34. Pope St. Gregory the Great: The Preachers of Antichrist, Fearful Silence, and the Church Without Wonders

“There are not wanting then, even in the peace of the Church, the temptations of Antichrist.” — Pope St. Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX, §17[1]

Pope St. Gregory the Great reads the trials of Job as mysteries that reach beyond one righteous sufferer. Job can signify Christ and His suffering members; Leviathan signifies the ancient enemy, his body of wicked followers, and his terrible concentration in the final Antichrist. The commentary therefore moves constantly between the last persecution and the temptations already at work within ordinary souls.

This prevents apocalyptic study from becoming an examination of everyone except the reader. Pope St. Gregory names Cain, Judas, and Simon Magus as men who lived before the final persecution yet belonged morally to Antichrist by envy, avarice, and the proud desire for miraculous power. Men separated by centuries are joined into one corrupt body by agreement in wicked conduct. The final head has not yet appeared, but his hidden works are already visible in those who imitate his spirit.[2]

The mystery of iniquity is therefore both historical and personal. It prepares institutions, teachers, rulers, and nations for the last rebellion; it also seeks an entrance into each soul through pride, envy, ambition, fear, impurity, and the refusal to submit to truth. A man does not become safe merely by recognizing public apostasy. He must refuse the same principles in himself.

Pope St. Gregory directs one of his severest warnings toward men charged with teaching and correction. When they see unlawful conduct but remain silent because they fear losing the favor of the powerful, they imitate the hireling who sees the wolf and flees. He writes that such a teacher “denied Christ by his silence,” even without an open persecution.[1]

This is one way the temptations of Antichrist exist during outward peace. The sword need not yet be raised if fear has already purchased silence. A shepherd can preserve his position, reputation, building, and income while abandoning the sheep precisely where the wolf enters.

The warning applies wherever error is excused because its defender is influential, wherever sacrilege is left unnamed to preserve social peace, and wherever souls are denied necessary truth because correction may produce conflict. Prudence governs the manner, occasion, and words of correction; it can never make the salvation of souls subordinate to human respect.

Commenting upon the preachers of Antichrist, Pope St. Gregory turns explicitly to the second beast of Apocalypse 13. The beast has horns like a lamb but speaks as a dragon. Its ministers claim the appearance of sanctity while performing works of iniquity. Their outward fragrance is pleasant, but the light they give is dark.[3]

The disguise is essential to the deception. Open blasphemy repels many whom simulated humility, religious language, compassionate gestures, impressive ceremonies, and claims of spiritual renewal may attract. The faithful must therefore judge the voice beneath the appearance. If a teaching contradicts revelation, corrupts worship, excuses sin, or dissolves the Church's received doctrine, the borrowed likeness of the Lamb cannot make it Catholic.

Pope St. Gregory joins this spiritual deception to worldly enforcement. False teachers are the gates and teeth of Leviathan: their persuasion opens the way to perdition and tears hearers away from the solidity of truth. Around those teeth stands the terror of secular power. Some flatter with words while others compel with penalties, so that religious deception and worldly coercion serve one another.[4]

This union can assume many outward forms. Its permanent structure is more important than any premature identification: error supplies the doctrine, power supplies the threat, and hypocrisy makes both appear righteous.

Pope St. Gregory does not leave the faithful without a test. He compares discernment to the work of a careful money changer who examines a coin's material, stamp, and weight. A marvelous work must first be tested for its intention, lest vice hide beneath the appearance of virtue. Its stamp must then be compared with the approved moneyers—the ancient Fathers—lest novelty counterfeit the form of holiness. Finally, its weight must be tested, lest something deficient be accepted as complete.[5]

This is Catholic discernment in compact form. Good publicity does not prove a good intention. A pious appearance does not prove agreement with Tradition. An extraordinary sign does not supply what doctrine and moral integrity lack. The true coin bears the received stamp and possesses full weight.

The rule is especially necessary when men holding sacred offices grasp after worldly glory. Pope St. Gregory says that some preach Antichrist in words, but more preach him by their conduct. Office does not transubstantiate contradiction into truth. The higher the claimed authority, the more carefully its doctrine, worship, law, intention, and fruits must be weighed by the Faith received from the beginning.[5]

Pope St. Gregory foresees a fearful contrast before the final enemy appears openly. The conspicuous signs of divine power become less manifest in Holy Church: prophecy is hidden, healings are withdrawn, doctrine falls silent, and miracles no longer appear with their former abundance. Then the enemy displays visible prodigies.[6]

God does not abandon His Church. Her outward humiliation becomes a judgment upon hearts. The good reverence her for the invisible and heavenly goods she promises rather than for present spectacle. The wicked reveal themselves by despising her when wonders no longer compel their attention. The faithful who remain without a multitude of signs may overcome the enemy's marvels through a stronger miracle of grace: an inward resolution that refuses to deny Christ.

This passage speaks powerfully to an age that confuses visibility with existence, institutional splendor with divine favor, and extraordinary phenomena with truth. The true Church may appear abject while a counterfeit commands attention. Her apparent poverty does not erase Christ's promises. The false wonder does not acquire authority by being impressive.

The final combat cannot be survived by temperament, intelligence, information, or natural courage alone. Pope St. Gregory warns that even men who seem as strong as iron or brass become straw and rotten wood unless divine assistance protects them. Yet souls painfully conscious of their weakness may become firm as metal when upheld by God.[7]

This is not permission for passivity. It is a command to abandon presumption. The remnant must pray, receive the sacraments, go to confession, practice penance, learn doctrine, perform the duties of its state, and beg for final perseverance. Preparation for Antichrist is preparation to remain in sanctifying grace and to obey God when obedience is costly.

The weak soul that clings to grace is safer than the self-confident expert who treats prophecy as mastery over the future. St. Peter fell after boasting of his strength and rose through repentance. Judas possessed apostolic familiarity but surrendered to avarice and despair. Knowledge must become humility, vigilance, and prayer.

Pope St. Gregory describes one of the darkest elements of the final deception: persecutors imagine that their cruelty serves the true religion. Their violence seems fragrant to them like boiling ointment because it is committed under a pretense of virtue. Our Lord had warned His disciples that those who killed them would think they offered service to God.[8]

Lying wonders deepen this delusion. A shining trail of prodigies follows Leviathan and his ministers, not to illuminate souls but to fasten them more securely in darkness. Error appears vindicated, persecution appears devout, and cruelty appears meritorious.[8]

Here the standing warning of St. Paul must be spoken without reduction: the wicked one's coming is according to the working of Satan in signs and lying wonders, and his seduction prevails upon those who “received not the love of the truth.” Therefore God permits the operation of error “to believe lying” as judgment upon those who preferred iniquity to truth.[9]

This warning bears directly upon souls who have already accepted contradiction, false worship, religious indifferentism, or obedience severed from the Catholic Faith. Past deception is not protection against greater deception. Unless error is renounced and truth loved because it is true, the habit of believing one religious lie prepares the soul to receive another.

Pope St. Gregory's vision does not end with the enemy. He sees Holy Church whirled through tribulation like a sling from which strong stones are cast against the adversary. The enemy may overcome the bodies of the saints for a time, but he cannot conquer their fidelity.[10]

He also contemplates the preaching of Elias and the conversion of the remnant of Israel near the judgment. Even while Antichrist approaches and fear presses upon the strong, the faithful remain firm through that preaching and many unbelievers come to the knowledge of the Faith. The latter end of Job becomes an image of the last banquet of Holy Church.[11]

The final trial is therefore not the devil's triumph. Christ permits the Church to be purified, exposes counterfeit members, strengthens the humble, converts souls, crowns martyrs, destroys the proud arm of Antichrist, and brings His faithful to the eternal feast. The enemy's wonders are brief. The truth he hates is everlasting.

Read the complete passages in The Ancient Voices on Antichrist, and continue with St. Bede the Venerable: Scripture Studied on the Knees and the Apocalypse Read With the Fathers.