HOMILIES, ANGELUS, AND OTHER SPIRITUAL TEXTS

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General Audience today, resuming his presentation of St. Jerome started last week.


Dear brothers and sisters!

Today we continue the presentation on St. Jerome. As we said last Wednesday, he dedicated his life to the study of the Bible, such that he was recognized by one of my predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI, as "a Doctor eminent in the interpretation of Sacred Scriptures'.

Jerome underscored the joy and importance of familiarizing oneself with the Biblical texts: "Doesn't it seem as though, here on earth, you are already living in the kingdom of the heavens when you live among these texts, when one meditates on them, when one does not recognize nor need anything else?" (Ep 53, 10).

In fact, to dialog with God, with his Word, is, in some way, the presence of Heaven, that is, the presence of God. To come close to the Biblical texts, expecially the New Testament, is essential for the believer, because "not to know Scripture is not to know Christ". That is a famous statement by St. Jerome which is cited in the Vatican II Pastoral Constitution Dei Verbum (n. 25).

Truly 'enamoured' of the Word of God, he asked himself: "How can one live without knowledge of the Scriptures, through which one learns to know Christ himself, who is the life of believers?" (Ep. 30,7).

The Bible, the instrument "through which God speaks to the faithful everyday" (Ep. 133,13), thus becomes a stimulus and a spring for Christian living in all situations and for every person.

To read Scripture is to converse with God: "When you pray," Jerome wrote a young noblewoman of Rome, "you are speaking to the Bridegroom. When you read, it is he who speaks to you" (Ep 22,25).

The study and meditation of the Scriptures make man wise and serene (cfr In Eph., Prol.). Certainly, to penetrate ever more deeply into the Word of God, constant and progressive dedication is ncessary. So Jerome admonished the priest Nepotian: "Read the Sacred Scriptures frequently; or rather, never let the Holy Book lave your hands. Learn from it what you should teach" (Ep 52,7).

To the Roman matron Leta, he gave this advice for the Christian education of her daughter: "Make sure that she learns every day a passage from Scripture...Let her follow prayer with reading, and reading with prayer...so that instead of jewels and silk dresses, she may love the divine Books" (Ep. 107,91,12).

With meditation on and kowledge of the Scriptures, "one keeps spiritual equilibrium" (Ad Eph.,prol.). Only a profound spirit of prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit can introduce us to an understanding of the Bible: "In interpreting Sacred Scripture, we will always need the help of the Holy Spirit" (In Mich. 1,1,10,15).

Thus, an impassioned love for Scriptures pervaded the life of Jerome, a love which he always sought to inspire among the faithful. He advised one of his spiritual daughters: "Love Sacred Scdripture and wisdom will love you; love it tenderly, and it will protect you; honor it and you will receive its caresses. May it be for you as necklace and earrings" (Ep 130,20). Further: "Love the knowledge of Scriptures, and you will reject the vices of the flesh" (Ep. 125,11).

For Jerome, a fundamental criterion in interpreting Scriptures was harmony with the magisterium of the Church. We can never read Scriptures 'by ourselves'- we would find too many closed doors and we could easily slide into error.

The Bible was written by the People of God for the People of God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Only in this communion with the People of God can we really enter with the 'we' into the nucleus of truth that God himself wishes to tell us.

For Jerome, an authentic interpretation of the Bible should always be in harmonious concordance with the faith of the Catholic Church. This is not an exigency imposed from the outside - the Book is truly the voice of the pilgrim People of God, and only in the faith of this People are we, so to speak, on the right wave length to understand Scred Scripture.

That is why Jerome advised: "Stay firmly attached to the traditional doctrine that you were taught, so that you may exhort based on healthy doctrine and refute those who contradict it" (Ep. 52,7).

In particular, since Jesus Christ founded his Church on Peter, every Christian, he concluded, should be in communion "with the Seat of St. Peter. I know that the Church was built on this rock" (Ep. 15,2). Consequently, without mincing words, he said: "I am with whoever is united to the Seat of Peter" (Ep. 16).

Jerome obviously does not ignore the ethical aspect. Rather, he often reaffirmed the duty to conform our life to the Divine Word and that only by living it can we also find the capacity to understand it. Such consistency is indispensable for every Christian, particularly for the preacher, so that his actions - if they should be discordant with his words - do not place him in embarrassment.

So he advised the priest Nepotian: "Let your actions not belie your words, so that when you preach in church, no one who knows you can comment, 'Then why don't you yourself act accordingly?' What a figure would be the priest who, having a full belly, discourses about fasting! Even a thief can denounce greed. But in a priest of Christ, thought and word should be in agreement" (Ep, 52,7).

In another letter, Jerome reaffirms: "Even if he has splendid doctrine, the person who is condemned by his own conscience remains shameful" (Ep. 127,4).

Still on the subject of consistency, he observed that the Gospel should be translated into attitudes of true charity, because the person of Crhist is present in every human being. Addressing, for example, the presbyter Paulinus {who later became Bishop of Nola and a saint), Jerome advised: "The true temple of Christ is the soul of the faithful - adorn this sanctuary, make it beautiful, place in it your offerings, and you will receive Christ. What use is it to adorn your walls with precious jewels if Christ is dying with hunger in the person of a poor man?" ((Ep. 58,7).

Jerome was quite concrete: one must "dress Christ in those who are poor, visit him in those who suffer, feed him in those who are hungry, give him shelter in those who are roofless" (Ep. 130,14).

Love for Christ, nourished by study and meditation, makes us overcome any difficulty: "Let us love Jesus Christ and alweys aim for union with him - then, even that which is difficult will seem easy to us." (Ep. 22,40).

Jerome, defined by Prosper of Aquitaine as "a model of conduct and teacher of the human species" (Carmen de ingratis, 57), has also left us a rich and varied teaching on Crhistian asceticism. He reminds us that courageous commitment to perfection requires constant vigilance, frequent mortification even if mdoerate and prudent, assiduous mental and manual labor to avoid idleness" (cfr Ep. 125,11 and 130,15), and above all, obedience to God: "Nothing...pleases God more than obedience...which is the highest and only virtue" (Hom. de oboedientia: CCL 78,552).

The practice of pilgrimage can also be part of the ascetic path. Jerome particularly gave importance to those made to the Holy Land, where, in his time, pilgrims were welcomed and lodged in buildings near the monastery at Bethlehem, thanks to the generosity of the noblewoman Paula, spiritual daughter of Jerome (cfr Ep. 108.14).

Finally, we must say something about the contribution made by Jerome to Christian pedagogy (cfr Ep. 107 and 128). He proposes that Christian education must form "a soul that should become a temple of the Lord" (Ep. 107,4), a "most precious gem' in the eyes of God (Ep. 107,13). With profound intuition, he advised that such a soul must be kept from evil and sinful occasions, and exclude doubtful and dissipate friendships (cfr Ep. 107,4 and 8-9).

Above all, he exhorted parents to create an environment of serenity and joy for their children, stimulate them to study and to work, with praise as well as by example (cfr Ep. 107,4 and 128,1), encourage them to overcome difficulties, raise them to have good habits and keep them from taking on bad ones, because - here he cites a statement from Publilius Sirus that he had heard as a schoolboy - "yon will rarely succeed in correcting the things to which you have become accustomed" (Ep. 107,u8).

Parents are the primary educators of their children, their first teachers in life. With much clarity, Jerome addressed the mother of a girl, and the father as well, almost expressing a fundamental requirement for every human creature who must face life: "May she find in you her teacher, and may her untried girlhood look at you with wonder. May she never see in you, nor in her father, attitudes which can lead to sin if they should be emulated. Remember that...you can educate better by example than with words" (Ep. 107,9).

Among Jerome's principal intuitions as a teacher, we must underline the importance he attributed to a healthy integral education from infancy onwards, the special responsibility of parents, the urgency of serious moral and religious formation, the necessity of study for a more complete human education.

Besides that, he advocated an aspect that was barely given attention in ancient times, but something eh considered vital - the promotion of women, for whom he recognized the right to a complete education - human, scholastic, religious and professional.

We see even today that the education of a person in his wholeness, his education in responsibility before God and to Man, is the true condition for every progress, for peace, for reconciliation and for the exclusion of violence. An education before God and before man: and it is Sacred Scripture that offers us a guide to such an education and therefore, to true humanism.

We cannot conclude this rapid comentary on the great Father of the Church without referring to the effective contributions he brought to safeguarding the positive asnd valid elements of ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures in the emerging Christian culture.

Jerome had assimilated the artistic values, the richness of sentiment and the harmony of images present in the classics which edicate the heart and the imagination in noble sentiments.

Above all, in the center of his life and activity, he placed the Word of God, which shows man the pathways of life and reveals to him the secrets of sanctity.

For all this, we cannot but be profoundly grateful today.


In English, he said:


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this week’s catechesis we continue our reflections on Saint Jerome, the priest and scholar who was responsible for the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.

Convinced that "ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ", Jerome everywhere urged the daily, prayerful study of the word of God. He insisted that the correct interpretation of the Scriptures demands not only the interior assistance of the Holy Spirit but also conformity to the Church’s authoritative teaching.

Jerome stressed the importance for all Christians, but especially for preachers, of ensuring that their lives accord with the ethical teaching offered in the sacred texts.

Devotion to the word of God also shaped Jerome’s ascetic doctrine, which emphasized the virtue of obedience and encouraged the pious practice of pilgrimage, particularly to the Holy Land.

Finally, by his spiritual counsel, especially to parents, he emphasized the importance of a broad and disciplined Christian education for the young, including women.

Jerome’s integration of the enduring values of classical civilization and the wisdom of the inspired word of God made him one of the great figures of the emerging Christian culture of late antiquity.

I am pleased to greet the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Denmark, Japan, Canada and the United States of America.

I greet especially the Sisters of Saint Anne of Tiruchirapalli, who are preparing to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of their foundation.

Upon all of you I cordially invoke an abundance of joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.


To Italian-speaking pilgrims, he recalled a tragic anniversary:

I turn my affectionate thoughts to the families of the victims of Nasiriyah, Iraq, who remmeber today the fourth anniversdary of their tragic death.

May the memory of these brothers and all those who have sacrificed the supreme good of life for the noble intentions of peace contribute to sustain the way towards rebirth, full of hope, of the beloved people of Iraq.

[Twenty Italian soldiers were killed by a terrorist bomb in the Nasiriyah event.]