These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

WEDNESDAY, WEEK XXVI, ORDINARY TIME—Saint Jerome, Priest & Doctor, September 30

Job answered his friends and said: How can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
who has withstood him and remained unscathed. (Job 9:1-3)

We continue reading the Book of Job. Job’s question is about the all-powerful God and the puny human being. Who can resist God? Who can justify himself before God?
Today is the feast of Saint Jerome, the great lover of God’s Word. He learned Hebrew so that he could translate the Scriptures from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into a language that people could understand. We call his translation The Vulgate. As Saint Jerome said:

Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.