Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV promulgated on 15 September 1920
To all the Patriarchs, Primates,
Archbishops, Bishops, and Ordinaries in Union with the Apostolic See.
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.
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
supereminent 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 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 Xlll, 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" an. 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 behoved 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 superexcellence 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 on your breast
and in your ears."[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, even nothing more Latin 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 presumptous 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" an.
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 fisherman'; 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.
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 88 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 worth while 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]
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]
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:
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.
_______________________________________________
REFERENCES:
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., ln Matt., 13:45.
22. Id., Ouaest. 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 Xlll, 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 sive 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:I0-IS.
67. Id., In Is., 16:1-S.
68. Leo Xlll, 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 sive 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 Xlll, 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 Xlll, 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 Xlll, 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.