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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Theophylact of Ohrid
This parable teaches us, as we have said many times, that we should not lose heart in our prayers, just as it is said in another place: which of you, having a friend, will send him away if he comes and knocks at night? For if for no other reason, then because of his importunity he will open to him (Luke 11:5, 8). And again: "What man is there among you who, when his son asks him for bread," and so on? (Matt. 7:9). By all these things the Lord impresses upon us the constant practice of prayer. …
Cyprian
But if there be among us, most beloved brother, the fear of God, if the maintenance of the faith prevail, if we keep the precepts of Christ, if we guard the incorrupt and inviolate sanctity of His spouse, if the words of the Lord abide in our thoughts and hearts, when he says, "Thinkest thou, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth" then, because we are God's faithful soldiers, who war for the faith and sincere religion of God, let us keep the camp entrusted to us by God with faithful valour. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Our Lord speaks this of perfect faith, which is seldom found on earth. See how full the Church of God is; were there no faith, who would enter it? Were there perfect faith, who would not move mountains? (ut sup.) Our Lord adds this to show, that when faith fails, prayer dies. In order to pray then, we must have faith, and that our faith fail not, we must pray. Faith pours forth prayer, and the pouring forth of the heart in prayer gives stedfastness to faith.
Jerome
[Daniel 11:32] "And ungodly men shall deceitfully dissemble against the covenant. But the people who know their God shall prevail and succeed." And in Maccabees we read that there were some who, to be sure, pretended that they were custodians of God's law, and later they came to terms with the Gentiles; yet the others adhered to their religion. But in my opinion this will take place in the time of the Antichrist, when the love of many shall wax cold. …
Bede
However, when the Son of Man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth? Although the omnipotent Creator is always ready to vindicate His chosen ones who cry out to Him, on the day of judgment, which should be held in trembling hearts, when the same Creator appears in the form of the Son of Man, there will be such a rarity of the chosen that the ruin of the entire world will have to be hastened not so much because of the cry of the faithfully unjustly condemned, but because of the torpor of those justly condemned. …
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