Monday, August 21 : Saint Jerome

What we should congratulate ourselves about is not our having been to Jerusalem but our having lived uprightly there. The city we should be seeking is not the one that killed the prophets and shed the blood of Christ but the one made glad by the torrents of its river; the one that, built on a hilltop, cannot be hidden; that the apostle Paul declares to be the mother of the saints and in which he rejoices to dwell with the righteous (Ps 46[45], 5; Mt 5,14; Gal 4,26)… I should not dream of restricting God’s almighty power to a single region or confine within a tiny parcel of land him whom heaven itself cannot contain. Believers are valued according to the merits of their faith and not the place they live in. And God’s true worshippers have no need of Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim to worship the Father because “God is spirit” and his worshippers should “worship him in spirit and truth” (Jn 4,21-23). Now, “the Spirit breathes where he will” (Jn 3,8) and “the Lord’s is the earth and its fullness” (Ps 24[23],1)… The holy places of the cross and resurrection are only of use to those who carry their cross, rise with Christ daily and prove themselves worthy of living in such localities. As for those who say: “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord” (Jer 3,8), let them listen to the apostle’s words: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells within you?” (1Cor 3,16)… So don’t think that your faith lacks something if you have not seen Jerusalem nor think me to be the better for living there. But whether here or elsewhere, you will receive your reward equally according to your works in God’s sight.
maronite readings – rosary,team