Bigot's St. Jerome

It’s appropriate that the feasts of Padre Pio and St. Jerome fall within a week of each other.  Little unites the two, of course.  The lives of the saintly scholar and humble Capuchin hardly intersect, except at the point where their lives can teach us a lesson about passion.

Like Padre Pio, St. Jerome was famous-and remains famous-for the wild shows of passion he would often perform in his service to the Gospel.  Jerome’s letters to St. Augustine chronicle just some of the outbursts of his fiery personality.  When reading these letters, our nineteenth-century Christian sensibilities have a hard time reconciling such passion with “good manners.”  Niceness, however, is not a Christian virtue.  Loving in the truth is.  And in this, St. Jerome excelled.

St. Jerome is just one of the many fourth-century personalities for whom the Gospel appeared new, fresh, and a cause for cultural revolution.  He was among a first generation of young cultural elites to surrender all for the sake of translating the Gospel for his peers, the educated and civic-minded classes of the Roman Empire.  He made many mistakes, especially political ones.  But to read his life is to observe the power of grace shaping and corralling native human talent for the promulgation of Christian truth.  Out of his love for this truth, Jerome traded the comforts of the imperial government in Cologne and the papal household in Rome for a cave in Bethlehem, from which he led the Western world to a deeper understanding of the Christ whose life and grace are conveyed to us through the Scriptures.  

St. Jerome suffered much in his life, occasionally at his own hands.  His rashness led to some of his misunderstanding and persecution.  But Jerome fought real fights against a world hostile to grace.  To a culture loud with sin he bellowed back the call to justice and truth.  Passion is needed for this type of confrontation, graced passion that can touch the fallen passions of the world.  This is not a mystery the human heart can negotiate easily.  But the hot blood of one saint can do more to arrest hearts for truth than the daintiness of a society governed by “Christian manners.”

Father, you gave Saint Jerome delight in his study of holy scripture.  May your people find in your word the food of salvation and the fountain of life.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.