From the bulletin of May 16, 2021
Pope Benedict XV points us to some pieces of advice that St. Jerome offers on knowing scripture. Not surprisingly the fist thing St. Jerome says is to “exercise your mind, feed it daily with Holy Scripture… to read Holy Scripture assiduously.” I’ve often heard that Catholics of a certain generation were told not to read the bible because they weren’t qualified to interpret it. Enemies of the Church sometimes say the Catholic Church explicitly forbid people from reading the bible on their own. Well, this was written in 1920 and comes from the pope, who is in turn quoting a saint from the 400s. It has never been Catholic teaching that people shouldn’t read the bible. Anyone who has been told that is simply wrong.
The next bit of advice from St. Jerome and the pope is for training children. He tells a mom that her little girl should “learn the psalter first and find her recreation in its songs.” The book of Psalms is way too unappreciated. It is full of rich poetry and imaginative expression that can help children learn how to pray. Jerome goes on to advice that she learn from the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and then on to the Gospels. From there, he suggests the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of the New Testament, and then to go back to the prophets and other historical books of the Old Testament. Only after learning and growing from all of that does St. Jerome suggest a girl should read the Song of Songs. This last book is a very intimate expression of love that can be understood as a metaphor for the love between God and a human soul. But, without proper understanding, it could be over-sensualized and lead someone astray, which is why St. Jerome advises so much preparation first.
After emphasizing the importance of properly training priests to study and teach scripture, Pope Benedict goes on to explain a basic method of interpreting scripture. The starting point is the literal sense of scripture. It is important to try to understand what the words themselves are saying and describing. Only then is it appropriate to move on wo that is called the “spiritual sense” of scripture. This is when we look for metaphorical, allegorical, and moral implications. This is actually something we see when St. Paul writes his letters and talks about the Old Testament. He will talk about the Israelites in the desert, which is an historical event, but then go on to say that they represent our own journey away from sin or that their punishments are a warning sign to us about sin.
The pope then returns to the subject of priests being taught about scripture. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on the truth rather than on impressing people. Please pray for priests and for seminarians who are studying scripture, that they can learn from St. Jerome!
Finally, the document wraps up with highlighting the way St. Jerome saw Jesus Christ in all of scripture and gave his life to studying scripture out of love for Christ. He quotes the famous saying from St. Jerome, “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” This is the point of the document and the point of St. Jerome’s life: to seek Jesus Christ. Every part of the bible is connected to Jesus Christ. We ought to study it to better understand Christ. We should simply read and enjoy it as a way of drawing closer to Jesus. We should learn it to better draw others to him. Unlike any other book, the words of Scripture are still living. They are the personal word of God to us. Why wouldn’t we want to know it as beast we can?
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert