|
Title: |
Spiritus Paraclitus
|
|
Descr.: |
On St. Jerome/Scripture
|
|
Pope: |
Pope Benedict XV
|
|
Date: |
September 15, 1920
|
|
To
All the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Ordinaries
in Union with the Apostolic See.
1.
Since the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, had bestowed the Scriptures
on the human race for their instruction in Divine things, He also
raised up in successive ages saintly and learned men whose task it
should be to develop that treasure and so provide for the faithful
plenteous "consolation from the Scriptures."(1) Foremost
among these teachers stands St. Jerome. Him the Catholic Church
acclaims and reveres as her "Greatest Doctor," divinely
given her for the understanding of the Bible. And now that the
fifteenth centenary of his death is approaching we would not
willingly let pass so favorable an opportunity of addressing you
on the debt we owe him. For the responsibility of our Apostolic
office impels us to set before you his wonderful example and so
promote the study of Holy Scripture in accordance with the
teaching of our predecessors, Leo XIII and Pius X, which we desire
to apply more precisely still to the present needs of the Church.
For St. Jerome - "strenuous Catholic, learned in the
Scriptures,"(2) "teacher of Catholics,"(3)
"model of virtue, world's teacher"(4) - has by his
earnest and illuminative defense of Catholic doctrine on Holy
Scripture left us most precious instructions. These we propose to
set before you and so promote among the children of the Church,
and especially among the clergy, assiduous and reverent study of
the Bible.
2.
No need to remind you, Venerable Brethren, that Jerome was born in
Stridonia, in a town "on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia";(5)
that from his infancy he was brought up a Catholic;(6) that after
his baptism here in Rome(7) he lived to an advanced age and
devoted all his powers to studying, expounding, and defending the
Bible. At Rome he had learned Latin and Greek, and hardly had he
left the school of rhetoric than he ventured on a Commentary on
Abdias the Prophet. This "youthful piece of work"(8)
kindled in him such love of the Bible that he decided - like the
man in the Gospel who found a treasure - to spurn "any
emoluments the world could provide,"(9) and devote himself
wholly to such studies. Nothing could deter him from this stern
resolve. He left home, parents, sister, and relatives; he denied
himself the more delicate food he had been accustomed to, and went
to the East so that he might gather from studious reading of the
Bible the fuller riches of Christ and true knowledge of his
Savior.(10) Jerome himself tells us in several places how
assiduously he toiled: An eager desire to learn obsessed me. But I
was not so foolish as to try and teach myself. At Antioch I
regularly attended the lectures of Apollinaris of Laodicea; but
while I learned much from him about the Bible, I would never
accept his doubtful teaching about its interpretation.(11)
3.
From Antioch be betook to the desert of Chalcis, in Syria, to
perfect himself in his knowledge of the Bible, and at the same
time to curb "youthful desires" by means of hard study.
Here he engaged a convert Jew to teach him Hebrew and Chaldaic.
"What a toil it was! How difficult I found it! How often I was on
the point of giving it up in despair, and yet in my eagerness to
learn took it up again! Myself can bear witness of this, and so,
too, can those who had lived with me at the time. Yet I thank God
for the fruit I won from that bitter seed."(12)
4.
Lest, however, he should grow idle in this desert where there were
no heretics to vex him, Jerome betook himself to Constantinople,
where for nearly three years he studied Holy Scripture under St.
Gregory the Theologian, then Bishop of that See and in the height
of his fame as a teacher. While there he translated into Latin
Origen's Homilies on the Prophets and Eusebius' Chronicle; he also
wrote on Isaias' vision of the Seraphim. He then returned to Rome
on ecclesiastical business, and Pope Damasus admitted him into his
court.(13) However, he let nothing distract him from continual
occupation with the Bible,(14) and the task of copying various
manuscripts,(15) as well as answering the many questions put to
him by students of both sexes.(16)
5.
Pope Damasus had entrusted to him a most laborious task, the
correction of the Latin text of the Bible. So well did Jerome
carry this out that even today men versed in such studies
appreciate its value more and more. But he ever yearned for
Palestine, and when the Pope died he retired to Bethlehem to a
monastery nigh to the cave where Christ was born. Every moment he
could spare from prayer he gave to Biblical studies. "Though my
hair was now growing gray and though I looked more like professor
than student, yet I went to Alexandria to attend Didymus'
lectures. I owe him much. What I did not know I learned. What I
knew already I did not lose through his different presentation of
it. Men thought I had done with tutors; but when I got back to
Jerusalem and Bethlehem how hard I worked and what a price I paid
for my night-time teacher Baraninus! Like another Nicodemus he was
afraid of the Jews!"(17)
6.
Nor was Jerome content merely to gather up this or that teacher's
words; he gathered from all quarters whatever might prove of use
to him in this task. From the outset he had accumulated the best
possible copies of the Bible and the best commentators on it, but
now he worked on copies from the synagogues and from the library
formed at Caesarea by Origen and Eusebius; he hoped by assiduous
comparison of texts to arrive at greater certainty touching the
actual text and its meaning. With this same purpose he went all
through Palestine. For he was thoroughly convinced of the truth of
what he once wrote to Domnio and Rogatian: A man will understand
the Bible better if he has seen Judaea with his own eyes and
discovered its ancient cities and sites either under the old names
or newer ones. In company with some learned Hebrews I went through
the entire land the names of whose sites are on every Christian's
lips.(18)
7.
He nourished his soul unceasingly on this most pleasant food: he
explained St. Paul's Epistles; he corrected the Latin version of
the Old Testament by the Greek; he translated afresh nearly all
the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin; day by day
he discussed Biblical questions with the brethren who came to him,
and answered letters on Biblical questions which poured in upon
him from all sides; besides all this, he was constantly refuting
men who assailed Catholic doctrine and unity. Indeed, such was his
love for Holy Scripture that he ceased not from writing or
dictating till his hand stiffened in death and his voice was
silent forever. So it was that, sparing himself neither labor nor
watching nor expense, he continued to extreme old age meditating
day and night beside the Crib on the Law of the Lord; of greater
profit to the Catholic cause by his life and example in his
solitude than if he had passed his life at Rome, the capital of
the world.
8.
After this preliminary account of St. Jerome's life and labors we
may now treat of his teaching on the divine dignity and absolute
truth of Scripture.
You
will not find a page in his writings which does not show clearly
that he, in common with the whole Catholic Church, firmly and
consistently held that the Sacred Books - written as they were
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - have God for their
Author, and as such were delivered to the Church. Thus he asserts
that the Books of the Bible were composed at the inspiration, or
suggestion, or even at the dictation of the Holy Spirit; even that
they were written and edited by Him. Yet he never questions but
that the individual authors of these Books worked in full freedom
under the Divine afflatus, each of them in accordance with his
individual nature and character. Thus he is not merely content to
affirm as a general principle - what indeed pertains to all the
sacred writers - that they followed the Spirit of God as they
wrote, in such sort that God is the principal cause of all that
Scripture means and says; but he also accurately describes what
pertains to each individual writer. In each case Jerome shows us
how, in composition, in language, in style and mode of expression,
each of them uses his own gifts and powers; hence he is able to
portray and describe for us their individual character, almost
their very features; this is especially so in his treatment of the
Prophets and of St. Paul. This partnership of God and man in the
production of a work in common Jerome illustrates by the case of a
workman who uses instruments for the production of his work; for
he says that whatsoever the sacred authors say "Is the word
of God, and not their own; and what the Lord says by their mouths
He says, as it were, by means of an instrument."(19)
9.
If we ask how we are to explain this power and action of God, the
principal cause, on the sacred writers we shall find that St.
Jerome in no wise differs from the common teaching of the Catholic
Church. For he holds that God, through His grace, illumines the
writer's mind regarding the particular truth which, "in the
person of God," he is to set before men; he holds, moreover,
that God moves the writer's will - nay, even impels it - to write;
finally, that God abides with him unceasingly, in unique fashion,
until his task is accomplished. Whence the Saint infers the
supreme excellence and dignity of Scripture, and declares that
knowledge of it is to be likened to the "treasure"(20)
and the "pearl beyond price,"(21) since in them are to
be found the riches of Christ(22) and "silver wherewith to
adorn God's house."(23)
10.
Jerome also insists on the super-eminent authority of Scripture.
When controversy arose he had recourse to the Bible as a
storehouse of arguments, and he used its testimony as a weapon for
refuting his adversaries' arguments, because he held that the
Bible's witness afforded solid and irrefutable arguments. Thus,
when Helvidius denied the perpetual virginity of the Mother of
God, Jerome was content simply to reply: Just as we do not deny
these things which are written, so do we repudiate things that are
not written. That God was born of a Virgin we believe, because we
read it. That Mary was married after His birth we do not believe
because we do not read it.(24)
11.
In the same fashion he undertakes to defend against Jovinian, with
precisely the same weapons, the Catholic doctrines of the virginal
state, of perseverance, of abstinence, and of the merit of good
works: In refuting his statements I shall rely especially on the
testimony of Scripture, lest he should grumble and complain that
he has been vanquished rather by my eloquence than by the
truth.(25)
12.
So, too, when defending himself against the same Helvidius, he
says: "He was, you might say, begged to yield to me, and be
led away as a willing and unresisting captive in the bonds of
truth."(26) Again, "We must not follow the errors of our
parents, nor of those who have gone before us; we have the
authority of the Scriptures and God's teaching to command
us."(27) Once more, when showing Fabiola how to deal with
critics, he says: When you are really instructed in the Divine
Scriptures, and have realized that its laws and testimonies are
the bonds of truth, then you can contend with adversaries; then
you will fetter them and lead them bound into captivity; then of
the foes you have made captive you will make freemen of God.(28)
13.
Jerome further shows that the immunity of Scripture from error or
deception is necessarily bound up with its Divine inspiration and
supreme authority. He says he had learnt this in the most
celebrated schools, whether of East or West, and that it was
taught him as the doctrine of the Fathers, and generally received.
Thus when, at the instance of Pope Damasus, he had begun
correcting the Latin text of the New Testament, and certain
"manikins" had vehemently attacked him for "making
corrections in the Gospels in face of the authority of the Fathers
and of general opinion," Jerome briefly replied that he was
not so utterly stupid nor so grossly uneducated as to imagine that
the Lord's words needed any correction or were not divinely
inspired.(29) Similarly, when explaining Ezechiel's first vision
as portraying the Four Gospels, he remarks:
That the entire body and the back were full of eyes will be plain
to anybody who realizes that there is nought in the Gospels which
does not shine and illumine the world by its splendor, so that
even things that seem trifling and unimportant shine with the
majesty of the Holy Spirit.(30)
14.
What he has said here of the Gospels he applies in his
Commentaries to the rest of the Lord's words; he regards it as the
very rule and foundation of Catholic interpretation; indeed, for
Jerome, a true prophet was to be distinguished from a false by
this very note of truth:(31) "The Lord's words are true; for
Him to say it, means that it is."(32) Again, "Scripture
cannot lie";(33) it is wrong to say Scripture lies, nay, it
is impious even to admit the very notion of error where the Bible
is concerned.(34) "The Apostles," he says, "are one
thing; other writers" - that is, profane writers - "are
another;"(35) "the former always tell the truth; the
latter - as being mere men - sometimes err,"(36) and though
many things are said in the Bible which seem incredible, yet they
are true;(37) in this "word of truth" you cannot find
things or statements which are contradictory, "there is
nothing discordant nor conflicting";(38) consequently,
"when Scripture seems to be in conflict with itself both
passages are true despite their diversity."(39)
15.
Holding principles like these, Jerome was compelled, when he
discovered apparent discrepancies in the Sacred Books, to use
every endeavor to unravel the difficulty. If he felt that he had
not satisfactorily settled the problem, he would return to it
again and again, not always, indeed, with the happiest results.
Yet he would never accuse the sacred writers of the slightest
mistake - "that we leave to impious folk like Celsus,
Porphyry, and Julian."(40) Here he is in full agreement with
Augustine, who wrote to Jerome that to the Sacred Books alone had
he been wont to accord such honor and reverence as firmly to
believe that none of their writers had ever fallen into any error;
and that consequently, if in the said books he came across
anything which seemed to run counter to the truth, he did not
think that that was really the case, but either that his copy was
defective or that the translator had made a mistake, or again,
that he himself had failed to understand. He continues: Nor do I
deem that you think otherwise. Indeed, I absolutely decline to
think that you would have people read your own books in the same
way as they read those of the Prophets and Apostles; the idea that
these latter could contain any errors is impious.(41)
16.
St. Jerome's teaching on this point serves to confirm and
illustrate what our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII,
declared to be the ancient and traditional belief of the Church
touching the absolute immunity of Scripture from error: So far is
it from being the case that error can be compatible with
inspiration, that, on the contrary, it not only of its very nature
precludes the presence of error, but as necessarily excludes it
and forbids it as God, the Supreme Truth, necessarily cannot be
the Author of error.
17.
Then, after giving the definitions of the Councils of Florence and
Trent, confirmed by the [First] Council of the Vatican, Pope Leo
continues: Consequently it is not to the point to suggest that the
Holy Spirit used men as His instruments for writing, and that
therefore, while no error is referable to the primary Author, it
may well be due to the inspired authors themselves. For by
supernatural power the Holy Spirit so stirred them and moved them
to write, so assisted them as they wrote, that their minds could
rightly conceive only those and all those things which He himself
bade them conceive; only such things could they faithfully commit
to writing and aptly express with unerring truth; else God would
not be the Author of the entirety of Sacred Scripture.(42)
18.
But although these words of our predecessor leave no room for
doubt or dispute, it grieves us to find that not only men outside,
but even children of the Catholic Church - nay, what is a peculiar
sorrow to us, even clerics and professors of sacred learning - who
in their own conceit either openly repudiate or at least attack in
secret the Church's teaching on this point.
We
warmly commend, of course, those who, with the assistance of
critical methods, seek to discover new ways of explaining the
difficulties in Holy Scripture, whether for their own guidance or
to help others. But we remind them that they will only come to
miserable grief if they neglect our predecessor's injunctions and
overstep the limits set by the Fathers.
19.
Yet no one can pretend that certain recent writers really adhere
to these limitations. For while conceding that inspiration extends
to every phrase - and, indeed, to every single word of Scripture -
yet, by endeavoring to distinguish between what they style the
primary or religious and the secondary or profane element in the
Bible, they claim that the effect of inspiration - namely,
absolute truth and immunity from error - are to be restricted to
that primary or religious element. Their notion is that only what
concerns religion is intended and taught by God in Scripture, and
that all the rest - things concerning "profane
knowledge," the garments in which Divine truth is presented -
God merely permits, and even leaves to the individual author's
greater or less knowledge. Small wonder, then, that in their view
a considerable number of things occur in the Bible touching
physical science, history and the like, which cannot be reconciled
with modern progress in science!
20.
Some even maintain that these views do not conflict with what our
predecessor laid down since - so they claim - he said that the
sacred writers spoke in accordance with the external - and thus
deceptive - appearance of things in nature. But the Pontiff's own
words show that this is a rash and false deduction. For sound
philosophy teaches that the senses can never be deceived as
regards their own proper and immediate object. Therefore, from the
merely external appearance of things - of which, of course, we
have always to take account as Leo XIII, following in the
footsteps of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, most wisely remarks -
we can never conclude that there is any error in Sacred Scripture.
21.
Moreover, our predecessor, sweeping aside all such distinctions
between what these critics are pleased to call primary and
secondary elements, says in no ambiguous fashion that "those
who fancy that when it is a question of the truth of certain
expressions we have not got to consider so much what God said as
why He said it," are very far indeed from the truth. He also
teaches that Divine inspiration extends to every part of the Bible
without the slightest exception, and that no error can occur in
the inspired text: "It would be wholly impious to limit
inspiration to certain portions only of Scripture or to concede
that the sacred authors themselves could have erred."(43)
22.
Those, too, who hold that the historical portions of Scripture do
not rest on the absolute truth of the facts but merely upon what
they are pleased to term their relative truth, namely, what people
then commonly thought, are - no less than are the aforementioned
critics - out of harmony with the Church's teaching, which is
endorsed by the testimony of Jerome and other Fathers. Yet they
are not afraid to deduce such views from the words of Leo XIII on
the ground that he allowed that the principles he had laid down
touching the things of nature could be applied to historical
things as well. Hence they maintain that precisely as the sacred
writers spoke of physical things according to appearance, so, too,
while ignorant of the facts, they narrated them in accordance with
general opinion or even on baseless evidence; neither do they tell
us the sources whence they derived their knowledge, nor do they
make other peoples' narrative their own. Such views are clearly
false, and constitute a calumny on our predecessor. After all,
what analogy is there between physics and history? For whereas
physics is concerned with "sensible appearances" and
must consequently square with phenomena, history on the contrary,
must square with the facts, since history is the written account
of events as they actually occurred. If we were to accept such
views, how could we maintain the truth insisted on throughout Leo
XIII's Encyclical - viz. that the sacred narrative is absolutely
free from error?
23.
And if Leo XIII does say that we can apply to history and cognate
subjects the same principles which hold good for science, he yet
does not lay this down as a universal law, but simply says that we
can apply a like line of argument when refuting the fallacies of
adversaries and defending the historical truth of Scripture from
their assaults.
24.
Nor do modern innovators stop here: they even try to claim St.
Jerome as a patron of their views on the ground that he maintained
that historic truth and sequence were not observed in the Bible,
"precisely as things actually took place, but in accordance
with what men thought at that time," and that he even held
that this was the true norm for history.(44) A strange distortion
of St. Jerome's words! He does not say that when giving us an
account of events the writer was ignorant of the truth and simply
adopted the false views then current; he merely says that in
giving names to persons or things he followed general custom. Thus
the Evangelist calls St. Joseph the father of Jesus, but what he
meant by the title "father" here is abundantly clear
from the whole context. For St. Jerome "the true norm of
history" is this: when it is question of such appellatives
(as "father," etc), and when there is no danger or
error, then a writer must adopt the ordinary forms of speech
simply because such forms of speech are in ordinary use. More than
this: Jerome maintains that belief in the Biblical narrative is as
necessary to salvation as is belief in the doctrines of the faith;
thus in his Commentary on the Epistle to Philemon he says:
"What I mean is this: Does any man believe in God the
Creator? He cannot do so unless he first believe that the things
written of God's Saints are true." He then gives examples
from the Old Testament, and adds: "Now unless a man believes
all these and other things too which are written of the Saints he
cannot believe in the God of the Saints."(45)
25.
Thus St. Jerome is in complete agreement with St. Augustine, who
sums up the general belief of Christian antiquity when he says:
Holy Scripture is invested with supreme authority by reason of its
sure and momentous teachings regarding the faith. Whatever, then,
it tells us of Enoch, Elias and Moses - that we believe. We do
not, for instance, believe that God's Son was born of the Virgin
Mary simply because He could not otherwise have appeared in the
flesh and 'walked amongst men' - as Faustus would have it - but we
believe it simply because it is written in Scripture; and unless
we believe in Scripture we can neither be Christians nor be
saved.(46)
26.
Then there are other assailants of Holy Scripture who misuse
principles - which are only sound, if kept within due bounds - in
order to overturn the fundamental truth of the Bible and thus
destroy Catholic teaching handed down by the Fathers. If Jerome
were living now he would sharpen his keenest controversial weapons
against people who set aside what is the mind and judgment of the
Church, and take too ready a refuge in such notions as
"implicit quotations" or "pseudo-historical
narratives," or in "kinds of literature" in the
Bible such as cannot be reconciled with the entire and perfect
truth of God's word, or who suggest such origins of the Bible as
must inevitably weaken - if not destroy - its authority.
27.
What can we say of men who in expounding the very Gospels so
whittle away the human trust we should repose in it as to overturn
Divine faith in it? They refuse to allow that the things which
Christ said or did have come down to us unchanged and entire
through witnesses who carefully committed to writing what they
themselves had seen or heard. They maintain - and particularly in
their treatment of the Fourth Gospel - that much is due of course
to the Evangelists - who, however, added much from their own
imaginations; but much, too, is due to narratives compiled by the
faithful at other periods, the result, of course, being that the
twin streams now flowing in the same channel cannot be
distinguished from one another. Not thus did Jerome and Augustine
and the other Doctors of the Church understand the historical
trustworthiness of the Gospels; yet of it one wrote: "He who
saw it has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows
that he tells the truth, and you also may believe" (Jn.
19:35). So, too, St. Jerome: after rebuking the heretical framers
of the apocryphal Gospels for "attempting rather to fill up
the story than to tell it truly,"(47) he says of the
Canonical Scriptures: "None can doubt but that what is
written took place."(48) Here again he is in fullest harmony
with Augustine, who so beautifully says: "These things are
true; they are faithfully and truthfully written of Christ; so
that whosoever believes His Gospel may be thereby instructed in
the truth and misled by no lie."(49)
28.
All this shows us how earnestly we must strive to avoid, as
children of the Church, this insane freedom in ventilating
opinions which the Fathers were careful to shun. This we shall
more readily achieve if you, Venerable Brethren, will make both
clergy and laity committed to your care by the Holy Spirit realize
that neither Jerome nor the other Fathers of the Church learned
their doctrine touching Holy Scripture save in the school of the
Divine Master Himself. We know what He felt about Holy Scripture:
when He said, "It is written," and "the Scripture
must needs be fulfilled," we have therein an argument which
admits of no exception and which should put an end to all
controversy.
29.
Yet it is worthwhile dwelling on this point a little: when Christ
preached to the people, whether on the Mount by the lakeside, or
in the synagogue at Nazareth, or in His own city of Capharnaum, He
took His points and His arguments from the Bible. From the same
source came His weapons when disputing with the Scribes and
Pharisees. Whether teaching or disputing He quotes from all parts
of Scripture and takes His example from it; He quotes it as an
argument which must be accepted. He refers without any
discrimination of sources to the stories of Jonas and the
Ninivites, of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, of Elias and Eliseus,
of David and of Noe, of Lot and the Sodomites, and even of Lot's
wife. (cf. Mt. 12:3, 39-42; Lk. 17:26-29, 32). How solemn His
witness to the truth of the sacred books: "One jot, or one
tittle shall not pass of the Law till all be fulfilled" (Mt.
5:18); and again: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (Jn.
10:35); and consequently: "He therefore that shall break one
of these least commandments, and shall so teach men shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 5:19). Before
His Ascension, too, when He would steep His Apostles in the same
doctrine: "He opened their understanding that they might
understand the Scriptures. And He said to them: thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again
from the dead the third day" (Lk. 24:45).
30.
In a word, then: Jerome's teaching on the super-excellence and
truth of Scripture is Christ's teaching. Wherefore we exhort all
the Church's children, and especially those whose duty it is to
teach in seminaries, to follow closely in St. Jerome's footsteps.
If they will but do so they will learn to prize as he prized the
treasure of the Scriptures, and will derive from them most
abundant and blessed fruit.
31.
Now, if we make use of the "Greatest of Doctors" as our
guide and teacher we shall derive from so doing not only the gains
signalized above, but others too, which cannot be regarded as
trifling or few. What these gains are, Venerable Brethren, we will
set out briefly. At the outset, then, we are deeply impressed by
the intense love of the Bible which St. Jerome exhibits in his
whole life and teaching: both are steeped in the Spirit of God.
This intense love of the Bible he was ever striving to kindle in
the hearts of the faithful, and his words on this subject to the
maiden Demetrias are really addressed to us all: "Love the
Bible and wisdom will love you; love it and it will preserve you;
honor it and it will embrace you; these are the jewels which you
should wear..."(50)
32.
His unceasing reading of the Bible and his painstaking study of
each book - nay, of every phrase and word - gave him a knowledge
of the text such as no other ecclesiastical writer of old
possessed. It is due to this familiarity with the text and to his
own acute judgment that the Vulgate version Jerome made is, in the
judgment of all capable men, preferable to any other ancient
version, since it appears to give us the sense of the original
more accurately and with greater elegance than they. The said
Vulgate, "approved by so many centuries of use in the
Church" was pronounced by the Council of Trent
"authentic," and the same Council insisted that it was
to be used in teaching and in the liturgy.(51) If God in His mercy
grants us life, we sincerely hope to see an amended and faithfully
restored edition. We have no doubt that when this arduous task -
entrusted by our predecessor, Pius X, to the Benedictine Order -
has been completed it will prove of great assistance in the study
of the Bible.
33.
But to return to St. Jerome's love of the Bible: this is so
conspicuous in his letters that they almost seem woven out of
Scripture texts; and, as St. Bernard found no taste in things
which did not echo the most sweet Name of Jesus, so no literature
made any appeal to Jerome unless it derived its light from Holy
Scripture. Thus he wrote to Paulinus, formerly senator and even
consul, and only recently converted to the faith: If only you had
this foundation (knowledge of Scripture); nay, more - if you would
let Scripture give the finishing touches to your work - I should
find nothing more beautiful, more learned...than your volumes...If you could but add to your wisdom and
eloquence study of and real acquaintance with Holy Scripture, we
should speedily have to acknowledge you a leader amongst us.(52)
34.
How we are to seek for this great treasure, given as it is by our
Father in heaven for our solace during this earthly pilgrimage,
St. Jerome's example shows us. First, we must be well prepared and
must possess a good will. Thus Jerome himself, immediately on his
baptism, determined to remove whatever might prove a hindrance to
his ambitions in this respect. Like the men who found a treasure
and "for joy thereof went and sold all that he had and bought
that field" (Mt. 13:44), so did Jerome say farewell to the
idle pleasures of this passing world; he went into the desert, and
since he realized what risks he had run in the past through the
allurements of vice, he adopted a most severe style of life. With
all obstacles thus removed he prepared his soul for "the
knowledge of Jesus Christ" and for putting on Him Who was
"meek and humble of heart." But he went through what
Augustine also experienced when he took up the study of Scripture.
For the latter has told us how, steeped as a youth in Cicero and
profane authors, the Bible seemed to him unfit to be compared with
Cicero. "My swelling pride shrank from its modest garb, while my
gaze could not pierce to what the latter hid. Of a truth Scripture
was meant to grow up with the childlike; but then I could not be
childlike; turgid eloquence appealed mightily to me."(53)
So,
too, St. Jerome; even though withdrawn into the desert he still
found such delight in profane literature that at first he failed
to discern the lowly Christ in His lowly Scriptures: Wretch that I
was! I read Cicero even before I broke my fast! And after the long
night-watches, when memory of my past sins wrung tears from my
soul, even then I took up my Plautus! Then perhaps I would come to
my senses and would start reading the Prophets. But their uncouth
language made me shiver, and, since blind eyes do not see the
light, I blamed the sun and not my own eyes.(54)
35.
But in a brief space Jerome became so enamored of the "folly
of the Cross" that he himself serves as a proof of the extent
to which a humble and devout frame of mind is conducive to the
understanding of Holy Scripture. He realized that "in
expounding Scripture we need God's Holy Spirit";(55) he saw
that one cannot otherwise read or understand it "than the
Holy Spirit by Whom it was written demands."(56)
Consequently, he was ever humbly praying for God's assistance and
for the light of the Holy Spirit, and asking his friends to do the
same for him. We find him commending to the Divine assistance and
to his brethren's prayers his Commentaries on various books as he
began them, and then rendering God due thanks when completed.
36.
As he trusted to God's grace, so too did he rely upon the
authority of his predecessors: "What I have learned I did not
teach myself - a wretchedly presumptuous teacher! - but I learned
it from illustrious men in the Church."(57) Again: "In
studying Scripture I never trusted to myself."(58) To
Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, he imparted the rule he had laid
down for his own student life: "It has always been my custom
to fight for the prerogatives of a Christian, not to overpass the
limits set by the Fathers, always to bear in mind that Roman faith
praised by the Apostle."(59)
37.
He ever paid submissive homage to the Church, our supreme teacher
through the Roman Pontiffs. Thus, with a view to putting an end to
the controversy raging in the East concerning the mystery of the
Holy Trinity, he submitted the question to the Roman See for
settlement, and wrote from the Syrian desert to Pope Damasus as
follows: I decided, therefore, to consult the Chair of Peter and
that Roman faith which the Apostle praised; I ask for my soul's
food from that city wherein I first put on the garment of
Christ...I, who follow no other leader save Christ, associate
myself with Your Blessedness, in communion, that is, with the
Chair of Peter. For I know the Church was built upon that Rock...I
beg you to settle this dispute. If you desire it I shall not be
afraid to say there are Three Hypostases. If it is your wish let
them draw up a Symbol of faith subsequent to that of Nicaea, and
let us orthodox praise God in the same form of words as the Arians
employ.(60)
38.
And in his next letter: "Meanwhile I keep crying out, 'Any
man who is joined to Peter's Chair, he is my man'."(61) Since
he had learnt this "rule of faith" from his study of the
Bible, he was able to refute a false interpretation of a Biblical
text with the simple remark: "Yes, but the Church of God does
not admit that."(62) When, again, Vigilantius quoted an
Apocryphal book, Jerome was content to reply: "A book I have
never so much as read! For what is the good of soiling one's hands
with a book the Church does not receive?"(63) With his strong
insistence on adhering to the integrity of the faith, it is not to
be wondered at that he attacked vehemently those who left the
Church; he promptly regarded them as his own personal enemies.
"To put it briefly," he says, "I have never spared
heretics, and have always striven to regard the Church's enemies
as my own."(64) To Rufinus he writes: "There is one
point in which I cannot agree with you: you ask me to spare
heretics - or, in other words - not to prove myself a
Catholic."(65) Yet at the same time Jerome deplored the
lamentable state of heretics, and adjured them to return to their
sorrowing Mother, the one source of salvation;(66) he prayed, too,
with all earnestness for the conversion of those "who had
quitted the Church and put away the Holy Spirit's teaching to
follow their own notions."(67)
39.
Was there ever a time, Venerable Brethren, when there was greater
call than now for us all, lay and cleric alike, to imbibe the
spirit of this "Greatest of Doctors"? For there are many
contumacious folk now who sneer at the authority and government of
God, Who has revealed Himself, and of the Church which teaches.
You know - for Leo XIII warned us - "how insistently men
fight against us; You know the arms and arts they rely
upon."(68) It is your duty, then, to train as many really fit
defenders of this holiest of causes as you can. They must be ready
to combat not only those who deny the existence of the
Supernatural Order altogether, and are thus led to deny the
existence of any divine revelation or inspiration, but those, too,
who - through an itching desire for novelty - venture to interpret
the sacred books as though they were of purely human origin;
Those, too, who scoff at opinions held of old in the Church, or
who, through contempt of its teaching office, either reck little
of, or silently disregard, or at least obstinately endeavor to
adapt to their own views, the Constitutions of the Apostolic See
or the decisions of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Would
that all Catholics would cling to St. Jerome's golden rule and
obediently listen to their Mother's words, so as modestly to keep
within the bounds marked out by the Fathers and ratified by the
Church.
40.
To return, however, to the question of the formation of Biblical
students. We must lay the foundations in piety and humility of
mind; only when we have done that does St. Jerome invite us to
study the Bible. In the first place, he insists, in season and
out, on daily reading of the text. "Provided," he says,
"our bodies are not the slaves of sin, wisdom will come to
us; but exercise your mind, feed it daily with Holy
Scripture."(69) And again: "We have got, then, to read
Holy Scripture assiduously; we have got to meditate on the Law of
God day and night so that, as expert money-changers, we may be
able to detect false coin from true."(70)
41.
For matrons and maidens alike he lays down the same rule. Thus,
writing to the Roman matron Laeta about her daughter's training,
he says: Every day she should give you a definite account of her
Bible-reading ...For her the Bible must take the place of silks
and jewels...Let her learn the Psalter first, and find her
recreation in its songs; let her learn from Solomon's Proverbs the
way of life, from Ecclesiastes how to trample on the world. In Job
she will find an example of patient virtue. Thence let her pass to
the Gospels; they should always be in her hands. She should steep
herself in the Acts and the Epistles. And when she has enriched
her soul with these treasures she should commit to memory the
Prophets, the Heptateuch, Kings and Chronicles, Esdras and Esther:
then she can learn the Canticle of Canticles without any
fear."(71)
42.
He says the same to Eustochium: "Read assiduously and learn
as much as you can. Let sleep find you holding your Bible, and
when your head nods let it be resting on the sacred
page."(72)
When
he sent Eustochium the epitaph he had composed for her mother
Paula, he especially praised that holy woman for having so
wholeheartedly devoted herself and her daughter to Bible study
that she knew the Bible through and through, and had committed it
to memory. He continues: I will tell you another thing about her,
though evil-disposed people may cavil at it: she determined to
learn Hebrew, a language which I myself, with immense labor and
toil from my youth upwards, have only partly learned, and which I
even now dare not cease studying lest it should quit me. But Paula
learned it, and so well that she could chant the Psalms in Hebrew,
and could speak it, too, without any trace of a Latin accent. We
can see the same thing even now in her daughter Eustochium.(73)
43.
He tells us much the same of Marcella, who also knew the Bible
exceedingly well.(74) And none can fail to see what profit and
sweet tranquillity must result in well-disposed souls from such
devout reading of the Bible. Whosoever comes to it in piety, faith
and humility, and with determination to make progress in it, will
assuredly find therein and will eat the "Bread that cometh
down from heaven" (Jn. 6:33); he will, in his own person,
experience the truth of David's words: "The hidden and
uncertain things of Thy Wisdom Thou hast made manifest to
me!" (Ps. 50:8), for this table of the "Divine
Word" does really "contain holy teaching, teach the true
faith, and lead us unfalteringly beyond the veil into the Holy of
Holies."(75)
Hence,
as far as in us lies, we, Venerable Brethren, shall, with St.
Jerome as our guide, never desist from urging the faithful to read
daily the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles, so as to gather
thence food for their souls.
44.
Our thoughts naturally turn just now to the Society of St. Jerome,
which we ourselves were instrumental in founding; its success has
gladdened us, and we trust that the future will see a great
impulse given to it.
The
object of this Society is to put into the hands of as many people
as possible the Gospels and Acts, so that every Christian family
may have them and become accustomed to reading them. This we have
much at heart, for we have seen how useful it is. We earnestly
hope, then, that similar Societies will be founded in your
dioceses and affiliated to the parent Society here.
Commendation,
too, is due to Catholics in other countries who have published the
entire New Testament, as well as selected portions of the Old, in
neat and simple form so as to popularize their use. Much again
must accrue to the Church of God when numbers of people thus
approach this table of heavenly instruction which the Lord
provided through the ministry of His Prophets, Apostles and
Doctors for the entire Christian world.
45.
If, then, St. Jerome begs for assiduous reading of the Bible by
the faithful in general, he insists on it for those who are called
to "bear the yoke of Christ" and preach His word. His
words to Rusticus the monk apply to all clerics: So long as you
are in your own country regard your cell as your orchard; there you
can gather Scripture's various fruits and enjoy the pleasures it
affords you. Always have a book in your hands and read it; learn
the Psalter by heart; pray unceasingly; watch over your senses
lest idle thoughts creep in.(76) Similarly to Nepotian: Constantly
read the Bible; in fact, have it always in your hands. Learn what
you have got to teach. Get firm hold of that "faithful word
that is according to doctrine, that you may be able to exhort in
sound doctrine and convince the gainsayers."(77)
When
reminding Paulinus of the lessons St. Paul gave to Timothy and
Titus, and which he himself had derived from the Bible, Jerome
says: A mere holy rusticity only avails the man himself; but
however much a life so meritorious may serve to build up the
Church of God, it does as much harm to the Church if it fails to
"resist the gainsayer." Malachias the Prophet says, or
rather the Lord says it by Malachias: "Ask for the Law from
the priests." For it is the priest's duty to give an answer
when asked about the Law. In Deuteronomy we read: "Ask thy
father and he will tell thee; ask the priests and they will tell
thee..." Daniel, too, at the close of his glorious vision,
declares that "the just shall shine like stars and they that
are learned as the brightness of the firmament." What a vast
difference, then, between a righteous rusticity and a learned
righteousness! The former likened to the stars; the latter to the
heavens themselves!(78)
He
writes ironically to Marcella about the "self-righteous lack
of education" noticeable in some clerics, who "think
that to be without culture and to be holy are the same thing, and
who dub themselves 'disciples of [the pope]'; as though they
were holy simply because ignorant!"(79)
Nor
is it only the "uncultured" whom Jerome condemns.
Learned clerics sin through ignorance of the Bible; therefore he
demands of them an assiduous reading of the text.
46.
Strive, then, Venerable Brethren, to bring home to your clerics
and priests these teachings of the Sainted Commentator. You have
to remind them constantly of the demands made by their divine
vocation if they would be worthy of it: "The lips of the
priest shall keep knowledge, and men shall ask the Law at his
mouth, for he is the Angel of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 2:7).
They must realize, then, that they cannot neglect study of the
Bible, and that this can only be undertaken along the lines laid
down by Leo XIII in his Encyclical Providentissimus Deus.(80) They
cannot do this better than by frequenting the Biblical Institute
established by our predecessor, Pius X, in accordance with the
wishes of Leo XIII. As the experience of the past ten years has
shown, it has proved a great gain to the Church. Not all, however,
can avail themselves of this. It will be well, then, Venerable
Brethren, that picked men, both of the secular and regular clergy,
should come to Rome for Biblical study. All will not come with the
same object. Some, in accordance with the real purpose of the
Institute, will so devote themselves to Biblical study that
"afterwards, both in private and in public, whether by
writing or by teaching, whether as professors in Catholic schools
or by writing in defense of Catholic truth, they may be able
worthily to uphold the cause of Biblical study." Others,
however, already priests, will obtain here a wider knowledge of
the Bible than they were able to acquire during their theological
course; they will gain, too, an acquaintance with the great
commentators and with Biblical history and geography. Such
knowledge will avail them much in their ministry; they will be
"instructed to every good work."(81)
47.
We learn, then, from St. Jerome's example and teaching the
qualities required in one who would devote himself to Biblical
study. But what, in his view, is the goal of such study? First,
that from the Bible's pages we learn spiritual perfection.
Meditating as he did day and night on the Law of the Lord and on
His Scriptures, Jerome himself found there the "Bread that
cometh down from heaven," the manna containing all
delights.(82) And we certainly cannot do without that bread. How
can a cleric teach others the way of salvation if through neglect
of meditation on God's word he fails to teach himself? What
confidence can he have that, when ministering to others, he is
really "a leader of the blind, a light to them that are in
darkness, an instructor of the foolish, having the form of
knowledge and of truth in the law," if he is unwilling to
study the said Law and thus shuts the door on any divine
illumination on it?
Alas!
many of God's ministers, through never looking at their Bible,
perish themselves and allow many others to perish also. "The
children have asked for bread, and there was none to break it unto
them" (Lam. 4:4); and "With desolation is all the land
made desolate, for there is none than meditateth in the
heart" (Jer. 12:11).
48.
Secondly, it is from the Bible that we gather confirmations and
illustrations of any particular doctrine we wish to defend. In
this Jerome was marvelously expert. When disputing with the
heretics of his day he refuted them by singularly apt and weighty
arguments drawn from the Bible. If men of the present age would
but imitate him in this we should see realized what our
predecessor, Leo XIII, in his Encyclical, Providentissimus Deus,
said was so eminently desirable: "The Bible influencing our
theological teaching and indeed becoming its very soul."(83)
49.
Lastly, the real value of the Bible is for our preaching - if the
latter is to be fruitful. On this point it is a pleasure to
illustrate from Jerome what we ourselves said in our Encyclical on
"preaching the Word of God," entitled Humani generis.
How insistently Jerome urges on priests assiduous reading of the
Bible if they would worthily teach and preach! Their words will
have neither value nor weight nor any power to touch men's souls
save in proportion as they are "informed" by Holy
Scripture: "Let a priest's speech be seasoned with the
Bible,"(84) for "the Scriptures are a trumpet that stirs
us with a mighty voice and penetrates to the soul of them that
believe,"(85) and "nothing so strikes home as an example
taken from the Bible."(86)
50.
These mainly concern the exegetes, yet preachers, too, must always
bear them in mind. Jerome's first rule is careful study of the
actual words so that we may be perfectly certain what the writer
really does say. He was most careful to consult the original text,
to compare various versions, and, if he discovered any mistake in
them, to explain it and thus make the text perfectly clear. The
precise meaning, too, that attaches to particular words has to be
worked out, for "when discussing Holy Scripture it is not
words we want so much as the meaning of words."(87) We do not
for a moment deny that Jerome, in imitation of Latin and Greek
doctors before him, leaned too much, especially at the outset,
towards allegorical interpretations. But his love of the Bible,
his unceasing toil in reading and re-reading it and weighing its
meaning, compelled him to an ever-growing appreciation of its
literal sense and to the formulation of sound principles
regarding it. These we set down here, for they provide a safe path
for us all to follow in getting from the Sacred Books their full
meaning.
In
the first place, then, we must study the literal or historical
meaning: I earnestly warn the prudent reader not to pay attention
to superstitious interpretations such as are given cut and dried
according to some interpreter's fancy. He should study the
beginning, middle, and end, and so form a connected idea of the
whole of what he finds written.(88)
51.
Jerome then goes on to say that all interpretation rests on the
literal sense,(89) and that we are not to think that there is no
literal sense merely because a thing is said metaphorically, for
"the history itself is often presented in metaphorical dress
and described figuratively."(90) Indeed, he himself affords
the best refutation of those who maintain that he says that
certain passages have no historical meaning: "We are not
rejecting the history, we are merely giving a spiritual
interpretation of it.''(91) Once, however, he has firmly
established the literal or historical meaning, Jerome goes on to
seek our deeper and hidden meanings, as to nourish his mind with
more delicate food. Thus he says of the Book of Proverbs - and he
makes the same remark about other parts of the Bible - that we
must not stop at the simple literal sense: "Just as we have
to seek gold in the earth, for the kernel in the shell, for the
chestnut's hidden fruit beneath its hairy coverings, so in Holy
Scripture we have to dig deep for its divine meaning."(92)
52.
When teaching Paulinus "how to make true progress in the
Bible," he says: "Everything we read in the Sacred Books
shines and glitters even in its outer shell; but the marrow of it
is sweeter. If you want the kernel you must break the
shell."(93)
At
the same time, he insists that in searching for this deeper
meaning we must proceed in due order, "lest in our search for
spiritual riches we seem to despise the history as
poverty-stricken."(94) Consequently he repudiates many
mystical interpretations alleged by ancient writers; for he feels
that they are not sufficiently based on the literal meaning: When
all these promises of which the Prophets sang are regarded not
merely as empty sounds or idle tropological expressions, but as
established on earth and having solid historical foundations,
then, can we put on them the coping-stone of a spiritual
interpretation.(95)
53.
On this point he makes the wise remark that we ought not to desert
the path mapped out by Christ and His Apostles, who, while
regarding the Old Testament as preparing for and foreshadowing the
New Covenant, and whilst consequently explaining various passages
in the former as figurative, yet do not give a figurative
interpretation of all alike. In confirmation of this he often
refers us to St. Paul, who, when "explaining the mystery of
Adam and Eve, did not deny that they were formed, but on that
historical basis erected a spiritual interpretation, and said:
'Therefore shall a man leave,' etc."(96)
54.
If only Biblical students and preachers would but follow this
example of Christ and His Apostles; if they would but obey the
directions of Leo XIII, and not neglect "those allegorical or
similar explanations which the Fathers have given, especially when
these are based on the literal sense, and are supported by weighty
authority";(97) if they would pass from the literal to the
more profound meaning in temperate fashion, and thus lift
themselves to a higher plane, they would, with St. Jerome, realize
how true are St. Paul's words: "All Scripture is inspired by
God and useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for
instructing in justice" (2 Tim. 3: 16). They
would, too, derive abundant help from the infinite treasury of
facts and ideas in the Bible, and would thence be able to mold
firmly but gently the lives and characters of the faithful.
55.
As for methods of expounding Holy Scripture - "for amongst
the dispensers of the mysteries of God it is required that a man
be found faithful" - St. Jerome lays down that we have got to
keep to the "true interpretation, and that the real function
of a commentator is to set forth not what he himself would like
his author to mean, but what he really does mean."(98)
And
he continues: "It is dangerous to speak in the Church, lest
through some faulty interpretation we make Christ's Gospel into
man's Gospel."(99) And again: "In explaining the Bible
we need no florid oratorical composition, but that learned
simplicity which is truth."(100)
This
ideal he ever kept before him; he acknowledges that in his
Commentaries he "seeks no praise, but so to set out what
another has well said that it may be understood in the sense in
which it was said."(101) He further demands of an expositor
of Scripture a style which, "while leaving no impression of
haziness...yet explains things, sets out the meaning, clears up
obscurities, and is not mere verbiage."(102)
56.
And here we may set down some passages from his writings which
will serve to show to what an extent he shrank from that
declamatory kind of eloquence which simply aims at winning empty
applause by an equally empty and noisy flow of words. He says to
Nepotian: I do not want you to be a declaimer or a garrulous
brawler; rather be skilled in the Mysteries, learned in the
Sacraments of God. To make the populace gape by spinning words and
speaking like a whirlwind is only worthy of empty-headed men.(103)
And
once more: Students ordained at this time seem not to think how
they may get at the real marrow of Holy Scripture, but how best
they may make peoples' ears tingle by their flowery
declamations!(104)
Again:
I prefer to say nothing of men who, like myself, have passed from
profane literature to Biblical study, but who, if they happen once
to have caught men's ears by their ornate sermons, straightway
begin to fancy that whatsoever they say is God's law. Apparently
they do not think it worthwhile to discover what the Prophets and
Apostles really meant; they are content to string together texts
made to fit the meaning they want. One would almost fancy that
instead of being a degraded species of oratory, it must be a fine
thing to pervert the meaning of the text and compel the reluctant
Scripture to yield the meaning one wants!(105)
57.
"As a matter of fact, mere loquacity would not win any credit
unless backed by Scriptural authority, that is, when men see that
the speaker is trying to give his false doctrine Biblical
support" (Tit. 1:10). Moreover, this garrulous eloquence and
wordy rusticity "lacks biting power, has nothing vivid or
life-giving in it; it is flaccid, languid and enervated; it is
like boiled herbs and grass, which speedily dry up and wither
away."(106)
On
the contrary the Gospel teaching is straightforward, it is like
that "least of all seeds" - the mustard seed - "no
mere vegetable, but something that 'grows into a tree so that the
birds of the air come and dwell in its branches'."(107) The
consequence is that everybody hears gladly this simple and holy
fashion of speech, for it is clear and has real beauty without
artificiality: There are certain eloquent folk who puff out their
cheeks and produce a foaming torrent of words; may they win all
the eulogiums they crave for! For myself, I prefer so to speak
that I may be intelligible; when I discuss the Bible I prefer the
Bible's simplicity(108)...A cleric's exposition of the Bible
should, of course, have a certain becoming eloquence; but he must
keep this in the background, for he must ever have in view the
human race and not the leisurely philosophical schools with their
choice coterie of disciples.(109)
If
the younger clergy would but strive to reduce principles like
these to practice, and if their elders would keep such principles
before their eyes, we are well assured that they would prove of
very real assistance to those to whom they minister.
58.
It only remains for us, Venerable Brethren, to refer to those
"sweet fruits" which Jerome gathered from "the
bitter seed" of literature. For we confidently hope that his
example will fire both clergy and laity with enthusiasm for the
study of the Bible. It will be better, however, for you to gather
from the lips of the saintly hermit rather than from our words
what real spiritual delight he found in the Bible and its study.
Notice, then, in what strain he writes to Paulinus, "my
companion, friend, and fellow mystic": "I beseech you to
live amidst these things. To meditate on them, to know nought
else, to have no other interests, this is really a foretaste of
the joys of heaven."(110)
59.
He says much the same to his pupil Paula: Tell me whether you know
of anything more sacred than this sacred mystery, anything more
delightful than the pleasure found herein? What food, what honey
could be sweeter than to learn of God's Providence, to enter into
His shrine and look into the mind of the Creator, to listen to the
Lord's words at which the wise of this world laugh, but which
really are full of spiritual teaching? Others may have their
wealth, may drink out of jeweled cups, be clad in silks, enjoy
popular applause, find it impossible to exhaust their wealth by
dissipating it in pleasures of all kinds; but our delight is to
meditate on the Law of the Lord day and night, to knock at His
door when shut, to receive our food from the Trinity of Persons,
and, under the guidance of the Lord, trample under foot the
swelling tumults of this world.(111)
And
in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, which he
dedicated to Paula and her daughter Eustochium, he says: "If
aught could sustain and support a wise man in this life or help
him to preserve his equanimity amid the conflicts of the world, it
is, I reckon, meditation on and knowledge of the Bible."(112)
60.
And so it was with Jerome himself: afflicted with many mental
anxieties and bodily pains, he yet ever enjoyed an interior peace.
Nor was this due simply to some idle pleasure he found in such
studies: it sprang from love of God and it worked itself out in an
earnest love of God's Church - the divinely appointed guardian of
God's Word. For in the Books of both Testaments Jerome saw the
Church of God foretold. Did not practically every one of the
illustrious and sainted women who hold a place of honor in the Old
Testament prefigure the Church, God's Spouse? Did not the
priesthood, the sacrifices, the solemnities, nay, nearly
everything described in the Old Testament shadow forth that same
Church? How many Psalms and Prophecies saw he fulfilled in that
Church? To him it was clear that the Church's greatest privileges
were set forth by Christ and His Apostles. Small wonder, then,
that growing familiarity with the Bible meant for Jerome growing
love of the Spouse of Christ. We have seen with what reverent yet
enthusiastic love he attached himself to the Roman Church and to
the See of Peter, how eagerly he attacked those who assailed her.
So when applauding Augustine, his junior yet his fellow-soldier,
and rejoicing in the fact that they were one in their hatred of
heresy, he hails him with the words: Well done! You are famous
throughout the world. Catholics revere you and point you out as
the establisher of the old-time faith; and - an even greater glory
- all heretics hate you. And they hate me too; unable to slay us
with the sword, they would that wishes could kill.(113)
Sulpicius
Severus quotes Postumianus to the same effect: His unceasing
conflict with wicked men brings on him their hatred. Heretics hate
him, for he never ceases attacking them; clerics hate him, for he
assails their criminal lives. But all good men admire him and love
him.(114)
And
Jerome had to endure much from heretics and abandoned men,
especially when the Pelagians laid waste the monastery at
Bethlehem. Yet all this he bore with equanimity, like a man who
would not hesitate to die for the faith: I rejoice when I hear
that my children are fighting for Christ. May He in whom we
believe confirm our zeal so that we may gladly shed our blood for
His faith. Our very home is - as far as worldly belongings go -
completely ruined by the heretics; yet through Christ's mercy it
is filled with spiritual riches. It is better to have to be
content with dry bread than to lose one's faith.(115)
61.
And while he never suffered errors to creep in unnoticed, he
likewise never failed to lash with biting tongue any looseness in
morals, for he was always anxious "to present," unto
Christ "the Church in all her glory, not having spot or
wrinkle or any such things, but that she might be holy and without
blemish" (Eph. 5:27). How terribly he upbraids men who have
degraded the dignity of the priesthood! With what vigor he
inveighs against the pagan morals then infecting Rome! But he
rightly felt that nothing could better avail to stem this flood of
vice than the spectacle afforded by the real beauty of the
Christian life; and that a love of what is really good is the best
antidote to evil. Hence he urged that young people must be piously
brought up, the married taught a holy integrity of life, pure
souls have the beauty of virginity put before them, that the sweet
austerity of an interior life should be extolled, and since the
primal law of Christian religion was the combination of toil with
charity, that if this could only be preserved human society would
recover from its disturbed state. Of this charity he says very
beautifully: "The believing soul is Christ's true temple.
Adorn it, deck it out, offer your gifts to it, in it receive
Christ. Of what profit to have your walls glittering with jewels
while Christ dies of hunger in poverty?"(116)
62.
As for toil, his whole life and not merely his writings afford the
best example. Postumianus, who spent six months with him at
Bethlehem, says: "He is wholly occupied in reading and with
books; he rests neither day nor night; he is always either reading
or writing something."(117) Jerome's love of the Church, too,
shines out even in his Commentaries wherein he lets slip no
opportunity for praising the Spouse of Christ: The choicest things
of all the nations have come and the Lord's House is filled with
glory: that is, "the Church of the Living God, the pillar and
the ground of truth."...With jewels like these the Church is richer than ever was the synagogue; with these living stones is
the House of God built up and eternal peace bestowed upon
her.(118) Come, let us go up to the Mount of the Lord: for we must
needs go up if we would come to Christ and to the House of the God
of Jacob, to the Church which is "the pillar and ground of
truth."(119) By the Lord's voice is the Church established
upon the rock, and her hath the King brought into His chamber, to
her by secret condescension hath He put forth His hand through the
lattices.(120)
63.
Again and again, as in the passages just given, does Jerome
celebrate the intimate union between Christ and His Church. For
since the Head can never be separated from the mystical body, so,
too, love of Christ is ever associated with zeal of His Church;
and this love of Christ must ever be the chiefest and most
agreeable result of a knowledge of Holy Scripture. So convinced
indeed was Jerome that familiarity with the Bible was the royal
road to the knowledge and love of Christ that he did not hesitate
to say: "Ignorance of the Bible means ignorance of
Christ."(121) And "what other life can there be without
knowledge of the Bible wherein Christ, the life of them that
believe, is set before us?"(122) Every single page of either
Testament seems to center around Christ; hence Jerome, commenting
on the words of the Apocalypse about the River and the Tree of
Life, says: One stream flows out from the throne of God, and that
is the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and that grace of the Holy Spirit
is in the Holy Scriptures, that is in the stream of the
Scriptures. Yet has that stream twin banks, the Old Testament and
the New, and the Tree planted on either side is Christ.(123)
64.
Small wonder, then, if in his devout meditations he applied
everything in the Bible to Christ: When I read the Gospel and find
there testimonies from the Law and from the Prophets, I see only
Christ; I so see Moses and the Prophets and I understand them of
Christ. Then when I come to the splendor of Christ Himself, and
when I gaze at that glorious sunlight, I care not to look at the
lamplight. For what light can a lamp give when lit in the daytime?
If the sun shines out, the lamplight does not show. So, too, when
Christ is present the Law and the Prophets do not show. Not that I
would detract from the Law and the Prophets; rather do I praise
them in that they show forth Christ. But I so read the Law and the
Prophets as not to abide in them but from them to pass to
Christ.(124)
65.
Hence was Jerome wondrously uplifted to love for and knowledge of
Christ through his study of the Bible in which he discovered the
precious pearl of the Gospel: "There is one most priceless
pearl: the knowledge of the Savior, the mystery of His Passion,
the secret of His Resurrection."(125) Burning as he did with
the love of Christ we cannot but marvel that he, poor and lowly
with Christ, with soul freed from earthly cares, sought Christ
alone, by His spirit was he led, with Him he lived in closest
intimacy, by imitating Him he would bear about the image of His
sufferings in himself. For him nought more glorious than to suffer
with and for Christ. Hence it was that when on Damasus' death he,
wounded and weary from evil men's assaults, left Rome and wrote
just before he embarked: Though some fancy me a scoundrel and
guilty of every crime - and, indeed, this is a small matter when I
think of my sins - yet you do well when from your soul you reckon
evil men good. Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the
world...What real sorrows have I to bear - I who fight for the
Cross? Men heap false accusations on me; yet I know that through
ill report and good report we win the kingdom of heaven.(126)
66.
In like fashion does he exhort the maiden Eustochium to courageous
and lifelong toil for Christ's sake: To become what the Martyrs,
the Apostles, what even Christ Himself was, means immense labor -
but what a reward!...What I have been saying to you will sound
hard to one who does not love Christ. But those who consider
worldly pomp a mere offscouring and all under the sun mere
nothingness if only they may win Christ, those who are dead with
Christ, have risen with Him and have crucified the flesh with its
vices and concupiscences - they will echo the words: "Who
shall separate us from the charity of Christ?"(127)
67.
Immense, then, was the profit Jerome derived from reading
Scripture; hence came those interior illuminations whereby he was
ever more and more drawn to knowledge and love of Christ; hence,
too, that love of prayer of which he has written so well; hence
his wonderful familiarity with Christ, Whose sweetness drew him so
that he ran unfalteringly along the arduous way of the Cross to
the palm of victory. Hence, too, his ardent love for the Holy
Eucharist: "Who is wealthier than he who carries the Lord's
Body in his wicker basket, the Lord's Blood in his crystal
vessel?"(128) Hence, too, his love for Christ's Mother, whose
perpetual virginity he had so keenly defended, whose title as
God's Mother and as the greatest example of all the virtues he
constantly set before Christ's spouses for their imitation.(129)
No one, then, can wonder that Jerome should have been so
powerfully drawn to those spots in Palestine which had been
consecrated by the presence of our Redeemer and His Mother. It is
easy to recognize the hand of Jerome in the words written from
Bethlehem to Marcella by his disciples, Paula and Eustochium: What
words can serve to describe to you the Savior's cave? As for the
manger in which He lay - well, our silence does it more honor than
any poor words of ours...Will the day ever dawn where we can enter
His cave to weep at His tomb with the sister (of Lazarus) and
mourn with His Mother; when we can kiss the wood of His Cross and,
with the ascending Lord on Olivet, be uplifted in mind and
spirit?(130)
Filled
with memories such as these, Jerome could, while far away from
Rome and leading a life hard for the body but inexpressibly sweet
to the soul, cry out: "Would that Rome had what tiny
Bethlehem possesses!"(131)
68.
But we rejoice - and Rome with us - that the Saint's desire has
been fulfilled, though far otherwise than he hoped for. For
whereas David's royal city once gloried in the possession of the
relics of "the Greatest Doctor" reposing in the cave
where he dwelt so long, Rome now possesses them, for they lie in
St. Mary Major's beside the Lord's Crib. His voice is now still,
though at one time the whole Catholic world listened to it when it
echoed from the desert; yet Jerome still speaks in his writings,
which "shine like lamps throughout the world."(132)
Jerome still calls to us. His voice rings out, telling us of the
super-excellence of Holy Scripture, of its integral character and
historical trustworthiness, telling us, too, of the pleasant
fruits resulting from reading and meditating upon it. His voice
summons all the Church's children to return to a truly Christian
standard of life, to shake themselves free from a pagan type of
morality which seems to have sprung to life again in these days.
His voice calls upon us, and especially on Italian piety and zeal,
to restore to the See of Peter divinely established here that
honor and liberty which its Apostolic dignity and duty demand. The
voice of Jerome summons those Christian nations which have
unhappily fallen away from Mother Church to turn once more to her
in whom lies all hope of eternal salvation. Would, too, that the
Eastern Churches, so long in opposition to the See of Peter, would
listen to Jerome's voice. When he lived in the East and sat at the
feet of Gregory and Didymus, he said only what the Christians of
the East thought in his time when he declared that "If anyone
is outside the Ark of Noe he will perish in the over-whelming
flood."(133) Today this flood seems on the verge of sweeping
away all human institutions - unless God steps in to prevent it.
And surely this calamity must come if men persist in sweeping on
one side God the Creator and Conserver of all things! Surely
whatever cuts itself off from Christ must perish! Yet He Who at
His disciples' prayer calmed the raging sea can restore peace to
the tottering fabric of society. May Jerome, who so loved God's
Church and so strenuously defended it against its enemies, win for
us the removal of every element of discord, in accordance with
Christ's prayer, so that there may be "one fold and one
shepherd."
69.
Delay not, Venerable Brethren, to impart to your people and clergy
what on the fifteenth centenary of the death of "the Greatest
Doctor" we have here set before you. Urge upon all not merely
to embrace under Jerome's guidance Catholic doctrine touching the
inspiration of Scripture, but to hold fast to the principles laid
down in the Encyclical Providentissimus Deus, and in this present
Encyclical. Our one desire for all the Church's children is that,
being saturated with the Bible, they may arrive at the all
surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ. In testimony of which desire
and of our fatherly feeling for you we impart to you and all your
flocks the Apostolic blessing.
Given
at St. Peter's, Rome, September 15, 1920, the seventh year of our
Pontificate.
Endnotes:
1.
Rom. 15:4. | 2. Sulpicius Severus, Dial., 1, 7. | 3. John Cassian,
De Incarn., 7, 26. | 4. S. Prosper, Carmen de ingratis, 57 | 5. S.
Jerome, De viris ill., 135. | 6. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum, 82, 2,
2. | 7. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 15, 1, 1; Epist. ad eundum, 16, 2,
1. | 8. Id., In Abdiam, Prol. | 9. Id., In Matt., 13:44. | 10.
Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 30, 1. | 11. Id., Epist. ad
Pammachium et Oceanum, 84, 3, 1. | 12. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum,
125, 12. | 13. Id., Epist. ad Geruchiam, 123, 9; Epist. ad
Principiam, 127, 7, 1. | 14. Id., Epist. and Principiam, 127, 7,
1. | 15. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 1; Epist. ad Marcellum, 32,
1. | 16. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45, 2; Epist. ad Marcellinum et
Anapsychiam, 126, 3; Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7. | 17. Id.,
Epist. ad Pammachium et Oceanum, 84, 3, 1. | 18. Id., Ad Domnionem
et Rogatianum in I Paral., Praef. | 19. Id., Tract. de Ps., 88. |
20. Id., In Matt., 13:44; Tract. de Ps., 77. | 21. Id., In Matt.,
13:45. | 22. Id., Quaest. in Genesim, Praef. | 23. Id., In Agg.,
2:1, In Gal., 2:10. | 24. Id., Adv. Helv., 19. | 25. Id., Adv.
Iovin., 1, 4. | 26. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium, 49, 14, 1. | 27.
Id., In Jer., 9:12-14. | 28. Id., Epist. ad Fabiolam, 78, 30. |
29. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam, 27, 1, 1. | 30. Id., In Ezech.,
1:15-18. | 31. Id., In Mich., 2:11; 3:5-8. | 32. Id., In Mich.,
4:1. | 33. Id., In Jer., 31:35. | 34. Id., In Nah. 1:9. | 35. Id.,
Epist. ad Pammachium, 57, 7, 4. | 36. Id., Epist. Theophilum, 82,
7, 2. | 37. Id., Epist. ad Vitalem, 72, 2, 2. | 38. Id., Epist. ad
Damasum, 18, 7, 4; cf. Epist. Paula et Eustochium ad Marcellam,
46, 6, 2. | 39. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 11, 2. | 40. Id.,
Epist. ad Pammachium, 57, 9, 1. | 41. S. Augustine, Ad S. Hieron.,
inter epist. S. Hier., 116, 3. | 42. Leo XIII, Providentissimus
Deus; cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 125. | 43. Ibid., cf. Ench. Bibl., n.
124. | 44. S. Jerome, In Jer., 23:15-17; In Matt., 14:8; Adv. Helv.,
4. | 45. Id., In Philem., 4. | 46. S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 3,
6. | 47. S. Jerome, In Matt., Prol.; cf. Luke, 1:1. | 48. Id.,
Epist. ad Fabiolam, 78, 1, 1; cf. In Marc., 1:13-31. | 49. S.
Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 8. | 50. S. Jerome, Epist. ad
Demetriadem, 130, 20; cf. Prov. 4:6,8. | 51. Conc. Trid., Sess. 4
Decr. de ed. et usu ss. Iibrorum; cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 61. | 52. S.
Jerome, Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 9, 2; 11, 2. | 53. S. Aug.,
Confessiones, 3, S; cf. 8, 12. | 54. S. Jerome, Epist. ad
Eustochium, 22, 30, 2. | 55. Id., In Mich., 1:10-15. | 56. Id., In
Gal., 5:19-21. | 57. Id., Epist. 108 Epitaphium S. Paulae,
26, 2. | 58. Id., Ad Domnionem et Rogatianum in I Paral, Praef. |
59. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum, 63, 2. | 60. Id., Epist. ad Damasum,
15, 1, 2, 4. | 61. Id., Epist ad Damasum, 16, 2, 2. | 62. Id., In
Dan., 3:37. | 63. Id., Adv. Vigil., 6. | 64. Id., Dial. contra
Pelagianos, Prol. 2. | 65. Id., Contra Ruf., 3, 43. | 66. Id., In
Mich., I:10-15. | 67. Id., In Is., 16:1-5. | 68. Leo XIII,
Providentissimus Deus; cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 100. | 69. S. Jerome,
In Tit., 3:9. | 70. Id., In Eph., 4:31. | 71. Id., Epist. ad
Laetam, 107, 9, 12. | 72. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 17, 2. |
73. Id., Epist. 108 Epitaphium S. Paulae, 26. | 74. Id.,
Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7. | 75. Imitatio Christi, 4, 11, 4. |
76. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Rusticum, 125, 7, 3. | 77. Id., Epist. ad
Nepotianum, 52, 7, 1; cf. Tit. 1:9. | 78. Id. Epist. ad Paulinum,
53, 3 3. | 79. Id. Epsit. as Marcellam, 27, i, 2. | 80. Leo XIII,
Providentissimus Deus; cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 100-132. | 81. Pius X,
Vinea electa, May 7, 1909; cf. A.A.S., I (1909) 447-451; Ench.
Bibl., n. 300. | 82. S. Jerome, Tract. de Ps. 147; cf. Ps. 1:2,
Wis. 16:20. | 83. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; cf. Ench.
Bibl., n. 114. | 84. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Nepotianum, 52, 8, 1. |
85. Id., In Amos, 3:3-8. | 86. Id., In Zach., 9:15. | 87. Id.,
Epist. ad Marcellam, 29, 1, 3. | 88. Id., In Matt., 25:13. | 89.
Cf. Id., In Ezech., 38:1, 41:23, 42:13; In Marc., 1:13-31; Epist.
ad Dardanum, 129, 6, 1. | 90. Id., In Hab., 3:14. | 91. Id., In
Marc., 9:1-7; cf. In Ezech., 40:24-27. | 92. Id., In Eccles.,
12:9. | 93. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 9, 1. | 94. Id., In
Eccles., 2:24-26. | 95. Id., In Amos, 9:6. | 96. Id., In Isa.,
6:1-7. | 97. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; cf. Ench. Bibl., n.
112. | 98. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Pammachium, 49, 17, 7. | 99. Id.,
In Gal., 1:11. | 100. Id. In Amos, Praef. | 101. Id. In Gal.,
Praef. | 102. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 14, 2; cf. Epist. ad
Cyprianum, 140,1,2. | 103. Id., Epist. ad Nepotianum, 52, 8, 1. |
104. Id., Dialogus contra Luciferianos, 11. | 105. Id., Epist. ad
Paulinum, 53, 7, 2. | 106. Id., In Tit., 1:10. | 107. Id., In
Matt., 13:32. | 108. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 14, 2. | 109.
Id., Epist. ad Pammachium, 48, 4, 3. | 110. Id., Epist. ad
Paulinum, 53, 10. | 111. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30, 13. | 112.
Id., In Eph., Prol. | 113. Id., Epist. ad Augustinum, 141, 2; cf.
Epist. ad eumdem, 134,1. | 114. Postumianus apud Sulp. Sev.,
Dial., 1, 9. | 115. S. Jerome, Epist ad Apronium, 139. | 116. Id.,
Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 7, 1. | 117. Postumianus, Dial., 1, 9. |
118. S. Jerome, In Agg., 2:1-10. | 119. Id., In Mich., 4:1-7. |
120. Id., In Matt., Prol. | 121. Id., In Isa., Prol.; cf. Tract.
de Ps. 77. | 122. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30, 7. | 123. Id., Tract.
de Ps. 1. | 124. Id., Tract. in Marc., 9:1-7. | 125. Id., In
Matt., 13:45. | 126. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45, 1, 6. | 127. Id.,
Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 38. | 128. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum, 125,
20, 4. | 129. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 38, 3. | 130. Id.,
Epist. Paula et Eustochium ad Marcellam, 46, 11, 13. | 131. Id.,
Epist. ad Furiam, 54, 13, 6. | 132. John Cassian, De Incarn., 7,
26. | 133. S. Jerome, Epist ad Damasum, 15, 2, 1.
The above is provided for informational purposes only and may not be comprehensive. By using this site you agree to all terms. For terms
information, see "Important Notice" above and click
here.
|
