A letter from Jerome (384)

Translated letter:

1. They are small in appearance but large in charity, the gifts I receive from the virgin, bracelets, letters, and doves. And since honey is not offered in the sacrifices to God, the excessive sweetness has been transformed by art, and flavored, as I shall say, with a certain austerity of pepper. For nothing voluptuous, nothing sweet pleases God in itself, nothing that does not have something of biting truth in it. Christ's paschal meal was eaten with bitter things. 2. It is a feast day and the birth of saint Peter is usually celebrated, and yet let the happy speech not avoid the hinge of scriptures, let us not wander far from our prescribed place. Jerusalem, in Ezekiel, is adorned with bracelets; Baruch received letters from Jeremiah; the holy spirit comes in the form of a dove. And so that some pepper may sting you and you remember also the previous little book, take care that you not put aside the ornaments of works, which are the true arm-bracelets. Do not cut the letter from your breast which, sent by Baruch, the impious king cut with a sharp knife. Do not elicit what Hosea said to Ephraim, "you have become silly as a dove" [Hos.7:11]. "This is too austere," you will answer, and not suitable to a feast day." But you have provoked it with such gifts, the bitter joined with the sweet, and you will receive the same from us: bitterness will accompany praise. 3. But let me not seem to make little of your gifts — we have received the basket filled with cherries, so red with virginal modesty that I thought they were brought by Lucullus. Indeed he first brought this kind of fruit to Rome from Cerasus when he conquered Pontus and Armenia, and the tree took its name from its homeland. Therefore since we read in scripture about a basket full of figs, but find no cherries, let us proclaim about these what is said about those and desire that you become from those fruits which are before the temple of god and about which god says "what are good are very good" [Jer.24:3]. The savior does not love anything that is neutral and just as he does not flee the cold, he takes delight in the hot, but says in the Apocalypse that he wants to vomit out the tepid [Apoc.3:15-16]. So we should be sollicitous to celebrate the solemn day not so much with abundance of food as with exultation of spirit, since it would be quite absurd to wish to honor a martyr with excessive satiety who, we know, pleased god with fasts. You should always eat so that prayer and reading follow the food. If that should displease some, sing the words of the apostle: "If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a handmaid of Christ" [Gal.1:10].

Original letter:

1. Parva specie, sed caritate magna sunt munera accepisse a virgine armillas, epistulas et columbas. et quoniam mel in dei sacrificiis non offertur, nimia dulcedo arte mutata est et quada, ut ita dicam, piperis austeritate condita. apud deum enim nihil voluptuosum, nihil tantum suave placet, nihil, quod non in se habeat et mordacis aliquid veritatis. pascha Christi cum amaritudinibus manducatur. 2. Festus est dies et natalis beati Petri festius solito concinendus, ita tamen, ut scripturarum cardinem iocularis sermo non fugiat nec a praescripto palestrae nostrae longius evagemur. armillis in Ezechihele ornatur Hierusalem; Baruch epistulas accepit ab Hieremia; in columbae specie spiritus sanctus adlabitur. itaque, ut te aliquid et piperis mordeat et pristini libelli etiam nunc recorderis, cave ne operis ornamenta dimittas, quae verae armillae sunt brachiorum; ne epistulam pectoris tui scindas, quam a Baruch traditam novacula rex profanus incidit; ne ad similitudinem Ephraim per Osee audias: 'facta es insipiens ut columba,' 'nimium,' respondebis, 'austere et, quod festo non conveniat diei.' talibus ipsa muneribus provocasti; dum dulcibus amara sociata sunt, et a nobis paria recipies: laudem amaritudo comitabitur. 3. Verum -- ne videar dona minuisse -- accepimus et canistrum cerasiis refertum talibus et tam virginali verecundia rubentibus, ut ea nunc a Lucullo delata existimarim; siquidem hoc genus pomi Ponto et Armenia subiugatis de Cerasunto primus Romam pertulit, unde et e patria arbor nomen accepit. igitur, quia in scripturis canistrum ficis plenum legimus, cerasia vero non invenimus, in eo, quo allatum est, id, quod allatum est, praedicamus optamusque te de illis pomis fieri, quae contra templum dei sunt et de quibus deus dicit: quae bona, bona valde. nihil quippe salvator medium amat et, sicuti frigidum non refugiens calidis delectatur, ita tepidos in Apocalypsi evomere velle se loquitur. unde nobis sollicitius providendum, ut sollemnem diem non tam ciborum abundantia quam spiritus exultatione celebremus, quia valde absurdum est nimia saturitate honorare velle martyrem, quem sciamus deo placuisse ieiuniis. ita tibi semper comedendum est, ut cibum et oratio sequatur et lectio. quod si aliquibus displicet, apostoli verba cantato: si adhuc hominibus placerem, Christi ancilla non essem.

Historical context:

Jerome thanks Eustochium for gifts which she sent him on the feast of St. Peter and then derives moral instruction from them.

Printed source:

Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, 3 v. (New York: Johnson, 1970, repr. CSEL, 1910-18), ep.31.

Date:

384