“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains — the birth-pain metaphor is significant: birth pains precede new life. The events described (wars, earthquakes, famines) are not the end itself but the beginning of birth pains — the labor that precedes the new age's arrival. The image communicates both the genuine suffering involved and its purposive character: these are not meaningless convulsions but the labor that brings the kingdom.
Church Fathers on Mark 13:8
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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