From the bulletin of May 9, 2021
Our next encyclical from Pope Benedict XV is title Spiritus Paraclitus, which is translated to “The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.” “Paraclete” is a fancy word that means a combination of helper, advocate, consoler, and defender. While the title focuses on the Holy Spirit, the actual document actually focuses on St. Jerome, who is a doctor of the Church because of his efforts to translate and understand scripture. Indeed, the pope even calls him the “Greatest Doctor” because his work was so directly involved in making scripture accessible to the whole Church.
The pope begins with a brief outline of his life. St. “Jerome was born in Stridonia, in a town ‘on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia,’” which is near modern-day Croatia. He lived and studied in Rome until he began a commentary on the book of the prophet Obadiah. This kindled in him a burning love for scripture and motivated him to seek out teachers, eventually moving to several different places in the ancient world, pursuing languages and experts who could help him understand the scriptures. He translated most of the Old Testament into an updated Latin version, which was the authoritative version for the Church until the 1970s.
From here, Pope Benedict XV goes on to highlight several key teachings learned from Jerome’s writings and example. First is that the “Sacred Books… have God for their author… composed at the inspiration… of the Holy Spirit.” This does not mean, however, that the men who did the actual writing lacked any freedom or ceased being human. God used them according to their own gifts, style, and language. As with so much else, there is beauty in the reality that God works in and through and with human nature rather than simply overriding it.
Another important principle is that Scripture cannot be in error. St. Jerome, when he found “apparent discrepancies” or disagreements between two different parts of Scripture, resolved to hold both things as true and work towards a solution. Indeed, the Church teaches that God often used paradoxes and apparent contradictions to move us to seek a deeper understanding and a wiser perspective that enables us to see how an apparent conflict is actually not a conflict. As later popes and teachings will make clear, this is not to say every passage is interpreted in the same way. Scripture includes poetry, historical record, allegory, parables, and a variety of styles. Each passage must be interpreted based on context and genre to be properly understood. This does not mean we can divide scripture up into “primary” and “secondary” pieces or that we should expect scripture to fit our pre-conceived categories. Studying and understanding scripture must come from a place of faith. It begins with accepting that it is true and then working to understand that truth. As another saint put it “I do not seek to understand so that I can believe, but I believe so that I might understand.” This is not irrational, but it does mean that faith, that trust in God is higher than our reason. We must think through what he reveals to us, but we first have to trust that his revelation is true.
The pope also takes this opportunity to outline how someone can prepare themselves to appreciate the “great treasure” of Scripture. The first point is that a person must possess “good will.” They must want the truth and be prepared to work on themselves to remove obstacles to the truth. St. Jerome provides an example in his struggle to prioritize scripture over the popular authors of the day. He had to learn to set aside his own enjoyment and preferences to see past the difficult parts of scripture and appreciate it’s hidden beauty. This meant penance and prayer. This good will also means putting trust in the authority of the Church rather than one’s own private opinion: “In studying Scripture I never trusted to myself” and “It has always been my custom to… always bear in mind that Roman faith praised by the Apostle.” This doesn’t mean we don’t read and think on our own, but that we are ready to defer to Church doctrine when we find out our own ideas do not match up with it.
Pope Benedict XV then goes on to draw out more lesson about reading scripture, lessons which we’ll pick up with next week.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert