St. Jerome - Sept. 30th

 

 Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Jerome. He was born around the year 340 and died in 420. He was a priest and monk, who was a secretary to Pope Damasus. Towards the end of his life, he lived in a cave, next to where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In the cave he translated the bible into Latin at the request of the Pope. He said, ignorance of scripture, is ignorance of Christ. In another words, if we don’t know scripture, then we won’t know Jesus.

We should all want to come to know Jesus, about His life, about how much He loves us and all the wonderful things, He has done for us. Every day, we should open the bible and read from the bible, especially about the life of Jesus. We don’t have to read much, just a short paragraph. And then think about the paragraph and think about Jesus, about His life, His miracles, His words, and His actions. We will be surprised at how much it helps us in our daily life. How much happier and more peaceful we will become. We may get ideas, perhaps to do good for others, to avoid sin, to grow in holiness. But most importantly, we learn more and more about Jesus, and to come to know that He loves us and is always with us.

Once I went to a classroom of first graders, and I asked them, “Did an angel ever appear to St. Joseph”. And a little boy said, “yes three times.” He then told me the three stories, about how an angel appeared to Joseph. How the angel told him to take Mary as His wife, the second, was to take the child into Egypt, so that Jesus wouldn’t be killed, and the third was to bring Mary and the baby Jesus back from Egypt to Israel. I said, “How do you knew these three stories, you’re only in first grade. He said, “I read the bible.”

If a first grader can read the bible, and remember the true stories about the life of Jesus, perhaps this little boy is teaching us a lesson.

Today, let us place an opened bible near our bed to remind us to read just a short paragraph each night. And let us remember that St. Jerome said, if we don’t know the sacred scriptures, we don’t know Jesus.

As Our Lady knew Jesus, who pondered His words within Her Heart, may we too think about the Word of God, so that we can come to know Jesus Christ, Our Lord.