Moment of Meditation: Wintered Sabbath (Matthew 24:20)

''Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath (Matthew 24:20).''

St. John Chrysostom writes on this morning's verse (''Gospel of Matthew, Homily 76'' 1):

:Recall that this discourse is addressed to the Jews. He is speaking here of the ills that should overtake them. He is not speaking primarily to the Apostles, who did not keep the Jewish Sabbath day. They were nowhere around when Vespasian did these things. Indeed, most of the Apostles would soon be dead or in other distant parts of the world.

:It is to the Jews that He says "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath." Pray that it not be in winter, because of the difficulty of the season. Pray that it not be on the Sabbath day, because of the absolute authority exercised by the Law. For they had need of flight, and of the swiftest flight. The Jews would not dare to flee on the Sabbath day, because of the Law.

The Sabbath commandment is to be kept among us, but we're not to withdraw from our Sabbath duties in order to flee persecution. In fact, the Sabbath gathering of the saints is actually the most appropriate place to be when the persecution comes. St. Cyril of Alexandria writes, "God did not create the winter of misfortunes. Winter means the time that we are possessed by the fleshly passions" (''Fragment 269'').

At the End, the world will be given up to the fleshly passions, but Christians are called to live by the Spirit and not by the passions of the flesh. Amen.