WEEKDAY 26 04 – Year I
A Six-Pack for Discipleship:
Memorial of St. Jerome
(Nehemiah 8:1-12; Ps 19; Lk 10:1-12)
****************************************************
Was there ever a moment when a passage of scripture brought tears to your eyes?
That was the experience of the exiles who returned to Jerusalem and assembled around the priest Ezra to hear the words of the Law proclaimed. That reading from Nehemiah, focused on God’s Word, along with the gospel about discipleship and their missioning, provide us with six key elements of discipleship – you could say, a six-pack for discipleship.
First of all, the numbers are significant to the Jews. 3, 4, 7, 10 and 70 – all perfect numbers implying that the choosing and sending of disciples for Jesus holds the promise of wholeness, completion, fulfillment, an anticipation of something great to come.
Second comes trust in providence. Jesus tells his disciples to take little for their journey. We are not to worry too much over what we have or what we own. The particular charism of Emelie Gameline, founder of the Sisters of Providence, was precisely trust in divine providence.
Third is the encouragement Jesus gives his disciples to live with the people, in their homes. I lived with Indigenous families three different times during my language learning efforts, and all were very positive language learning experiences, and also, I think, very effective ministry. Perhaps we can’t literally live with a family, but certainly we are being asked to closely connect to the people we serve. Pope Francis is a good example for us here, encouraging bishops and priests to get out of their residences and mix in with the people, as he himself does. I am proud to say that one of the comments I often hear about the Oblates is that we are precisely “close to the people.”
Fourth, our ministry is to have a healing dimension. Helping people experience salvation would be another way to describe it. A woman at a Marriage Encounter training weekend in Toronto, when asked to describe how she felt when she achieved intimacy with her husband, said that it felt like there were no walls, boundaries or barriers between them. As I listened, I thought to myself that she was experiencing salvation in her relationship with her husband. Marriage Encounter was injecting a healing dimension into their relationship. Our discipleship should always include a dimension of healing.
Fifth is being a Servant of the Word. The second reading from Ezra puts the emphasis on the Word of God. The Jewish exiles had returned from captivity. This was a historical moment when the Pentateuch was publicly reintroduced and received communal sanction. The people had a daylong retreat on the Word of God with Ezra the priest-scribe and Nehemiah the governor together representing the political and religious leadership of the people. This was an emotional event, a true celebration – they found joy in the Word and worshipped God.
This incident parallels Sinai, with God’s teachings received by the entire people, transforming them into the “People of the Book.” It is ultimately Torah study, the Word of God that will assure their survival. As a result, public reading of the Torah became a weekly feature of Jewish Synagogue worship, much like our Liturgy of the Word. Likewise, Scripture must be our main companion, especially for our prayer. Helping people fall in love with the Word of God is an important part of our discipleship. Pope Francis has just announced his intention for the third Sunday of Ordinary Time to have a special focus on the Word of God, and that is good news.
Above all, we are to proclaim the Kingdom of God, mentioned twice in the gospel. Jesus came to inaugurate the reign of God among us. We are to proclaim, teach and live the reign of God as a present-day reality. We are to live what can be called realized eschatology and help others do the same. An essential element of discipleship is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, and to do so with joy, for as the reading from Ezra states, “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” To think that God gives us joy to strengthen us is an awesome reality – all part of God’s kingdom which is made up of peace, joy and the justice of the Holy Spirit.
Today the Church invites us to honor and emulate a great example of someone who truly lived these teachings, St. Jerome. Having experienced a vision of Christ, Jerome withdrew into the Syrian desert for four years, praying, fasting and learning Hebrew. He was ordained in 377. Jerome’s mastery of language enabled him to translate Hebrew and Greek books of the Bible into Latin, the language of the common people; this translation is called the Vulgate. In the 16th century, the Council of Trent declared Jerome’s Vulgate an official text of the Catholic Church. Jerome died on this day in 420. His accomplishments in biblical studies are without parallel in Christian history. He is a Doctor of the Church, and patron of scripture scholars, translators, archeologists, librarians and students.
With Zechariah, St. Paul and St. Jerome as models, we are invited to imitate them in their response to Jesus, to believe in him, to fall in love with his Word, and to live it out our faith with humble, childlike simplicity. I have had the privilege of visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the caves where St. Jerome spent his last days, and celebrated the Eucharist in two of those caves with our pilgrimage groups.
The Eucharist we share now is what Jesus shared with his disciples and apostles at the Last Supper. It is a blend of joy, a sharing in the Kingdom meal, a listening to the Word of God, and an intimate moment with the Lord in communion.
It concludes by missioning us to go out as disciples to carry out a healing ministry, to be Servants of the Gospel, to proclaim the Kingdom of God to the world, and to do so with joy, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
