THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURE


SAINT JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR

Zech 8:20-23; Ps 87; Lk 9:51-56

The Word as the Face of God

We described the angels as pure spirits who gaze on the face of God or stand before God. By this, we mean that they attend to the will of God, contemplating and carrying it out whenever they know it. As Pope Saint Gregory the Great explained, we call them angels because of their ministries to fulfil the will of God. Before God gives them a ministry or service to render through the revelation of his will, they stand before him and contemplate the mystery of God and his holy will. The contemplation of the face or countenance of God is the life or nature of the angels. Hence, our Lord says we shall be like the angels when we come to the beatific vision. Recall that God made us in his image and transformed us into his likeness. It implies that we, like the angels, will be like God. The major activity of the angels, which is the contemplation of God’s face, is what makes them like God. Since God has no face as such, being the pure Spirit and the cause of all spirits, the face of God that the angels contemplate is the Eternal Word, who is the expression of the Father. The Son is the face of God, for he gives expression to the holy will of God. Therefore, the angels gaze constantly on the Eternal Word of God and find life in him. Thus, we call the Eternal Word the Bread of Angels.

Because we have the same vocation with the angels, namely, the contemplation of God and doing of his holy will, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The same food that the angels eat in heaven is also given to us in our mortality, so that we may gain immortality by eating the Bread of Life. The prophet Zechariah tells of the invitation to all men of every tribe, language, and nation to contemplate God, who reveals Himself in Jerusalem. “The Lord of Hosts says this: There will be other peoples yet, and citizens of great cities. And the inhabitants of one city will go to the next and say, “Come, let us go and entreat the favour of the Lord, and seek the Lord of Hosts; I am going myself.” And many peoples and great nations will come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord.” The attraction of people to Jerusalem is the revelation of God’s will there. Jerusalem has a privileged place among nations because God revealed His will there through the Law and Prophets, preceding the coming of the Word in our nature. In this sense, the physical Jerusalem is a figure of the Church, the mystical Jerusalem. After the Incarnation, Jerusalem assumed its mystical meaning as the Mountain of God or the Body of Christ through which the divine will is revealed for our salvation. “In those days, ten men of nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say, ‘We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you.’” The Jew that all will take by the sleeve is the Son of Man, whose name is Emmanuel, ‘God is with us.’

The mission of the Son of Man was to realise the mystical Jerusalem, the holy mountain of God, sung in the psalm. “On the holy mountain is his city cherished by the Lord. The Lord prefers the gates of Zion to all Jacob’s dwellings. Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!” The Gospel tells us of Jesus’ resolution to accomplish his mission in Jerusalem. “As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him.” The mission of the Son of Man would make the face of God available to all nations for their contemplation and transformation. Saint Jerome dedicated his whole life and work to promoting the same mission of the Son of Man, for he believed that the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ. He was born in Strido, in Dalmatia. He studied in Rome and was baptized thereafter. He embraced ascetic life, which led him to travel to the East, where he was ordained a priest. Pope Damasus recalled him to Rome to be his secretary. He returned to Jerusalem after the Pope’s death. He founded a monastery, a hospice, and a school. He translated the Bible into Latin and wrote many works, letters, and commentaries on Holy Scripture. He died at Bethlehem in 420 AD.

Let us pray: O God, who gave the Priest Saint Jerome a living and tender love for Sacred Scripture, grant that your people may be ever more fruitfully nourished by your Word and find in it the fount of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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