St. Jerome

St. Jerome, the greatest biblical scholar of ancient times after his model, Origen, could be described as a man of great passions as well as skills.  He could not abide anyone he considered a fool, but could not praise too highly a person whose character or accomplishments he appreciated.  In the prologue to the Latin edition he translated and revised of Philo’s book, ‘On the Hebrew Names’, we see Jerome, the man of letters, at work; his esteem for Origen; and his humble consideration of his own talent:

“Philo, a most eloquent Jew, is confirmed, by the testimony of Origen, to have written the book, ‘On the Hebrew Names’, on the etymologies of their names, in alphabetical order.  It was our desire to translate it into the Latin language since it was a common text among the Greeks and filled the libraries of the world.  However, I found the copies to differ so greatly among themselves, and thus their order so confused, that I considered it better to keep silent than to write something worthy of a reprimand.  But at the urging of my friends Lupulian and Valerian, who thought me as somewhat proficient in the Hebrew language, I ran through each volume of the Scriptures in its order, moved by the usefulness of a book such as this.  I think that I have renewed an old edifice with new care, which the Greeks should desire.  Therefore, if anything is omitted, let the reader know that this has been reserved for another work.  For, I now have in hand a book called, ‘Hebrew Questions’, a new work, as much for the Greeks as for the Latins, and even for places unheard of.  Not that I am extolling my hard work in a haughty fashion, but that, conscious of my sweat, I may alert those unaware of this in their reading.  If anyone wishes to have that book, the present volume, or ‘The Book of Places’, which I am about to edit, he should pay little attention to the belching and nausea of the Jews.  And lest perhaps after the edifice had been completed the last section of it would be missing, I have interpreted the words and names of the New Testament.  In this, I wished to imitate Origen, whom no one, except an ignorant person, would deny to be the master of the Scriptures, after the Apostles.  For, he labored on distinguished books and on this one, among others, with his own skill, so that what Philo omitted, as a Jew, he would complete, as a Christian.”

The Help of the Angels

From a homily by St. Bernard on the Feast of St. Michael

“There is no minister as high, or as lowly, as the One who offered himself as a sacrifice of praise, and who, offering his soul to the Father, ministers to us his Flesh even today.  It is no wonder, then, that the holy Angels of such a Minister as this should worthily and gladly assist us.  They love us because Christ has loved us.  A certain popular proverb says: ‘Love me, love my dog.’  O blessed Angels!  We are the little dogs of this Lord, whom you love with such feeling!  We are the little dogs, I say, who long to be filled with the scraps that fall from the table of our lords – who you are.  And I say this, brothers, so that you may have a fuller trust towards the blessed angels so that you may invoke their aid more confidently in your every necessity, but also to act more worthily in their presence, to acquire, more and more, their grace for yourselves, to obtain their benevolence, and be zealous to plead for their clemency.  I consider it necessary to set forth other reasons for your love for them: they repay our weakness with their care; truly, they do not need to care for us, but they work for our good; they do nothing to the detriment of their happiness, they work to increase our salvation.”   

The Perfect Shape of Heaven

The City of Jerusalem – the Holy City – became a personification of God’s chosen people in the books of the Prophets, and as such was greatly criticized by them for rejecting God and his law.  The New Jerusalem – the Bride of Christ – would be filled with those who obeyed his commandments.  The following is taken from the Exposition on the Seven Visions of the Book of Revelation, by St. Ambrose (d. 397):

“ ‘The city was four-square, and was as wide as it was long’ (Revelation 21, 16).  The equality of the dimensions of the city signifies the perfection of the saints.  No matter on what side you set a cube-shaped stone, it stands upright.  And if you carefully consider the cube-shaped stone – or anything else that is cube-shaped – you can discern the perfection of the Church in it, for it has six sides, eight corners, and twelve lines.  The six sides signify the perfection of good works, for ‘six’ is a perfect number.  The cube has eight corners, of which four are with respect to the earth, and four are with respect to heaven.  Four corners signify the Gospels: their number is multiplied by two because commend us to the love of God [heaven] and the love of neighbor [earth].  The four corners with respect to heaven indicate that God must be loved above all things.  The four corners with respect to the earth indicate that we must love our neighbors as ourselves.  The twelve lines signify the faith of the twelve Apostles.  Three lines go forth from each corner, and this indicates that the faith of the Holy Trinity has gone forth from Christ in the Apostles, which is the Gospel, which is divided into four books, that it might depart to all nations.  We have said all this about the cube-shaped stone in order to show the perfection of the Church in the equal-sided city.  And because this city has the equal sides of a cube, its length is the same measure as its width.  Its length signifies eternal glory, and its width signifies charity.  So, as the length of the city, so the width of the city: as greatly as each of the faithful has loved in this life, so great is the heavenly beatitude he will possess; and as little as he loved in this life, so little heavenly beatitude shall he possess.”

The Two Sets of Gates

The Lord Jesus announced that he would build his Church upon a rock, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church.  But what are these ‘gates of hell’, and what might it mean if they did prevail?  And are these the only gates?  Here is what Paschasius Radbertus (d. 865), a monk in what is now northern France, answers:

“We know that the ‘gates of hell’ are the vices and sins, for each sin through which a person descends to hell is a gate of hell, and so every soul which contracts a sin against herself is neither a rock upon which Christ built his Church, nor is the Church, nor is part of the Church which Christ built upon a rock, for the gates of hell did prevail against her.  Therefore, while the soul lives, care must be taken lest the gates of hell prevail against us, for if the gates of hell prevail, we are neither the Church nor part of the Church.  As the Apostle said: ‘Those who do such things will not attain the kingdom of God’ (Galatians 5, 21).  The Lord also said: ‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate’ (Luke 13, 24).  Now, just as the gates of hell are sins and vices, so there are the gates of justice – the virtues – through which the just enter into their rest.  Thus, David sang to the Lord: ‘You have lifted me from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion’ (Psalm 9, 15).  Through these gates, without doubt, the soul arrives happily at that one gate concerning which she asks: ‘Open to me the gates of justice and, entering through them, I will praise the Lord’ (Psalm 117, 19).  A little further on, she speaks of that one Gate which is Christ: ‘This is the Gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it’ (Psalm 117, 20).  Although there are many – indeed, innumerable – ‘gates of hell’, none of them shall prevail against the one who is the rock, nor against the Church which is built upon the rock.”

Why We Need Churches

The Prophet Haggai urged the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem after seventy years of exile, to rebuild the temple of God, which had been destroyed.  In the Middle Ages, everyone in a city would contribute in some way to the building of the great cathedrals, and even nobles hauled stone to the building sites.  We read about the sacredness of these buildings in the following excerpt from a sermon delivered by Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) on the occasion of the dedication of a church:

“The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must be adored in a lower house, an interior house, an exterior house – that is, in a sacred church – in a pure conscience, and in the Holy Scriptures, so that he may be adored in an upper house, that is, in the heavenly homeland, as it is written: ‘Blessed are those who live in your house, O Lord!  They shall praise you for ever and ever” (Psalm 83, 5).  But since God is everywhere, both in his power and in his essence, why is he more to be adored in a temple than in another place?  For, his rule is in every place, as the Prophet says: ‘I fill heaven and earth’ (Jeremiah 23, 24).  And, as the Psalmist says: ‘If I should ascend into heaven, you are there; if I should descend into hell, you are there (Psalm 138, 8).  Likewise, when the Samaritan woman asked Christ the answer to the question regarding which place of worship was the right one: ‘Our fathers worshipped God on this mountain, and you say that he is to be adored in Jerusalem,’ Jesus responded to her: ‘Believe me, woman, the hour has come when you shall worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, but the true worshippers will adore him in spirit and truth’ (John 4, 20-23).  As though to say, I do not prefer one place to another in regards to where God is adored in spirit and truth, that is, because he is spiritual and true, which is to say, eternal.  However, although God is to be adored everywhere, still, he is to be worshipped especially in a temple, as it is written: ‘Adore the Lord in his holy court” (Psalm 28, 2).  He particularly is to be adored facing the east, according to what is written in the Book of Wisdom: ‘We ought to adore you at the dawning of the light’ (Wisdom 16, 28).  That is, for us who adore God rises ‘the true Light, who enlightens every man coming into this world’ (John 1, 9).  This is the Christ, the Sun of justice, our God (cf. Malachy 4, 2).  In vain is a temple made for the Lord with great zeal and labor unless the Lord is graciously received in it to be adored.  For, we read that after the temple was constructed and dedicated, Solomon adored the Lord, that any Jew or Gentile who should go up into the temple praying for his sins, or crying out to the Lord because of any tribulation, would be heard by the Lord for those things which were justly asked of him.  The Church to this day follows this form of prayer when she prays on the occasion of the dedication of a church, that: ‘whoever should enter this temple praying for aids, may rejoice to have obtained all that was sought.’  The angels of God assist the faithful worshippers in our sacred temples so that they might offer their devoted prayers to the Lord, as it is written: ‘In the sight of the angels I will sing praise to you, and I will adore in your holy temple, and I will confess your name, O Lord’ (Psalm 137, 1-2).  As the angel said to Tobiah: ‘I offered your prayer to the Lord’ (Tobit 12, 12).  The relics of the saints, who follow us with their prayers, rest in our holy temples, for we are not strong by our own merits.  Therefore, brothers, carefully pay heed to how single-minded and devoted we should be when we worship the Lord before the relics of the saints and in the presence of the angels of God.  Thus, it is necessary that not only should we adore the Lord in holy churches, but in a pure conscience as well.”