9/30/2015 – Wednesday of the 26th week in Ordinary Time – St Jerome – Luke 9:57-62

      Today, we celebrate the memorial of St Jerome, who lived in the late 4^th and early 5^th century.   Jerome is known as one of the greatest Scripture scholars in the early Church.  Jerome was chosen as one of the four original Doctors of the Church in 1298, along with St Ambrose, St Gregory the Great, and St Augustine.  In fact, the great theologian St Augustine once said: “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known.”  Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, which was the common language of his day.  That version of the Bible, the Vulgate, was the official text of Scriptures in the Catholic Church for over 1,500 years and is still held in high esteem today.  Jerome had a very feisty personality and was well-known for his sarcastic whit.  He decided that the pomp and politics of Rome was not for him, so he retreated to the Holy Land where he lived in a monastery and later in a cave.   He also founded a free hostel where pilgrims to the Holy Land could lodge.   Jerome is the patron saints of librarians, students, archeologists, and translators.

      As we honor St Jerome today, we hear about those in the Gospel who approach Jesus with certain conditions as to how they will follow their faith. Many of us can approach our faith with conditions and expectations.  In many ways, Pope Francis has shaken up the way we look at our faith and discipleship.  In fact, in his famous book, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated that there is indeed a cost to our discipleship.  Our Gospel today and the example of St Jerome remind us that we cannot place conditions on our discipleship – we either follow Christ with all our hearts and all our souls, or we do not follow him at all.