God Unseen

Pelagus, inquit, operuit caput meum. Nec istud frustra de solo capite dicebat, quem absque dubio pelagus omni ex parte contexerat; sed celavit contumelia mundi Dominum coeli. Caput viri Christus, caput autem Christi Deus. Velavit humilitas mea gloriam meam, et Deus, qui quasi caput inerat Christo mundum reconcilians sibi, ab eis qui hominem patibulo confixerant, non potuit pervideri. Sancti Aviti Viennensis, Ex Sermone de Jona Source: Migne PL 59.305c-d

The sea, he says, covered my head. 1 He does not speak foolishly of his head alone, since without doubt the sea covered every part of him, but the contumely of the world obscures the Lord of heaven. The head of man is Christ, the head of Christ is God. 2 My humility has covered my glory, and God, who as a head inhered in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, 3 was not able to be seen by those who had fastened a man to a gibbet. Saint Avitus of Vienne, Fragment from a Sermon on Jonah 1 Jonah 2.6 2 1 Cor 11.3 3 2 Cor 5.19

Errors And Burdens

Et timuerunt nautae, et clamaverunt viri ad Deum summ, et miserunt vasa quae erant in navi in mare, ut alleviaretur ab eis,. LXX: Et timerunt qui navigabant, et clamaveunt unusquisque ad Deum suum, et jactum fecerunt vasorum navis in maria, ut alleviaretur navis. Arbitrantur navem solito onere praegravari, et non intelligunt totum pondus esse fugitivi prophetae. Timent nautae, clamat unusquisque ad Deum suum; ignorantem veritatem, non ignorant providentiam, et sub errore religionis sciunt aliquid esse venerandum: projiceunt onera in mare, ut magnitudinem fluctuum classis levior transiliret. At contra Israel nec bonis nec malis intelligit Deum; plangente Christo populum, siccos oculos habet. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem, Caput I Source: Migne PL 25 1124d- 1125a

'And the sailors feared, and the men called out to their God and they deposited their cargo into the sea, that they be lightened.' The Septuagint has: 'And they who were sailing were struck by fear, and each one called out to his god, and they cast out the cargo of the ship into the sea, that the ship be lightened.' 1 They judged that the ship was weighed down with its usual weight and did not understand that all the burden was on account of the fugitive prophet. The sailors feared, each one cried out to his god, ignorant of the truth, but not ignorant of providence, beneath the error of their religion knowing something to be worshipful. They threw the cargo into the sea that the lightened ship might pass over the great waves. However Israel neither in goods or evils understands God; with Christ weeping for the nations, he has dry eyes. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on Jonah, Chapter 1 1 Jonah 1.5

Sacrifice And Salvation

Ego autem in voce laudis immolabo tibi: quaecumque vovi reddam pro salute Domino. LXX: Ego autem cum voce laudis et confessionis immolabo tibi, quaecumquae vovi reddam tibi salutare Domino. Qui custodiunt vanitates, suam misericordiam reliquerunt: ego autem qui pro multorum salute devoratus sum, in voce laudis et confessionis immolabo tibi, mesipsum offerens: quia Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Et quasi verus pontifex et ovis seipsum pro nobis obtulit. Et confitebor, iniquit, tibi ut ante confessus sum, dicens: Confiteor tibi, Pater Domine coeli et terrae; et reddam vota, quae feci pro salute omnium Domino, ut omne quod dedisti mihi non pereat in aeternum. Cernimus quid in sua passione Salvator pro nostra salute promiserit: non faciamus mendacem Jesum: ergo mundi simus, et ab universis peccatorum sordibus separati, ut nos Deo Patri offerat victimas quas voverat. Et dixit Dominus pisci: et evomuit Jonam in aridam. LXX: Et praecepit ceto, et ejecit Jonam super siccum. Haec quae supra legimus sub persona Jonae Dominus deprecatus est in ventre ceti, de quo et Job mystice loquitur: Maledicat ei qui maledixit diei, ille qui magnum cetum capturus est. Praecipitur ergo huic magno ceto, et abyssis et inferno, ut terris restituant Salvatorem: et qui mortuus fuerat, ut liberaret eos qui mortis vinculis tenebantur, secum plurimos educat ad vitam. Quod autem scribitur evomuit, ἐμφατικώτερον debemus accipere: quod ex imis vitalibus mortis, victrix vita processerit Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem Source: Migne PL 25 1138

'I shall sacrifice to you in a voice of praise, whatever I have vowed I shall return with thanks to the Lord.' The Septuagint reads: 'I shall sacrifice to you in a voice of praise and confession, whatever I have vowed I shall return with thanks to the Lord'. 1 Those who cling to vanities have forsaken mercy; I ,however, who am devoured for the salvation of many, in a voice of praise and confession shall sacrifice to you, offering myself, because our Paschal lamb sacrificed for us is Christ. 2 And as a true priest and sheep He offers himself for us. And I shall confess to you, He says, what I have confessed before, saying, I confess to you, Father, Lord and heaven and earth, 3 and I shall return my vow, which I made for the salvation of all in the Lord, that all you have given me not perish forever. We see in His passion that the Saviour makes the promise for our salvation; let us not make Jesus a lie; though we are in the world, let us separate from all filth of sin that we offer to God the Father the sacrifices which He has vowed. 'And the Lord spoke to the fish and He vomited Jonah onto dry land.' The Septuagint reads, 'And He commanded the fish and it cast up Jonah onto dry land.' The things which we read above under the person of Jonah the Lord entreated in the belly on the whale, concerning which Job speaks mystically saying, 'Let him curse him has cursed the day, that one who shall seize the great whale.' 4 Command is given, therefore, to the great whale, the abyss and hell, that they restore the Saviour to the land, He who had died, that He liberate those who were held in the chains of death, with Himself leading many to life. And when it is written 'he vomited' we should understand that from the depths of death life victorious proceeded. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on Jonah 1 Jonah 2.10 2 1 Cor 5 3 Mt 11.25 4 Job 3.8

Prayer And Restraint

Atqui cum modestia et humilitate adorantes magis  commendabimus Deo preces nostras, ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis, sed temperate ac probe elatis, ne vultu quidem  in audaciam erecto. Nam et ille publicanus, qui non tantum  prece, sed et vultu humiliatus atque deiectus orabat, iustificatior  pharisaeo procacissimo discessit. Sono etiam vocis subiectos  esse oportet, aut quantis arteriis opus est, si pro sono audiamur!  Deus autem non vocis, sed cordis auditor est, sicut conspector. Daemonium oraculi Pythii Et mutum, inquit, intelligo et non loquentem exaudio. Dei aures sonum expectant? Quomodo ergo oratio Ionae de imo ventre ceti per tantae bestiae viscera ab ipsis  abyssis per tantam aequoris molem ad caelum potuit evadere? Quid amplius referent isti qui clarius adorant nisi quod  proximis obstrepunt? Immo prodendo petitiones suas quid minus faciunt quam si in publico orent? Tertullianus, De Oratione

But when we pray with modesty and humility we more commend our prayers to God, with not even our hands lifted too high, but elevated temperately and fittingly, with not even our face boldly raised. For that tax collector prayed not only with his petition but with his face humble and cast down, and he went away more justified than the impudent Pharisee. 1 Even the sound of our voice should be subdued, else what large windpipes we would need if we were heard for the noise we make. But God is the hearer not of the voice, but of the heart, just as He is its examiner. The Pythian oracle says: 'And I understand the mute and hear the speechless one.' 2  Do the ears of God wait for sound? How, then, could Jonah's prayer, from the depth of the whale's belly, through the entrails of such a beast, from the very abysses, through such a mass of sea, find its way out to heaven? And what do they gain who pray more loudly, except that their roaring is heard by their neighbours? Why, by shouting their petitions, what do they do less than if they were to pray on the street? 3 Tertullian, from On Prayer 1 Lk 18:9-14 2 Herodotus 1.47.3 3 cf Mt 6.5

Jonah's Flight

Et surrexit Jonas, ut fugeret in Tharsis a facie Domini.  LXX similiter. Scit propheta, sancto sibi Spiritu suggerente, quod poenitentia gentium, ruina sit Judaeorum. Idcirco amator partiae suae, non tam saluti invidet Ninive, quam non vult perire populum suum. Alioquin legerat Moyse rogantem dixisse pro eo: Si dimittis eis peccatum, dimitte: sin autem non dimittis, et me dele de libro tuo, quem scripsisti, et ad preces iliius servatum Israel, et Moysen de libro non fuisse deletum, quin potius Dominum occasionem acceptisse per servum, ut caeteris conservis illius parceret. Dum enim dicit, dimitte me, ostendit se posse retineri. Tale quid et Apostilus loquitur: Optabam anathema esse pro fratribus meis, qui sunt Israelitae secundum carnem. Non quod ipse perire desideret, cui vivere Christus, et mori lucrum; sed magis meretur vitam, dum salvare vult caeteros. Praeterea videns Jonas comprophetas suos mitti ad oves perditas domus Israel, ut ad poenitentiam populum provocarent, Balaaem quoque divinum de salute Israelitici populi prophetasse, delet se solum electum, quo mitteretur ad Assyrios inimicos Israel, et ad civitatem hostium maximam, ubi idololatria, ubi ignoratio Dei; et quod his majus est, timebat ne per occasionem praedicationis suae, illis conversis ad poenitentiam, Israel penitus relinqueretur. Noverat enim eodem spiritu, quo illi gentium praeconium credebatur, quod quando nationes credidissent, tunc periret domus Israel, et quod aliquando futurum erat, hoc ne in suo fieret tempore, verebatur. Unde imitatus Cain Jonas et recedens a facie Domini. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

''And Jonah rose up and fled from the face of the Lord to Tharsis.' 1 The Septuagint reads the same. The Prophet inspired by the Holy Spirit knows that the penitence of the Gentiles would be the ruin of the Jews. Therefore he is a lover of his fatherland, not so much begrudging Nineveh its salvation but rather not wishing the destruction of his own people. One may also read that Moses pleaded for the same people, saying, 'If you forgive them their sin, forgive, yet if you do not forgive, even remove me from your book which you have written' 2 and by his prayers Israel was spared and Moses was not removed from the book, since through his servant the Lord took the opportunity to spare his fellow servants. For since he said, 'forgive', he shows that it was possible that sins be retained. And so the Apostle said, 'I chose to be anathema to my brothers, who are Israelites according to the flesh.' 3 Not that he desired destruction, to whom to live is Christ, and to die profit; 4 but rather he merited life while he wished to save others. Moreover Jonah, perceiving that his fellow prophets were sent to the lost sheep of Israel so that they call the people to penance, and that the inspired Balaam also prophesied the salvation of the people of Israel 5, feared that he would destroy the elect by being sent to the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, to the great city of the enemy, a place of idolatry and ignorance of God, if by his preaching they turn to penitence and Israel be utterly forsaken. For he knew by the same spirit by which he was confirmed as a preacher to the Gentiles, that when the nations believed, then would perish the house of Israel, and so that sometime in the future this was, lest in his own time it come to be, was his fear. Whence like Cain 6 Jonah withdrew from the face of the Lord. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 1 Jonah 1.3 2 Exod 32,31-32 3 Rom 9.3 4 Philipp 1.21 5 Num 24 6 Gen 4.16

Enduring Trials

Omnes gurgites tui et fluctus tui super me transierunt. LXX: Omnes elevationes tuae et fluctus tui super me transiereunt. Quod super Jonam tumentes maris fluctus transiereunt, et detonuerit saeva tempestas, nulli dubium est. Quaerimus autem quomodo omnes elevationes, et gurgites, et fluctus Dei, super Salvatorem transietint. Tentatio est vita hominum super terram,  sive ut in Herbraice habetur, militia, quia hic militamus, ut alibi coronemur. Nullusque est hominum, qui cunctas sustinere queat tentationes, absque eo qui tentatus est in omnibus, juxta nostram similitudinem, sine peccato. Unde et ad Corinthios dicitur: Tentatio vos non apprehendat, nisi humana. Fidelis autem Deus qui non dimittet vos tentari supra id, quod potestis; sed faciet cum tentatione et exitum ut possitis sustinere.  Et quoniam omnes persecutiones, et universa quae accidunt, absque Dei non ingruunt voluntate: idcirco Dei gurgites dicuntur et fluctus, qui non oppresserunt Jesum, sed transierunt per eum, minantes tantum naufragium, non inferentes. Universae ergo persecutiones, et turbines, quibus genus vexabatur humanum, et cunctae naviculae frangebantur, super meum detonuere caput. Ego sustinui tempestates, et fregi turbines saevientes, ut caeteri securius navigarent. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

All your floods and waves have passed over me. The Septuagint has: All your heights and waves have passed over me. 1 That over Jonah the great waves of the sea passed and the wild storm thundered, there is no doubt. We seek how all these heights and floods and waves of God passed over the Saviour. 'Man's life is trial upon the earth,' 2 or as the Hebrew has it 'Man's life is warfare,' because here we fight that elsewhere we be crowned. And there is no one among men who is able to endure every temptation, apart from the one tested in everything, who was according to our likeness, without sin. Whence it is said to the Corinthians: 'Temptation will not come upon you, unless it is human. God is faithful and will not allow you to be tested beyond your strength, but He will give you an exit that you are able to endure.' 3 And because all persecutions and everything which happen cannot happen apart from the will of God, thus they are called the floods and waves of God, which did not crush Jesus, but passed through Him, only threatening shipwreck and not bearing Him away. Therefore every persecution and whirlwind by which the human race is troubled and which has beset small craft, over His head has thundered. He has endured the storm, and vanquished the the great wind, that others may sail more securely. 4 Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 1 Jonah 2.4 2 Job 7.1 3 1 Cor 10.13 4 cf Mt 8.23-27

Final Thoughts

Cum angustiaretur in me anima mea, Domini recordatus sum. LXX: Cum deficeret ex me anima mea, Domini recordatus sum.  Cum, inquit, nullum aliud sperarem auxilium, recordatio Domini mihi saluti fuit, juxta illud: Recordatus sum Domini, et laetatus sum. Et in alio loco: Recordatus sum dierum antiquorum, et annos aeternos in mente habui. Ego cum desperarem salutem, et carnis fragilitas in medio ventre ceti nihil me de vita sperare permitteret, quidquid impossibile videbatur, Domini recordatione superatum est. Videbam me clausum in utero ceti, et tota spes mea Dominus erat. Ex quibus discimus juxta Septuaginta eo tempore quo deficit anima nostra, et a corporis compage divellitur, non nos debere alio cogitationem vertere, nisi ad eum, qui et in corpore et extra corpus noster est Dominus. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

'When my soul was in torment in me, I remembered the Lord.' The Septuagint has: 'When my soul forsook me, I remembered the Lord.' 1 When, he says, I had hope of nothing else, I recalled to myself the salvation of the Lord, according to which, 'I remembered the Lord and I was joyful 2 And in another place: ' I remembered the days of old, and the endless years I had in my mind. 3 When I was desperate for salvation, and the weakness of the flesh in the belly of the whale allowed me no hope of life, however impossible it seem, by recollection of the Lord, I was saved. I saw myself closed up in the body of the whale and all my hope was in the Lord. From which learn from the Septuagint that it is that time when the soul passes away and breaks away from the bond of the body that we should turn to no thought but to him who is Lord in and outside of the body. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 1 Jonah 2.8  2 Ps 76.4. 3 Ps 76.6

Philosophy And Retirement

Φιλοσοφοῦμεν ἐφ' ἠσυχίας· τοῦτο οἱ μισοῦντες ἡμᾶς ἠδίκησαν, ὡς εἴθε τι καὶ ἄλλο τοιοῦτον, ἳνα μᾶλλον εύεργέτας αὐτοὺς γινώσκωμεν. Πολλὰ γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἀδικουμένους εὖ πάσχειν, καὶ καλῶς πάσχοντας ἀδικεῖσθαι. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἠμέτερα τοιαῦτα. Καὶ εἰ μὴ τοὺς ἄλλους πείθομεν, αὐτόν γέ σε ἀντὶ πάντων εἰδέναι βουλόμεθα, ᾦ λόγον ὑπέχομεν ἡδέως τῶν ἡμετέρων, μᾶλλον δὲ, εἰδέναι πεπείσμεθα, καὶ πείθειν τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας. Ὑμῖν δὲ, παρακαλῶ, πᾶσα σπουδὴ γενέσθω νῦν γοῦν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότερον, συμφωνῆσαι καὶ εἰς ἔν ἐλθεῖν τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης τμήματα κακῶς διεστῶτα, καὶ μάλιστα, εἰ λάβοιτε αὐτοὺς οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ χιῶν διεστῶτας, ὅπερ ἐγω τετήρηκα. Τοῦτο καὶ ὑμῖν ἔμμισθον, ἄν εἴη τὸ δύνασθαι· καὶ ἡμῖν ἠ ἀναχώρησις ἀλυποτέρα, εἰ φανείημεν μὴ κενῶς ταύτην ἀρπάσαντες, ἀλλ' ἐκοντὶ ῥίψαντες ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς κατὰ πελάγους, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἰωνᾶς ἐκεῖνος ἵν' ὁ κλύδων παύσηται, καὶ σωθῶσιν ἀσφαλῶς οἱ ἐμπλέοντες. Εί δὲ οὐδὲν ἥττον χειμάζονται, τόγε ἡμέτερον εἰσενήνεκται. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός, Ἐπιστολή Σωφρονιῳ Ὑπαρχῳ

We are philosophizing at leisure. That is the harm those who hate us have inflicted on us, and if they would do more of the same, we would know them still more as benefactors. For it often happens that it goes well with those who are treated unjustly, while those who are treated well suffer injustices. That then is how things are with us. But if I cannot persuade others, I wish that you above all others, to whom I gladly give an account of my affairs, should know this, or rather I am persuaded that you do know it, and can persuade those who do not. But I beg you to give all diligence now, if you have not done so before, to bring together the woefully divided sections of the world, above all if you should understand, as I noted, that they are divided because of  petty interests. This would gain you reward, if you are able to accomplish it, and my retirement would have less to lament if I could see that I did not take to it in vain, but had willingly cast myself into the sea like Jonah that the storm might cease and sailors be saved. If, however, they do no better in the storm, I have done what I could. Saint Gregory Nazianzus, from a Letter to To the Prefect Sophronius

Rushing Into Danger

Dominus autem misit ventum magnum in mare, et facta est tempastas magna in mari et navis periclitabatur conteri. LXX: Et Dominus suscitavit spiritum magnum in mare, et facta est tempestas magna in mari, et navis periclitabatus conteri.   Potest fuga propetae et ad hominis referri in communi personam, qui Dei praecepta contemnens recessit a facie ejus, et se mundo tradidit, ubi postea malorum tempestate, et totius mundi contra se saeviente naufragio, compulsus est sentire Deum, et reverti ad eum quem fugerat. Unde intelligimus etiam ea quae sibi homines aestimant salutaria, Deo nolente, verti in perniciem et non solum non prodesse auxilium his, quibus praebetur, sed et ipsos qui praebent, pariter conteri. Sicut legimus victam ab Assyriis Aegyptum, quia opitulabatur Israeli contra Domini voluntatem. Periclitatur navis quae periclitantem susceperat: vento maria concitantur, in tranquillitate tempestas oritur, nihil, Deo adversante, securum est. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem, Lib I, Cap I

'The Lord sent a great wind upon the sea and made a great storm in the sea and the ship was in danger of being destroyed.' The Septuagint has: 'And the Lord caused to rise a great spirit in the sea and there a great storm in the sea and the ship was in danger of being destroyed.' 1 One is able to refer the flight of the prophet to the person of the common man, he who, spurning the commands of God, withdraws from His face and gives himself to the world, and after a storm of evil, with all the world wildly against him and making his shipwreck, he is compelled to attend to God and return to Him whom he fled. Whence we may understand that even when men judge themselves to be safe, if God is unwilling, a man is thrown into ruin and not only does the help of those who offer it not avail, but even those who would assist are buffeted with him. So we read of the defeat of Egypt by the Assyrians, because it was aiding Israel against the will of the Lord. The ship imperiled is the one overtaken by danger, where the sea is troubled by the wind, where a storm arises in peace, where nothing, with God unwilling, is secure.  Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah, Book 1, Chapter 1 1 Jonah 1.4

Kings of the World

Quid valeat apud homines saeculi eloquentia et sapientia saecularis, testes sunt Demosthenes, Tullius, Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristoteles, et caeteri oratores ac philosophi, qui velut reges habentur hominum, et praecepta eorum non ut praecepta mortalium, sed quasi oracula accipuntur deorum. Unde et Plato dicit: Felices fore respublicas, si aut philosophi regnent, aut reges philosophentur. Quam autem difficile istiusmodi homines credant in Deum, ut quotidana exempla praeteream, et sileam de veteribus historiis ethnicorum, sufficit nobis Apostoli testimonium, qui ad Corinthios scribens, ait: ' Videte, frates, vocationem vestram, quia non sunt multi sapientes secundum carnem non multi potentes, non multi nobiles: sed stulta mundi elegit Deus, ut confundant sapientes, et infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundant fortia, et ignobilia mundi, et ea quae erant contemptibilia elegit Deus,' et caetera. Unde rursum dicit: 'Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et intelligentiam prudentium reprobabo.' Et: 'Videte, ne quis vos spoliet per philosophiam et inanem seductionem.' Ex quo perspicuum est, praedicationem Christi reges mundi audire novissimos, et deposito fulgore eloquentiae et ornamentis ac decore verborum, totos se simplicitati et rusticitati tradere, et in plebeium cultum redactos sedere in sordibus, et destruere quod ante praedicaverant. Proponamus nobis beatum Cyprianum (qui prius idololatriae assertor fuit, et in tantam gloriam venit eloquentiae, ut oratoriam quoque doceret Carthagini) audisse tandem sermonem Jonae et ad poenitentiam conversum, in tantam venisse virtutem, ut Christum publice praedicaret, et pro illo cervicem gladio flecteret. Profecto intelligimus regem Ninive descendiise de solio suo, et purpuram sacco, unquenta luto, munditias sordibus commutasse: non sordibus sensuum, sed verborum. Unde et de Babylone in Jeremia dicitur: Calix aureus Babylon inebrians omnem terram. Quem non inebriavit eloquentia saecularis? cujus non animos compositione verborum et disertitudinis suae fulgore perstrinxit? Difficile homines potentes et nobiles et divites, et multo his difficilius eloquentes credunt Deo: obcaecatur enim mens eorum divitiis et opibus atque luxuria et circumdati vitiis, non possunt videre virtutes simplicitatemque Scripturae sanctae, non ex majestate sensuum, sed ex verborum judicant vilitate. Cum autem ipsi qui prius mala docuerant, versi ad poenitentiam, docere coeperint bona, tunc videbimus Niniviticos populos una praedicatione converti, et fieri illud quod in Isaia legimus: Si nata est gens semel. Homines quoque et jumenta operta saccis, et clamantia ad Dominum, eodem sensu intellige: quod et rationabiles, et irrationabiles, et prudentes ac simplices ad pradicationem Jonae agant poenitentiam juxta illud, quod et alibi dicitur: 'Homines et jumenta salvabis, Domine.' Possumus autem jumenta operta saccis et aliter interpretari, de his maxime testimoniis, in quibus legimus: Sol et luna induentur sacco. Et in alio loco: Induam coelum sacco, pro lugubri sicilicet habitu et moerore atque moestitia, quae μεταφορικως saccus nominantur. Illud quoque quod dicitur: Quis scit si converatur et ignoscat Deus? Ideo ambiguum ponitur et incertum: ut dum homines dubii sunt de salute, fortius agant poenitentiam, et magis ad misericordiam provocent Deum. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

Worldly eloquence and wisdom, the heads of which are Demosthenes, Cicero, Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristotle and other orators and philosophers, prevail over men in such a way that they are like kings over men and their precepts are not mortal precepts but they are received like the oracles of the gods. Whence Plato said: States would be happy if either philosophers ruled or kings philosophised. To show how difficult indeed it is for such men to believe in God I shall provide a common example and leave silent the ancient histories of the pagans, for it suffices for us the testimony of the Apostle who writing to the Corinthians said, 'See, brothers, your vocation, because not many of you are wise according to the flesh, nor many powerful, nor many noble, but God chose the stupid of the world to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong, and God chose the ignoble of the world and those who are contemptible.' and so on. Again he says, ' I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and the I shall reprove the intelligence of the prudent.' And: 'Watch lest you are carried off by philosophy and inane seduction.' From all of which it is easy to see that it is most rare for the kings of the world to hear the preaching of Christ, that which, stripped of the blaze of eloquence and the ornamentation and decoration of words, taking to itself all things simple and rustic, sits down among the commoners amid squalor, to destroy what has been preached before. We propose to ourselves blessed Cyprian, he who once was an idolator and who came to such renown in the art of rhetoric that he taught oratory at Carthage, he who hearing a sermon of Jonah was converted to penance and came to such virtue that he preached Christ publicly, for which he was beheaded. This is how we understand the king of Nineveh coming down off his throne, changing his purple for sackcloth, his anointing oils for mud, his elegance for filth, that is, not the filth of meaning but of words. Whence concerning Babylon in Jeremiah it is said:' A golden cup made drunk all the land of Babylon. Who is not made drunk by the eloquence of the world? Whose souls are not touched by such arrangement of words and such brilliance of style? Difficult it is for the powerful and the rich and the noble to believe in God, and more difficult it is for the eloquent, for their minds are blinded by wealth and luxury and they are surrounded by vices so that they are not able to see the virtues and simplicity of the Holy Scriptures, not judging by the majesty by the sense but by the commonness of the words. When those who taught evil turn to penance they have begun to teach the good, so we see the people of Nineveh convert by the preaching of one man and they become that which in Isaiah reads: 'If a nation is born at once.'  That men and animals also put on sackcloth and cried out to the Lord, we understand in the same sense, that even rational and irrational, clever and simple were brought to penance by the preaching of Jonah, so in the Psalms it is said, ' You save men and animals, O Lord.' We are even able to interpret the animals donning sackcloth in the light of other passages in which it is written: Sun and earth put on sackcloth' and in another place, 'The sky shall put on sackcloth' as meaning grieving and weeping and sadness, since sackcloth is used here in a figurative sense. It is also said, ' Who knows if God shall turn and forgive?'  Thus ambiguity and uncertainty are proposed so that while men are doubtful of salvation they might more strongly take to penance and greater provoke the mercy of God. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah

Correcting Errors

Multi anni sunt quod ab adolescentia usque ad hanc aetatem, diversa scripsi opuscula, semperque habui studio audientibus loqui, quod publice in Ecclesia didiceram: nec Philosophorium argumenta sectari, sed Apostolorum simplicitati aequiesere, sciens illud scriptum: Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et prudentiam prudentium reprobabo. Et: Fatuum Dei, sapientius est hominibus. Cum haec se ita habeant, provoco adversaries, ut omnes retro chartulas ex integro discutiant, et si quid in meo ingenioio vitii repererint, proferant in medium. Aut enim bona erunt, et contradiciam eorum calumniae: aut reprehensibilia, et confitebor errorem: malens emendare quam perseverare in pravitate sententiae. Et tu ergo, doctor egregie, aut defende quod locutus es, et sententiarum tuarum acumine astrue eloquio subsequenti, ne quando tibi placuerit, neges quod locutus es: aut si certe errasti, quasi homo, libere confitere, et discordantiam inter se redde concordiam. In mentem tibi veniat, tunicam Salvatoris nec a militibus fuisse conscissam. Fratrem inter se cernis jurgia, et rides aeque laetaris, quod alii tuo nomine, alii Christi appellentur. Imitare Jonam, et dicito: Si propter me est ista tempestae, tollite me, et mittite in mare.  Humilitate dejectus est in profundum, ut in typum Domini gloriosus resurgeret. Tu per superbiam ad astra sustolleris, ut de loquatur Jesus: 'Videbam Satanam sicut fulgor cadentem de caelo.' Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola CXXXIII, Ad Ctesiphontem

For many years from my youth up until this age I have written various works and I have always tried to teach my hearers the doctrine that I have been taught publicly in church; I have not chased after the arguments of the philosophers but have preferred to find rest in the simplicity of the Apostles, knowing that it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and denounce the understanding of the prudent,'1 and ' The foolishness of God is wiser than men.'2 This being so, I challenge my adversaries to tear apart all my past writings, and if they track down anything in my thought that is faulty, to bring it forward. Thus either my works will be found good and I shall confute their calumny, or the works will be found at fault and I shall confess my error; for I am one who prefers to correct an error than persevere in a defective opinion. And so you also, outstanding teacher, defend what you have said, and support your opinions with corresponding eloquence, and do not, when it pleases you, deny what you have said, but if, as a man may do, you have obviously erred, confess it openly and turn discord back into harmony. May it come to mind that even the soldiers did not rend the coat of the Saviour, and yet when you see disputes between brothers you laugh and are glad that some are called by your name and others by that of Christ. Rather imitate Jonah and say: 'If this tempest is on account of me, take me and cast me into the sea.'3 He in humility was thrown into the deep that he might rise again a glorious type of the Lord. You by pride are lifted up to the stars, about which Jesus said: 'I beheld Satan falling like lightning from heaven.'4 Saint Jerome Letter 133, To Ctesiphon  1. 1 Cor 1.19  2. 1 Cor 1.25   3. Jon 1. 12  4 Lk 10.18