{"id":22158,"date":"2024-01-01T20:57:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T04:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/?p=22158"},"modified":"2024-01-07T19:50:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T03:50:54","slug":"jerome-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/jerome-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerome: The Letters of St. Jerome"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"St.
St. Jerome Writing. Caravaggio 1605<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Indignity of Non-Fellowship<\/h4>\n

Pardon, I beseech you, an aggrieved man: if I speak in tears and in anger it is because I have been injured. For in return for my regular letters you have not sent me a single syllable. Light, I know, has no communion with darkness, and God\u2019s handmaidens no fellowship with a sinner, yet a harlot was allowed to wash the Lord\u2019s feet with her tears, and dogs are permitted to eat of their masters\u2019 crumbs. It was the Saviour\u2019s mission to call sinners and not the righteous; for, as He said Himself, \u201cthey that be whole need not a physician.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In Praise of the Desert Life<\/h4>\n

O desert, bright with the flowers of Christ! O solitude whence come the stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great king is built! O wilderness, gladdened with God\u2019s especial presence! What keeps you in the world, my brother, you who are above the world? How long shall gloomy roofs oppress you? How long shall smoky cities immure you? Believe me, I have more light than you. Sweet it is to lay aside the weight of the body and to soar into the pure bright ether. Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your true head. Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do but turn your thoughts thither and you will be no more in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needeth not to wash again. To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: \u201cThe sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory\u201d which shall come after them, \u201cwhich shall be revealed in us.\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Nip the Evil in the Bud<\/h4>\n

You must never let suggestions of evil grow on you, or a babel of disorder win strength in your breast. Slay the enemy while he is small; and, that you may not have a crop of tares, nip the evil in the bud. Bear in mind the warning words of the Psalmist: \u201cHapless daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.\u201d Because natural heat inevitably kindles in a man sensual passion, he is praised and accounted happy who, when foul suggestions arise in his mind, gives them no quarter, but dashes them instantly against the rock. \u201cNow the Rock is Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Temptations of Jerome<\/h4>\n

How often, when I was living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sackcloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become as black as an Ethiopian\u2019s. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Of my food and drink I say nothing: for, even in sickness, the solitaries have nothing but cold water, and to eat one\u2019s food cooked is looked upon as self-indulgence. Now, although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison, where I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself amid bevies of girls. My face was pale and my frame chilled with fasting; yet my mind was burning with desire, and the fires of lust kept bubbling up before me when my flesh was as good as dead. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, I wiped them with my hair: and then I subdued my rebellious body with weeks of abstinence.<\/p>\n

Guarding God’s Treasures<\/h4>\n

And assuredly no gold or silver vessel was ever so dear to God as is the temple of a virgin\u2019s body. The shadow went before, but now the reality is come. You indeed may speak in all simplicity, and from motives of amiability may treat with courtesy the veriest strangers, but unchaste eyes see nothing aright. They fail to appreciate the beauty of the soul, and only value that of the body. Hezekiah showed God\u2019s treasure to the Assyrians, who ought never to have seen what they were sure to covet. The consequence was that Jud\u00e6a was torn by continual wars, and that the very first things carried away to Babylon were these vessels of the Lord. We find Belshazzar at his feast and among his concubines (vice always glories in defiling what is noble) drinking out of these sacred cups.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

References<\/h4>\n