St. Jerome
One
Today is the Feast of St. Jerome
St. Jerome did not start out a saint. None of them ever do. He lived from 347 to 420 AD. He was baptized and became a Christian at the age of 19. As a young man he had a hunger for knowledge, so he dedicated himself to learning languages, Latin, Greek and then Hebrew. Most of all he loved reading the Roman and Greek philosophers such as Cicero to which he devoted all his leisure time.
While on his way to Jerusalem to study Hebrew, Jerome became gravely ill and fell into a coma. In this state God gave him a vision of his particular judgment which he would receive at the moment of his death. Of this Jerome writes, “Suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the judgment seat of the Judge; and here the light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I cast myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and what I was I replied: “I am a Christian.” But He who presided said: “You lie, you are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For ‘where your treasure is, there will thy heart be also.’” LETTER XXII. 30
At that moment his soul came back to his body. When he arose, he shared with those around him the vision he received and from that day forward, he read the books of God with an even greater zeal than he ever read the books of men again.
We are all like Jerome. Think how much time, energy and attention we give to reading and watching news, social media, political and sports analysts…and how little time in comparison to reading and thinking about the Word of God in in the Bible. At our particular judgment, who will Christ declare that we follow based on how we use our leisure time?
Two
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
In 385, Jerome made it to the Holy Land. In 386 he arrived in Bethlehem to reverence the birthplace of Jesus, a cave beneath the Church of the Nativity built by Queen Helena. There he decided to make his home, living in a cave adjoining the place where Jesus was born.
In the place where the Word of God was born, Jerome translated the Bible from its original languages of Hebrew and Greek in Latin, the common language of the West so that all people could read or hear and have their souls nourished by the Word of God.
The translation of the Bible created by Jerome came to be known as the Vulgate, the official text of the Church which, after the recent revision continues to be the official Latin text of the Church to this day.
What can we learn from St. Jerome? Above all, this: to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
Three
The Bible is the most direct way God speaks to us
CCC 104, “In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is - the word of God. In the sacred books the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children and talks with them.”
So often people say, “God never speaks to me.” I ask them, “Well, how much time do you spend listening to God by reading Scripture and then thinking about it and talking it all over with the Lord in a personal conversation?” Usually, they tell me, almost never. Instead, we wake up and read our emails or the news and listen to lots of human voices. God’s Word is rarely opened.
Image how much better our lives would be if the first thing we opened up each day was the Bible. But opened it with the right attitude, the attitude that God wants to speak to me today, about what I am experiencing now and will experience today and how to deal with it.
Four
Scripture really is the words of God
Because God is the primary author who inspired the human authors to write whatever He wanted and nothing more, Scripture is the word of God.
That is why the Catechism teaches that the inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Sacred Scripture firmly, faithfully and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures. Because God is its author, Scripture teaches without error those truths which are necessary for our salvation. But to know those truths we have to read them, think about them, live them.
Our Lady said, "Dear children! Today I invite you to read the Bible every day in your homes. And let it be in a visible place so it will always encourage you to read it and to pray. Thank you for having responded to my call." (October 18, 1984)
Five
Let’s end with that near death experience of Jerome because it forever changed his life.
Having died and finding himself before the judgment seat of God, God said to Jerome, “You are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ.” Who would God say I follow?
Let’s make the firm resolution to read the Bible every day. A good place to begin is with the daily readings of the Mass, or even just the Gospel of the day. But don’t just read them. Think about them. Apply it to your life. Let it challenge you, convict you and then make a simple concrete resolution to put into practice what God is inspiring within you.