“And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:”
Jesus said to them: watch out that no one deceives you — the discourse opens with a warning about deception, not a description of the end. The first danger is not the events themselves but the false interpretation of the events. Watch out is the repeated command throughout the discourse (verses 5, 9, 23, 33) — the primary ethical demand of the discourse is vigilant, clear-eyed discernment rather than passive waiting.
Church Fathers on Mark 13:5
Because the Lord, when some were praising the buildings of the temple, had plainly answered that all these were to be destroyed, the disciples privately enquired about the time and the signs of the destruction which was foretold.
In answer to the disciples, the Lord tells them of things which were from that time forth to have their course; whether He meant the destruction of Jerusalem which occasioned their question, or His own coming through the Church, (in which He ever comes even unto the end, for we know that He comes in His own, when His members are born day by day,) or the end itself, in which He will appear to judge the quick and the dead.
But before answering their question, He strengthens their minds that they may not be deceived.
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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