Reflection for   Thursday, 26th  week in Ordinary time

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Memoria of St. Jerome

Today's WORD of GOD

Luke:10:8-12

When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’  But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Today's Reflection

There’s an Urgency in Today’s Readings, Calling on People to Choose Their Basic Purpose in Life. Ezra Gathers All the People, even the Teenagers (Children Old Enough to Understand), to Hear GOD'S Will for HIS People, through the Torah Received by Moses.

Then JESUS Sends Out the 72 Disciples with No Provisions, but with an Urgent Mission to Announce that GOD is Near. While These Texts Share a Call to Decision, They Part Company what They Say about what Lies in Store. Ezra Foresees a Long Stretch of History on Earth. He Tries to Prepare His People by Renewing the Covenant of Israel, Based on GOD'S Written Law, while JESUS Predicts that Human Hopes would soon be Fulfilled in the Reign of GOD.

We Need Both Perspectives, Both making a Fundamental Option, & Doing some Planning for the Future. JESUS Told HIS messengers, “If the People of Any Town U Enter Do Not Welcome U, Move On.”

Facing Choices in Life We may Have Time to Think, & then like Ezra to Carefully Prepare for the Future.

At Other Times there is No Time for Reflection & We Need to Choose Instantly, such as whether to Accept Open - heart Surgery when We Find that Our Arteries are Blocked. We may have Time Later to Correct Mistakes, or on the Contrary (Like the Towns that Rejected Our LORD'S Messengers,) Some Decisions are Fixed in Stone, Unchangeable. For the Rest of Life, Possibly for Eternity, We must Live with the Consequences.

We Need Ezra-Like Leadership in the CHURCH, Leaders We can Confidently Follow. He Explained the Book of GOD'S Law Plainly, so that All could Understand It. The Good LORD Did Not Intend the Torah as a Burden but as an Authentic & Joyful Help to Living. When Ezra Saw the People in Tears of Repentance, He Urged Them in a Friendly Tone Not to be Gloomy, but to … Eat & Drink, & Share with Those who Have Nothing . Like Pope Francis in Our Time, Ezra Urged Joy in Their Everyday Life, & Proposed a Faithful Lifestyle to Last into the Future. With an Inspirational Leadership of This Kind, Our CHURCH can Emerge Strengthened from the Scandals & Loss of Active Members in Our Recent Past. If We Opt Decisively to Live Under the Guidance of GOD, We’ll Have the Living Presence of JESUS to Help Us Stay with that Commitment.

Good Morning

GOD Bless Us All Today.


Saint of the day

St. Jerome

September 30 | Saint Jerome

Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is frequently remembered for his bad temper! It is true that he had a very bad temper and could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God and his son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and Saint Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen.

He was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. Jerome also wrote commentaries which are a great source of scriptural inspiration for us today. He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monk, bishop, and pope. Saint Augustine said of him, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.”

Saint Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was fortunate. As a modern scholar says, “No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work.” The Council of Trent called for a new and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text to be used in the Church.

In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared himself well. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic. He began his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia. After his preliminary education, he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very much in evidence. He spent several years in each place, always trying to find the very best teachers. He once served as private secretary to Pope Damasus.

After these preparatory studies, he traveled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ’s life with an outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance, and study. Finally, he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. Jerome died in Bethlehem, and the remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

source: Franciscan Media