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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Saint Jerome made the Bible the centre of his life: “he translated it into Latin, commented it in writings, and, above all, strove to live it concretely during his long life on this earth”. St Jerome, one of the Church Fathers, was the subject of the catechesis given by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI at the Wednesday general audience in St Peter's Square on November 7.
Born in Stridone around the year 347 into a Christian family where he received good formation in the faith, Jerome was baptised in about 366, he turned to the ascetic life and went to Aquileia where he joined a group of fervent Christians. Later he moved further eastwards and lived as a hermit, dedicating his time to serious study and meditation on the Word of God. In 382 he went to live in Rome as advisor and secretary to Pope Damasus, who “encouraged him to begin a new Latin translation of the biblical texts for pastoral and cultural reasons”. When Pope Damasus died, Jerome left Rome and in 385 he set out to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and then to Egypt. In 386 on reaching Bethlehem, where he was to remain until his death, “he resumed intense activity: commentary on the Word of God; defending the faith, vigorously fighting various heresies; urging monks to strive for perfection; teaching classical and Christian culture to young pupils; welcoming pilgrims to the Holy Land with a pastoral spirit”. He died on 30 September 419/420 in his cell, close to the site of the Nativity”.
“His literary preparation and vast learning enabled Jerome to revise and translate much of the Bible: a work of great value for the Latin Church and the western culture - Pope Benedict XVI underlined in his catechesis - . On the basis of original texts in Greek and Hebrew, he revised the four Gospels in the Latin language, then the Book of Psalms and a good part of the Old Testament. Taking into account the original Hebrew and Greek of the Settanta, the classical Greek version of the Old Testament of pre-Christian times, and earlier Latin versions, Jerome, assisted by other scholars, was able to offer a better translation: it constitutes what we call Vulgata, or the "official" text for the Latin Church, recognised as such by the Council of Trent and which, following recent revision, is still today the 'official' text for the Latin speaking Church ”.
The Holy Father then underlined the importance of the criteria observed by Saint Jerome for his work of translation: respect even for the order of the words in Sacred Scripture, “since in Scripture, he says, ‘even the order of the words in a mystery, that is, a revelation”, and the necessity to have recourse to the original texts. A commentator on numerous Biblical texts, Jerome “ energetically and vivaciously confuted heretics”, he demonstrated the importance and the validity of Christian literature, he wrote biographies of monks illustrating the monastic ideal, he translated various works of Greek authors.
At the end of his catechesis, Pope Benedict XVI asked a question: “What do we learn from St Jerome? I would say this: to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. - Saint Jerome says: ‘To ignore the Scriptures is to ignore Christ’. Therefore it is important for every Christian to live in personal contact and dialogue with the Word of God, given to us in Sacred Scripture”. The Pope then underlined that this dialogue must have two dimensions: a personal dimension, “because God speaks to each of us through Sacred Scripture and He has a message for each of us” which we must strive to understand, and a community dimension, since the Word of God builds up the community, it builds up the Church. “This is why we must read it in communion with the living Church. The privileged placed for reading and listening to the Word of God is the liturgy, in which, celebrating and rendering present in the Sacrament the Body of Christ, we actualise the Word in our life and make it present in our midst ”. The Pope concluded by recalling that the Word of God transcends time: “human opinions come and go. What is ultra modern today, tomorrow will be ultra old. Instead, the Word of God is Word of eternal life, it holds eternity within it, that is, it is valid for ever. So carrying within us the Word of God, we carry within us eternity, eternal life.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 8/11/2007 - righe 48, parole 702)
