannot despise a hair of that person’s head? How are we going to doubt that he intends to give eternal life to our soul and body? He took on a soul and body in which to die for us, which he laid down for us when he died and which he took up again that we might not fear death.

To make his prediction even clearer and to mark more plainly the time of its capture, Jesus says, When you have seen Jerusalem surrounded with armies, then know that its destruction is near. Afterwards, he again transfers his words from this subject to the time of the consummation. He says, There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Since creation begins to be changed and brings unendurable terrors on the inhabitants of earth, there will be a certain fearful tribulation. There will also be souls departing to death. The unendurable fear of those things that are coming will be sufficient for the destruction of many.

Woe to those pregnant women, because they are heavy in body; they are too slow to escape danger. Woe to those for whom the yet unfelt pangs of future birth, by which every body is shaken, are the signs of future judgment, the beginnings of sorrows.^[1]

The signs given in the Gospel and in prophecy and fulfilled in us show the coming of the Lord. . . . We know that the coming is near by the fact that we see the fulfillment of certain signs of that coming that have been accomplished. . . . The signs that Christ told them to look for are listed in the Gospel of Saint Luke: Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the nations are fulfilled. This has happened and no one doubts that it has happened. . . . It is plain that there is no country or place in our time that is not harassed or humbled according to the words for fear and expectation of what will come on the whole world. All the signs that the gospel describes in the earlier verses have mostly been accomplished.

Anyone can see that he refers to that city when Christ says, When you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation is near. Anyone can see that these words refer to the last coming of the Lord when he says, When you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near. When he says, Alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.^[1] This passage is phrased in this way in Matthew and Mark so that it is uncertain whether it is to be understood of the destruction of the city or of the end of the world. . . . Luke has so arranged it that it seems to refer to the destruction of that city.

This is a true sequence of prophecy and a fresh cause of mystery, because the Jews will be led captive a second time to Babylon and Assyria. Those throughout the world who have denied Christ will be captive. A hostile army will trample visible Jerusalem as the sword kills Jews. All Judea will be put to the spiritual sword, the two-edged sword,^[1] by the nations that will believe. There will be different signs in the sun, moon and the stars.^[2] . . . When very many fall away from religion, a cloud of unbelief will darken bright faith, because for me that heavenly Sun^[3] is either diminished or increased by my faith. If very many gaze on the rays of the worldly sun, the sun seems bright or pale in proportion to the capacity of the viewer, so the spiritual light is imparted to each according to the devotion of the believer. In its monthly courses, the moon, opposite the earth, wanes when it is in the sun’s quarter. When the vices of the flesh obstruct the heavenly Light, the holy church also cannot borrow the brightness of the divine Light from the rays of Christ. In the persecutions, love of this life alone certainly very often shuts out the light of God.

Watch over your life. Do not let your lamps go out, and do not keep your loins ungirded, but be ready, for you do not know the hour when our Lord is coming.^[1] Meet together frequently in your search for what is good for your souls, since a lifetime of faith will be of no advantage^[2] to you unless you prove perfect at the very end. In the final days, multitudes of false prophets and seducers will appear. Sheep will turn into wolves, and love into hatred. With the increase of iniquity, people will hate, persecute and betray each other. Then the world deceiver will appear in the disguise of God’s Son. He will work signs and wonders,^[3] and the earth will fall into his hands. He will commit outrages such as have never occurred before. Then humankind will come to the fiery trial, and many will fall away^[4] and perish. Those who persevere in their faith will be saved^[5] by the Curse himself.^[6] Then there will appear the signs^[7] of the Truth: first the sign of stretched-out hands in heaven, then the sign of a trumpet’s blast,^[8] and third, the resurrection of the dead, but not all the dead. As it has been said, The Lord will come and all his saints with him. Then the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of the sky.^[9]

You see him in the clouds. I certainly do not think that Christ will come in the darkness of mist and the chill of rain. The clouds are visible^[1] and surely cover the heaven in foggy cold. How has he set his tabernacle in the sun^[2] if his coming brings the rain? Some clouds suitably cover the radiance of the heavenly mystery. Some clouds grow moist with the dew of spiritual grace.^[3] Consider the cloud in the Old Testament.^[4] He spoke to them, it says, in a pillar of cloud.^[5] . . . He comes in a calm cloud in the Song of Songs, shining with the joy of a bridegroom.^[6] He also comes in a swift light cloud,^[7] incarnate of the Virgin. The prophet saw him as a cloud coming from the east. He fittingly said, a light cloud,^[8] that earthly vices would not weigh down. See the cloud upon which the Holy Spirit came and the power of the Most High overshadowed.^[9] When Christ will appear in the clouds, the tribes of the earth will grieve over themselves.^[10]

Then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. As I see it, this could be taken in two ways. One way is that he will come in the church as in a cloud. He continues to come in this way according to his word, Hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.^[1] He comes with great power and majesty because his greater power and majesty will appear in the saints to whom he will give great power, so that persecution might not overcome them. The other way in which he will come will be in his body in which he sits at the right hand of the Father.^[2] In this body, he died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles: When he had said these things, a cloud received him and he was taken up from their sight.^[3] The angels then said, He shall so come as you have seen him going away.^[4] We have reason to believe that he will come not only in the same body but also in a cloud since he will come as he left, and a cloud received him as he went.

He says that they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Christ will not come secretly or obscurely but as God and Lord in glory suitable for deity. He will transform all things for the better. He will renew creation and refashion the nature of people to what it was at the beginning. He said, When these things come to pass, lift up your heads and look upward, for your redemption is near. The dead will rise. This earthly and infirm body will put off corruption and will clothe itself with incorruption by Christ’s gift. He grants those that believe in him to be conformed to the likeness of his glorious body.

You say that our very suffering forces us to admit that the end is at hand when there is a fulfillment of what was foretold: men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. You say, It is plain that there is no country or place in our time that is not harassed or humbled according to the words ‘for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world.’ If the evils that the human race now suffers are clear signs that the Lord is about to come now, what becomes of the apostle’s words: When they shall say, ‘Peace and security’?^[1] When the Gospel said, men withering away for fear and expectation, it immediately continued, For the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty.

The fig tree therefore has a double meaning: when the wild is tamed or when sins abound. Like the believer’s faith that shriveled up before it will flower, so also sinners will glory through the grace of their transgressions. On the one hand is the fruit of faith, and on the other the lewdness of unbelief. The gardening of the Evangelist as farmer produces the fruit of the fig tree for me.^[1] We must not despair if sinners cover themselves with the leaves of the fig tree as with a garment of deceit, so that they may veil their conscience. Leaves without fruit are therefore suspicious.

Beloved brothers and sisters, whoever serves as a soldier of God stationed in the camp of heaven already hopes for the divine things. He should recognize himself so that we should have no fear or dread at the storms and whirlwinds of the world. Through the encouragement of his provident voice, the Lord predicted that these things would come when he was instructing, teaching, preparing and strengthening the people of his church to endure everything to come. Christ foretold and prophesied that wars, famine, earthquakes and epidemics would arise in the various places. So that an unexpected and new fear of destructive agencies might not shake us, he forewarned that adversity would increase in the last times. Note that the things that were spoken of are happening. Since the things that were foretold are happening, whatever he promises will also follow. The Lord himself promises, When you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God, beloved brothers and sisters, has drawn near. The reward of life, the joy of eternal salvation, the perpetual happiness and the possession of paradise once lost are now coming as the world passes away.

But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare. You heard the proclamation of the eternal King. You learned the deplorable end of drunkenness or intoxication. Imagine a skilled and wise physician who would say, Beware, no one should drink too much from this or that herb. If he does, he will suddenly be destroyed. I do not doubt that everyone would keep the prescriptions of the physician’s warning concerning his own health. Now the Lord, who is both the physician of souls and bodies, orders them to avoid as a deadly drink the herb of drunkenness and the vice of intoxication and also the care of worldly matters. I do not know if any one can say that he is not wounded, because these things consume him.

Drunkenness is therefore destructive in all things. It is the only thing that weakens the soul together with the body. According to the apostle, it can happen that when the body is weak, then the spirit is much stronger,^[1] and when the exterior person is destroyed, the interior person is renewed.^[2] In the illness of drunkenness, the body and the soul are destroyed at the same time. The spirit is corrupted equally with the flesh. All the members are weakened: the feet and the hands. The tongue is loosened. Darkness covers the eyes. Forgetfulness covers the mind so that one does not know himself nor does he perceive he is a person. Drunkenness of the body has that shamefulness.

The crowd of the Jews and their ruler stood up against the glory of Christ and argued with the Lord of all. Anyone may perceive that those Jews prepared their snare against their own souls, because they dug for themselves pitfalls of destruction. . . .

It then says that by day he taught in the temple but lodged during the nights on the mountain called the Mount of Olives. Clearly what he taught were things that surpass the legal service. The time had come when the shadow must be changed into the reality. They also gladly heard him, for they often wondered about him, because Christ’s word was with power. . . .

He stayed during the nights on the Mount of Olives, avoiding the uproars that were in the city, that in this he might also be an example to us. It is the duty of those who would lead a life quiet and calm, full of rest, to avoid as far as possible the crowd and hubbub.