SUMMARY OF SPIRITUS PARACLITUS OF POPE BENEDICT XV

   

  The encyclical spiritus paraclitus is written by Pope Benedict the xv, and giving at St. Peter’s, Rome, on September 15, 1920, the seventh year of his pontificate, when the fifteenth centenary of St Jerome was approaching. He wrote the encyclical to honor St Jerome for his relentless effort and contribution in the church, most especially: giving himself totally to the service of the church through his assiduous studying of the scriptures, defense of the scripture from the attack of the heretics and rationalists, translating most of the sacred books from Hebrew to Latin etc. The encyclical was also written to promote the study of the scriptures.

     In the encyclical, the Pope gave a short biography of St Jerome, and also talked about St Jerome’s life as it relates to his contributions to the church.

In the life of St Jerome the Pope made mention of the following,

·         St Jerome’s love for the scriptures

·         His works and assiduous study of the scriptures

·         The instructions he laid down for those who are to study of the scriptures, the exegetes, priests, religious, and the lay faithful

·         His strong belief on the inerrancy of the scripture

·         His teachings being in line with the teachings of the church

·         Holding the scriptures as the super eminent authority.

     St Jerome was born in Strisonia, on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannomia. He was born and bread in a catholic family. After his baptism in Rome, he lived to an advanced age and devoted himself to the studying, expounding and defense of the scriptures. He learned Latin and Greek in Rome and hardly had he left the school of rhetoric than he ventured on a commentary on Abdias the prophet which kindled in him a great love for the bible that he decided to devote himself wholly to the study of the sacred scriptures. He gave up everything and went to the east so that he might gather from studious reading of the bible the fuller riches of Christ and true knowledge of his savior.

     At Antioch he studied under Apollinaris of  laodicea, and while he learned much from him about the bible, would never accept his doubtful teaching about it’s interpretation. From Antioch he went to the desert of chaldeus, in Syria, to perfect himself in his knowledge of the bible and at the same time work on his youthful desires by means of hard study.

     He learnt Hebrews and Chaldaic from a Jew convert, which was very difficult for him to learn, but he never gave up and emerged victorious at last. He went to Constantinople where he studied the scripture under St Gregory the theologian for nearly three years. There he translated Origen’s homilies on the prophets and Eusebius’ chronicle into Latin, he also wrote on Isaiah’s vision of the Seraphim after which he returned to Rome and was admitted by Pope Damasus into his court. Pope Damasus entrusted to him the task of correcting the Latin text of the bible, which he did very well, and is well appreciated till date. He returned to a monastery in Bethlehem where he devoted himself to prayer and the study of the scripture. Though advanced in age, he went to Alexandria to attend Didymus lectures. When he got back to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, he also learned from his night time teacher Baraninus.

     Jerome was not contented with all the knowledge he had already gained from his teachers, so he gathered from all quarters anything that might be of help to him in studying the scriptures. He went to Judea and other places where the biblical events took place just to help him understand the Bible better.

          It was through his assiduous study and familiarity with the scripture that he wrote the vulgate version, which is in judgment of all capable men, preferable to any other ancient version, and was also approved by so many centuries of use in the church and was pronounced by the council of Trent “authentic” and insisted by the council to be used in teachings and liturgy.

     Jerome translated almost all the book in the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin. For the rest of his life, he was either discussing biblical issues, or studying or writing about the bible or meditating on it.

     All the writings of St  Jerome was in accordance  with the church’s teaching and he strongly held that the sacred book was written under the inspiration of the holy spirit and it has God as it’s author who used the writers as instruments.

     St Jerome explained how God used man in writting the scriptures. First of all, he illumines the mind of the writter regarding the truth which he wants to set before man, then he moves the writers will, moves him to write and abide with him unceasingly, till the task is accomplished.

He realized that in expounding the scripture that we need the Holy Spirit. He was humble as regards to the expounding of the Holy Scripture.

     As he trusted God’s grace, so also he relied on the authority of the fathers of the church.

     He is submissive to the church, our supreme teacher, through the roman pontiff. In submission to the church, he put an end to the controversy in the east concerning the mystery of the holy trinity.

     He sees the heretics and church enemies as his own enemies as it is seen in the letter he wrote to Rufinus.

     He also insists on the super eminent authority of the scripture and strongly held and used the scripture in defending the faith and refuting his adversaries, he strongly held, as it was also seen in him, that the scripture which is God’s word is free from error and deception.[10]

     According to St Jerome, a prophet can be known from the following truth; if he believes that the lord’s word is true and that the scripture cannot lie. Jerome holds that there is nothing neither discordant nor conflicting, in the scripture, consequently, “When scripture seems to be in conflict with it self; both passages are true despite their diversity. When St Jerome noticed some apparent error in the scripture, he never accused the sacred writers even for the least error; rather he puts the blame on the translator for not translating well or himself for not understanding it. It compelled him to see that he unraveled the difficulty.

     St Jerome’s teaching reaffirms the teachings of Leo xiii on the immunity of the scripture from error. He believes that all parts of the scriptures is inspired and free from error and that inspiration is incompatible with error, as God cannot be the author of error. With these he said that Those who holds that the historical portions of the scriptures do not rest on absolute truth of the facts but merely upon what they are pleased to term their relative truth namely; what people then commonly thought, are no less than the aforementioned critics, whose teaching are not in line with the church’s teaching and which is also against the encyclical of Leo xiii on the inerrancy of the scriptures.[22]

      We cannot believe in God the creator without first of all believing in his words.

The words of the scripture are true, historical facts inclusive, which is also found in the gospel of John 19:35, “he who saw it gave witness and his witness is true, and he knows he tells the truth, that you may also believe”. St Augustine also affirms this in his words when he said, ”this things are true, they are faithfully and truthfully written of Christ; so that whosoever believe his gospel may be thereby instructed in the truth and misled by no lie”

    

     St Jerome is an expert in terms of using the sacred scripture to refute the heretics of his days; this also we need to learn from him. In his teaching on the super excellence of the scripture said that Christ uses the scripture in his teachings, and in his arguments. That he also used the sacred scripture on the road to Emaus to open the eyes of his disciples.

     No literature makes meaning to Jerome unless it derived its light from the scripture, as seen when he wrote to Paulinus about adding scriptural light to his literature. For, how are we to seek this great treasury, giving as it as by our father in heaven for our solace during this earthly pilgrimage. St Jerome’s example shows us: First, we must be well prepared and posses a good will. Jerome after his baptism determined to remove every hindrance to his ambition in this respect. He bid farewell to the pleasures of this passing world; he went into the desert and took up ascetic life.

     Jerome urges the priests to read the Bible assiduously in other to worthily teach and preach, for their words will have neither value nor weight nor any power to touch men souls if they don’t seriously read the bible.

     St Jerome begs on the assiduous reading of the bible by the faithful and insist on it for clerics and religious. his words to Rusticus the monk apply to all clerics, which is to always have a book to read in their hands, learn the Psalter by heart, pray unceasingly, watch over the senses to avoid idle thoughts from creeping in and said that priests should realize that they cannot neglect the study of the bible.  

     In the formation of bible students, St Jerome encouraged the reading of the bible in and out of season, feeding the mind daily with the Holy Scripture, reading the bible assiduously, and meditating on the law of God day and night. According to the encyclical, it says:

For matrons and maidens alike he lays down the same rule. Thus wrtting to the roman matron Laeta about her dauther’s training , he says: every day she should give you a definite account of her bible reading…. For her bible must take the place of her silks and jewels… let her learn the psalter first , and find her recreation in it’s songs; let her learn from solomons proverb the way of life, from ecclsiastes how to trample on the world. In job she will find an example of patient virtue. Thence let her pass to the gospels; they should always be in her hands. She should steep herself in the acts and the epistles. And when she has enriched her soul these treasures she should commit to memory the prophets [41],

This also applies to the faithful, and the bible students.

To the exegetes St Jerome gave this first rule; to carefully study the actual words so as to be perfectly certain what the writer really does say.

     The society of St Jerome, which the church is also instrument of making it a reality, has its objective, putting into the hands of as many people as possible the gospels and acts so that every Christian family may have them and get accustomed to reading them. The church also commends Catholics in all part of the world who have published the entire New Testament, as well as the selected portions of the Old Testament, in neat and simple form so as to popularize their use.

    

          We learn from Jerome things required from those who devote themselves to the study of the bible which include spiritual perfection as we meditate and ponder over it. For how can a cleric teach others the way of salvation through neglect of meditation on Gods words.

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               Finally, he gave an analogy to show that the interpretation of the sacred scripture lies beyond the literal meaning, saying, “just as we have to seek gold in the earth, for kernel in the shell, for the chestnuts hidden fruit beneath it’s hairy covering , so also in holy scripture we have to dig deep for divine meaning”.

Spiritus Paraclitus, Encyclical Of Pope Benedict The Xv On St. Jerome. September 15, 1920.