Today, the Church celebrates the liturgical Memorial of Saint Jerome (circa 347-420 AD). Born at Stridon, on the border between the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, an area that corresponds to current-day Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, part of Serbia and most of northern Albania.
As a teenager, he made his way to Rome, where he learned Latin and some Greek. He continued his studies, travelling from place to place in order to do so until his mid-30s when he plunged himself into the study of the Bible. In fact, the legacy he left to the Church was his work in translation of most of the scriptures from Greek and Hebrew to Latin. He also provided extensive commentaries about the various passages contained in the Bible.
If Jerome were to comment on the scripture passage proposed for today's liturgy (Mt 13:47-52), he would find a way for us to understand Jesus' words: The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets (Mt 13:47-48).
Our lives are filled with a variety of experiences. Each of them filters our perception and enriches us, including our experience of prayer and our encounters with the living God. When the nets of our lives are full - ie when the time comes for us to leave this world - it will be time to sit down and sort through the experiences - the time of judgement. In the meanwhile, it is good that we should remember this analogy so that we can begin even now to practice the art of sifting through our lived experiences in the light of faith, all the while looking forward to the day when we will see God face to face.
Have a great day.
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