Fr Mark Schultz

Dear Friend,

Today is the Feast of Saint Jerome (!), and the Gospel appointed at Eucharist for the feast speaks of Jesus opening the minds of the disciples to understand scripture.  It’s likely this is the appointed Gospel on account of Jerome having translated the Bible into Latin…though it’s more the case that Jerome’s Vulgate (Vulgate referring to “common speech”) is a revision of the Vetus Latina (the Old Latin) translations of the Bible.  You may have noted that plural there.  The problem wasn’t so much that there was no Latin translation, but that there were differing Latin translations in a form of Latin that was no longer common speech.  What Jerome did that was so important and helpful in his translation was to compare the Vetus (or at least a ready-to-hand representative or two) to the best manuscripts of scripture he had available (in Hebrew and Greek), retranslating sections, correcting, consolidating, and producing a definitive and scholarly Latin version that would eventually supplant the Vetus completely.

Apart from the Vulgate, Jerome is known for his embarrassingly inflammable temper, even in disagreements with friends, and while this quality in him is one we ought to eschew, there’s at least some comfort in thought that, if Jerome, with all his own failings and foibles can be a saint, there’s certainly hope for the rest of us, too! 

In fact (and some of you may have heard this from me before or read it elsewhere) there’s a wonderful story that’s part of Jerome’s legend that I find particularly wonderful and inspiring.  There are, apparently, many different versions of it, and it goes something like this.

It’s Christmas, and Jesus appears to Jerome in a vision. 
And he says: 
Jerome.  I love you.  I desire you.  Give yourself to me.
And Jerome says:
My Lord, yes.  I’ve just finished a translation of the Bible.  It’s very good.  My life’s work.  It’s yours.  As a gift.  On your birthday.
And Jesus says:
Jerome.  I love you.  Give yourself to me.
And Jerome, a bit taken aback, stammers:
I’m sorry.  Absolutely.  I give you everything.  All I have and love.  It’s yours.
And Jesus says:
Jerome.  Listen to me.  I love you.  Give yourself to me.
And Jerome says:
Of course.  Jesus.  Yes.  Here are all my good deeds.  All my good and wonderful thoughts. All my righteous intentions.  Take them.  They’re yours.  In fact.  Jesus.  Take my very soul.  Please.
And Jesus says, serenely:
Jerome.  Jerome.  Pay attention.  I love you.  Give yourself to me.
And Jerome says:
What more could I possibly give you?  You have it all, all that’s worth having.
And Jesus says:
Jerome.  Jerome.  I love you.  I love you so much.  Would you keep your weakness from me?  Will you not give me your failures and your troubles?  Jerome.  I want all of you.  Will you not give me your sins? 

Beloved, there is not a part of us that God does not want to receive from us.  If we’re to follow Jerome’s example and walk the path of sainthood (which is, indeed, the path to which we’re all called), then it’s not enough just to give God those things we’re happy with in ourselves.  If God is to truly forgive us, renew and redeem us, we must give God all of us, render vulnerable to grace the entirety or our lives and beings, including those parts of us we would prefer God not see or touch.  Indeed, how can God heal what we will not yield to the Healer’s touch?

Today, dear Friend, on this feast of Saint Jerome, how might we give ourselves more completely to the love of God?

Under the Mercy,
Fr Mark+