ACC ~ Matthew 24 v28

WHEREVER THE BODY IS

JEROME: 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 ptōma, [1] but the Latin word for it, cadaver, is more illuminating because it comes from the word “to fall,” cadare, 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,” [2] “like a lamb led to the slaughter,” [3] and in other passages like these. The eagles represent those saints whose youth is renewed like the eagle’s [4] and who, according to Isaiah, [5] shall mount up with wings to come to the passion of Christ. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.24.28. [6]

[1] Actually the Greek ptōma derives from piptein (“to fall”), and so the correspondence that Jerome notes in Latin can be sustained in Greek as well.

[2] Ps 22:16 (21:17 LXX).

[3] Is 53:7.

[4] Ps103:5 (102:5 LXX).

[5] Is 40:31.

[6] CCL 77:229.

THE GATHERING OF EAGLES

APOLLINARIS: Jesus spoke in a kind of comparison, as in the form of an illustration and example. For, he says, the appearing of the Son of man will be much the same as when eagles and other flesh-eating birds find a carcass and dead body lying on the ground. They secretly and unexpectedly bear them through the heights and by doing so will provide food for themselves. In the same way, he will appear again on the earth a second and glorious time to judge the world. Ranks of angels will be seen serving as an escort with all the saints rising up “in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye,” [1] according to the last trumpet. … But some attempted to explain this text as teaching that at the second coming of the Lord all who conducted themselves uprightly, corresponding with eagles in their lofty and spiritual outlook, will leave paradise behind and be gathered to that place where the fall of Adam occurred. This is the place where Adam violated the commandment and through his disobedience fell into sin. FRAGMENT 126. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 15:52.

[2] MKGK 43.