apart." To this mourning of the children of Israel at the sight of Jesus whom they have pierced, our Lord seems to refer in the Gospel of St. Matthew, when, speaking of His coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty, He says, "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.'

SECTION VIII.

Predictions of Malachy.

An ancient tradition, known and believed in the Church through all ages, says, that Elias, who was carried alive into heaven in a fiery chariot, will make his appearance immediately before the second coming of Christ, and convert the Jews. This tradition is founded especially on the prophecy of Malachy, where God thus speaks : "Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and strike the earth with anathema." 3

The great and dreadful day of the Lord here mentioned by the prophet, is doubtless the day of Christ's second coming; which, in contradistinction to that of His first coming-a day of mercy and salvation-is to be a day of wrath and

vengeance.

The office of Elias will be to put an end to the awful separation which now exists between the holy fathers of the Jewish nation and their rebellious children, on account of their infidelity and 2 Matt. xxiv. 30.

1 Zac. xii. 9-14.

3 Mal. iv. 5, 6.

rebellion against Christ; he will turn the hearts of fathers and children towards each other, he will bind them together in the bond of Christ, and in the charity of the Holy Ghost.

The author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, in conformity with the prophecy of Malachy, says of Elias, "that he was taken up in a whirlwind of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses, and that he is registered in the judgments of time, to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." 1

We read in the Gospel of St. Luke, that the angel who appeared to the holy Zacharias, said of John the Baptist, "He shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, that he may turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the unbelievers to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people." 2 But if St. John, actuated by the spirit and power of Elias, was able to effect the conversion of many of the children of Israel, the true Elias, when he shall come, will effect the conversion of the whole nation, and reconcile all the children to their fathers. Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ expressly declares this in the Gospel of St. Matthew, in these words: "Elias indeed shall come and restore all things." That is, the very Elias who was caught up into heaven will come and restore the remnant of Israel, converting them to the true faith, and uniting them to the Church of the nations.4

3

1 Eccl. xlviii. 9, 10. 2 Luke i. 16, 17. 3 Matt. xvii. 11. As Elias was carried alive into heaven, that he might come at the end of the world to effect the conversion of the Jews, so

SECTION IX.

Predictions of St. Paul.

The apostle St. Paul, who experienced great sadness and a continual sorrow for the Jews, his brethren according to the flesh, so that he wished to be himself anathema from Christ for their sake, has predicted their conversion to Christ in the clearest terms. After declaring, in his letter to the Romans, the rejection of the Jews, whom God cut off from the olive-tree for their unbelief, and the great blessing of the Gentiles, in being received by God into His grace, and for their faith engrafted into the good olive-tree, thus addresses the converted Gentile: "See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them that are fallen, severity: but towards thee, goodness, if thou abide in goodness. And, if they abide not still in unbelief, they also shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the wild olive-tree, which is natural to thee, and contrary to nature wert grafted into the good olive-tree, how much more shall they that are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive-tree? For I would not have

it seems that Henoch also was translated alive into Paradise, that he might come at the same time to preach repentance to the Gentiles. We gather this from the words of Ecclesiasticus, who says, "Henoch pleased God, and was translated into Paradise, that he may give repentance to the nations." (Eccl. xliv. 16.) The Jews being plunged in the darkness of infidelity, Elias will be sent to them for the purpose of enlightening them, and converting them to the belief in their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But the nations having gone astray from the path of virtue by leading a life unworthy of the faith which they have embraced, Henoch will be sent to them to call them to repentance.

1

you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness, in part, has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. And thus all Israel shall be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion He that shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is to them My covenant, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the Gospel, indeed they are enemies for your sake; but as touching the election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy through their unbelief; so these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. For God hath included all in unbelief, that He may have mercy on all. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" 2

Again, the apostle confirms what he here declares concerning the conversion of the Jews, in the second letter to the Corinthians, where, speaking of the veil which Moses put over his face, he thus writes: "Even until this day when Moses is read, the veils upon their heart. But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." From these words of the apostle, it is manifest that God has appointed a time of mercy for the children of Israel, when they shall pass from darkness into God's admirable light. The time assigned by the apostle for the fulfil

3

1 Isa. lix. 20.

2 Rom. xi. 22-33.

3 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16.
M

ment of this great event, is when the fulness1 of the Gentiles shall have entered the Church, namely, when the number known to God, and fixed in His eternal decrees, shall have embraced the faith. When the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, then the children of Israel shall open their eyes, and bow down to Jesus their Saviour; then they shall be converted to the Lord, and Jerusalem will rise to great glory, and Judea will more than ever be illustrious for her religion and fervour of piety.

SECTION X.

Other predictions contained in the New Testament.

It is related in the Gospel of St. Luke, that when Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to the temple, the holy Simeon took him into his arms, and, inspired by the Holy Ghost, blessed God, and said, "Now Thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." Two things are here distinctly predicted by holy Simeon: 1st. That Christ is the Saviour of all peoples, and a light to be revealed to the Gentiles. This part of the prophecy began its fulfilment from the time that the Gospel was preached to the nations, and will continue to be fulfilled until the fulness of the

The expression fulness, here used by St. Paul, has a sense similar to that in which the same apostle uses it in his letter to the Galatians, where he says, "When the fulness of time was come, God sent His son made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law." (Gal. iv. 4, 5.)

2 Luke ii. 29-32.