---
title: "Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels"
author: "Thomas Aquinas"
translator: "John Henry Newman (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 123 of 394
url: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/123/
cite: "Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.), Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels, section 123. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/123/"
---

# Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels

*Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.)*

The four Gospels read through chains of quotations from the Church Fathers.

## 123. Matthew 23 · 5 of 5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/123/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/123/#p-N

[¶0] Chrysostom: Then He threatens the punishment of which they were ever in fear, to wit, the overthrow of the city and temple, saying, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

[¶1] Pseudo-Chrysostom: As the body, when the spirit departs, first becomes cold, and then decays and decomposes; so also your temple, when God’s Spirit shall have withdrawn, shall be first filled with strife and anarchy, and after shall come to ruin.

[¶2] Origen: In like manner to all such as would not be gathered under His wings Christ speaks this threat; "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;" i.e. your soul and your body. But if any one of you will not be gathered under the wings of Christ, from the very time when he shall have refused to be so gathered, (by a mental rather than a bodily act,) he shall no more see the beauty of the word, till repenting of his evil purpose he shall say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." And the word of the Lord then comes with a blessing upon a man’s heart, when one is turned to God.

[¶3] Jerome: "I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, etc." That is to say, Unless ye shall do penitence, and shall confess that I am He of whom the Prophets have spoken, the Son of the Almighty Father, ye shall not see My face. Thus the Jews have a time allowed for their repentance. Let them confess Him blessed who cometh in the name of the Lord, and they shall then behold Christ’s face.

[¶4] Chrysostom: Otherwise; In this He covertly alludes to His second coming, when surely they shall worship Him. "Henceforth," means from the time of His crucifixion.