Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Wednesday of the twenty-sixth week in ordinary time, September 30, 2026, Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church.
The theme for our meditation today is: Place of Honor. Today our Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Jerome. He studied law and theology in Rome. After his conversion to Christianity and got baptized, he then chose to embrace asceticism. In this way of life, as his focus of attention was to study and meditation on the wisdom of God, he chose to concentrate on studying the scriptures in the Syrian desert, a particular region in the Middle East.
For this special way of life, Pope Damasus I then entrusted to him the work to translate the sacred scriptures from their original language into Latin, the bible version which is known to us as vulgata. He is known in the Church as an extraordinary bible scholar. His well-known expression which is very familiar to all Christians that goes like this: knowing the scriptures means knowing Jesus Christ. Not knowing the scriptures means not knowing Jesus Christ.
Starting from this profound statement of Saint Jerome that says about one who knows the scriptures knows Jesus Christ, we are quite aware that we are in agreement with this simple question: How can people know the holy bible? Or a similar question would be: What can we know from the scriptures? Our common answer would be our willingness to know more on the contents of the scriptures, and for that reason we can know more about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a commitment and challenge as well for all of us.
It is our common understanding that as long as we always read, hear, meditate, and practice what are being taught from the scriptures, we actually experience the true person of Jesus Christ. Our readings today reveal to us one element in the teachings of Jesus. He teaches us about the place of honor in His Kingdom. The place of honor is provided for people who are entitled and worthy to occupy it. Who are they?
When you are invited by someone as his guest of honor, you will be offered to sit in a special place, for example, right next to the host who invites you. This is how the Lord prepares a place right next to Him, in the kingdom of heaven for those chosen. There are many conditions proposed by Jesus so that His followers can up to the standard as the chosen ones and have rights to sit together with Him.
One of the important conditions is what Jesus shows us today. He calls upon those who willingly and freely want to follow him by means of abandoning their personal interests. It is sufficient for a person to make the choice of his wholeheartedly. The prophet Job's advice for us, as he says in this way: even though we are granted a place of honor in God, we remain obey His will, and never follow our own will.
Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... O merciful Father, May your words today make us even more humble and sincere, and for this we are so grateful to You and we promise our full obedience to You. Hail Mary, full of grace ... In name of the Father ...
