The gospel
passage today, on
this feast of St. Jerome, is an interesting one. Jesus tells us that saints and sinners will be found both in
the world, and even in the Church, until the time of sorting at the end of the
world. He is also telling us that it will be helpful for us if we
could tell the difference between saints and sinners; and of course, we ought not be among the latter
group (the sinners) if we can possibly avoid it. We have been given what we
need to stay on a “straight and narrow path” and we must cling to him,
we must cling to Jesus.
St. Jerome was
born about the year 342
in a small town near the head of the Adriatic Sea. His father, a Christian,
took care that his son was well instructed at home, and then he sent him to
Rome, where he received an excellent education, including Latin and Greek. He
read the literatures of those languages with great pleasure. His aptitude for
oratory was such that he may have considered law as a career. He acquired many
worldly ideas, and lived out his pleasure-loving instincts, and lost much of
the piety that had been instilled in him at home. Yet, he got in with a
Christian crowd of friends and eventually ended up being baptized by Pope
Liberius in 360. His intellectual curiosity led him to explore other parts of
the world. While in Aquileia, he made friends among the monks of the monastery there.
Then it was off to Treves, in Gaul, where he decided to renounce all secular
pursuits to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to God. It is interesting how a
vocation to one's life work comes about!
The rest as they
say is history: Jerome
spent a lot of time delving into the study of scripture, both in itself and its
commentaries by other writers. Then he himself began to write about his
findings. Later, it was found to be beneficial for Jerome to become a priest to
serve the needs of the young church. He reluctantly submitted to ordination but
wanted to remain a monk and a recluse, which is pretty much what happened. His
great work was his translation of the Scriptures from Greek into Latin. But he
also wrote endlessly defending the Word of God and for this is considered the
greatest of all of the doctors and fathers of the Church. His most often used
advices are these: that "ignorance of scripture is ignorance of
Christ;" and that "it was of no use just to read about or study the
Word of God (in scripture), one has to act
on it!
In the first reading today St. Paul says the same thing to Timothy: all scripture is inspired by God, and
is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work!
May we become more familiar today with Christ and his word, (and not
remain blissfully or purposefully ignorant on certain topics), and then may we act on that familiarity: and
be doers of the word and not
just hearers! The difference between the saint and the sinner is that the saint listens and tries to
act…while the sinner doesn't even really hear at all, and therefore acts
aimlessly!
This day, are you more a saint, or a
sinner?