today's readings are Job 38: 12-21, 40: 3-5: Psalm 139 and Lk. 10: 13-16
St. Jerome - a true legend - whose intellect, passion and faith I, and so many, deeply admire.
Born in Dalmatia in 342, baptized in Rome at the age of 18, Jerome eventually found his home in Bethlehem after being ordained a priest.
Blessed with an intellect that allowed him to master languages, he was the first to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin and the New Testament from Greek to Latin. This was a truly stupendous intellectual feat, which for the first time allowed the Bible to be read and heard in the common language of the people (and church) of that time. He laid the foundation for the countless translations of the Bible into the many languages of our world.
As we honour Jerome today, what brings a wry smile to the faces of many is the fact that as faith filled as he was, Jerome also had a rather prickly personality. In today's Living with Christ, it says that Jerome had a fiery temperament, which glosses over his legendary crabbiness. As Kathleen Norris puts it in her book, The Cloister Walk, "he was an equal-opportunity curmudgeon. He despised both men and women ..."
Despite his lack of charm and feistiness, Jerome was a holy man who realized the importance of the Word of God. He thundered, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ!" Which may make more than a few of us squirm in our seats.
Maybe it's time once again to pick up the Good Book in honour of St. Jerome and do some reading of Scripture today.