Nehemiah 8:1–4a, 5–6, 7b–12
Luke 10:1–12
It is perhaps fortuitous that as we keep the memory of St. Jerome, a man closely bound to Scripture on many levels, we have in our first reading a description of a solemn Liturgy of the Word. The returning exiles to Jerusalem have completed the rebuilding of the temple. Now the time has come to rebuild the community as it were. This renewal of the community is done through the reading and listening of the Word of God, in this case the Torah or the teaching of Moses. It is a very interactive liturgy: The people respond to the presence of God coming through the reading by a prostration and acclaimations; the reading is explained so that it can be understood. The activity of listening touches the hearts in such a way that the community is brought to tears and weeps—pressumably from the realization that what they hear and how they have been living have not been aligned very well. The community has to be told that hearing the word of the Lord is also a joy and a time for thanksgiving. The word they have heard is also a rich food. Enjoy it!
St. Jerome was in many ways an Ezra for the people of God in the Greco-Roman world of his time. He translated the Scriptures into a language that people could understand. He was careful to translate the Hebrew Scriptures from Hebrew and not just Greek. Jerome was by nature and training a person of the word; he delighted in language and word. His conversion was not so much to Christianity but to a transfer his love of word from the classical humanities to focus on the rather rough language and grammar of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures and make it come alive for Christians in his day. And that he did, putting them into Latin. But Jerome’s love included explanation of the biblical text also. He took great pains to break open the word for pilgrims and his monastic communities in Bethlehem. He shared his love of the Word with great skill.
Seeing the people of Israel gathered before Ezra and remembering Jerome as a lover of language and word, we might do well to ask ourselves where we stand in relation to the Word of God as well as our ordinary speech. In our opening prayer for this liturgy, we noted that Jerome was gifted with a “living and tender love for the Scriptures.” How alive and loving is our relationship with the word? In the same prayer we asked that it may be a fount of life for us. This can be so if we see the Word as alive and not only some letters printed on a page; it can be life for us if we treasure it and love it.
At the end of our proclamation of a reading from Scripture, we usually say “The Word of the Lord.” And we respond quickly enough with “Thanks be to God.” How are we at acknowledging that there is a presence when the word is being read? The word being proclaimed is Spirit-filled word. The Israelites of old prostrated themselves upon hearing the Word. What does our prostration look like in our hearts and our bodies? Do we drink from so many founts these days, that the font of the Word has become just one among many? When Luke presents Jesus proclaiming the word of Isaiah on that Sabbath in Nazareth, he reports that the community hung onto his gracious words. In Deuteronomy Moses, too, begged the people to cling to the Word of the Lord as it was life. If we love the word, we will cling to it as something we love and want to hear.
Remembering Jerome today is an invitation for us to awaken our love for the Word: as we hear it proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word and as we encounter that word in the silence of our hearts in lectio. Hearing the response of the listening community by the Water Gate in Jerusalem challenges us to acknowledge whose presence comes among us in the Word proclaimed. And we are reminded that both tears and joy reflect movements of our heart upon hearing the Word. How strong are the movements of our hearts as we hear and read the Word? If the Word wants anything from us, it wants to nourish and feed us with this Word. May we be stirred again today so that it is true for us what Jeremiah says: when your word came, O Lord, I devoured it.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB