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Office Of Readings | Week 21, Friday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Jerome On The Book Of Joel | Return To Me With All Your Heart
‘Return to me.’
Saint Jerome’s reflection on Joel 2:12–18 draws attention to the biblical theme of repentance, particularly the inward transformation of the heart. Joel’s summons, ‘Return to me with all your heart,’ is not merely a call to external practices such as fasting, mourning, or tearing garments, but to a conversion of the interior self. Jerome insists that the rending of garments, a traditional sign of grief in the ancient world, must be replaced by the rending of the heart. This aligns with prophetic teaching elsewhere in the Old Testament, where God prefers inward change over ritualistic displays (cf. Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21–24).
Jerome compares the unrepentant heart to a wine skin that bursts unless cut open. This imagery highlights the necessity of repentance as a release of what is hidden or corrupted within, to prevent destruction. The tearing open of the heart makes space for divine mercy to enter.
The central emphasis of the passage is God’s mercy. Jerome interprets Joel’s teaching as a reassurance that no sin is beyond forgiveness. He underscores the biblical witness to God’s patience and readiness to pardon, contrasting divine forbearance with human impatience. God’s threats of punishment, according to Jerome, should be understood not as evidence of cruelty but as warnings designed to lead to repentance. Even when judgment is threatened, the possibility of mercy remains open.
Jerome clarifies that ‘evil’ in this context should be understood as affliction or misfortune, not moral wrongdoing, citing scriptural passages where calamity is attributed to God’s providence (cf. Amos 3:6). Thus, divine warnings of ‘evil’ refer to discipline that can be withdrawn if repentance follows.
The prophet’s phrase, ‘Who knows whether he will not turn and repent and leave behind him a blessing?’ is treated by Jerome with careful nuance. While God’s mercy is abundant, the outcome of repentance cannot be presumed. By framing it as an open possibility rather than a certainty, Joel avoids reducing divine freedom to human calculation. This preserves both human responsibility and God’s sovereignty.
Finally, Jerome notes that reconciliation with God leads to restored worship: once forgiveness has been granted, offerings and sacrifices can be made in sincerity. Repentance, therefore, not only reconciles the sinner to God but restores the community’s relationship with him, enabling authentic worship.
A Reading From The Commentary Of Saint Jerome On The Book Of Joel | Return To Me With All Your Heart
Return to me with all your heart and show a spirit of repentance with fasting, weeping and mourning; so that while you fast now, later you may be satisfied, while you weep now, later you may laugh, while you mourn now, you may some day enjoy consolation. It is customary for those in sorrow or adversity to tear their garments. The gospel records that the high priest did this to exaggerate the charge against our Lord and Savior; and we read that Paul and Barnabas did so when they heard words of blasphemy. I bid you not to tear your garments but rather to rend your hearts which are laden with sin. Like wine skins, unless they have been cut open, they will burst of their own accord. After you have done this, return to the Lord your God, from whom you had been alienated by your sins. Do not despair of his mercy, no matter how great your sins, for great mercy will take away great sins.
For the Lord is gracious and merciful and prefers the conversion of a sinner rather than his death. Patient and generous in his mercy, he does not give in to human impatience but is willing to wait a long time for our repentance. So extraordinary is the Lord’s mercy in the face of evil, that if we do penance for our sins, he regrets his own threat and does not carry out against us the sanctions he had threatened. So by the changing of our attitude, he himself is changed. But in this passage we should interpret ‘evil’ to mean, not the opposite of virtue, but affliction, as we read in another place: Sufficient for the day are its own evils. And, again: If there is evil in the city, God did not create it.
In like manner, given all that we have said above – that God is kind and merciful, patient, generous with his forgiveness, and extraordinary in his mercy toward evil – lest the magnitude of his clemency make us lax and negligent, he adds this word through his prophet: Who knows whether he will not turn and repent and leave behind him a blessing? In other words, he says: ‘I exhort you to repentance, because it is my duty, and I know that God is inexhaustibly merciful, as David says: Have mercy on me, God, according to your great mercy, and in the depths of your compassion, blot out all my iniquities. But since we cannot know the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and knowledge of God, I will temper my statement, expressing a wish rather than taking anything for granted, and I will say: Who knows whether he will not turn and repent?’ Since he says, Who, it must be understood that it is impossible or difficult to know for sure.
To these words the prophet adds: Offerings and libations for the Lord our God. What he is saying to us in other words is that, God having blessed us and forgiven us our sins, we will then be able to offer sacrifice to God.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Merciful Lord,
you call us to return to you with all our hearts.
Cleanse us from sin,
tear open what is hardened within us,
and fill us with your compassion.
Do not treat us as our deeds deserve,
but pour out your mercy and leave behind a blessing,
that we may offer you true worship
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Joel 2:12–18 – The biblical passage behind Jerome’s commentary, part of the prophet’s call to repentance during a time of crisis.
Rending garments – A traditional Jewish sign of mourning, grief, or outrage, often performed in public (cf. Genesis 37:34; Matthew 26:65).
Rend your hearts – A metaphor for sincere repentance and inner contrition, contrasted with external displays of sorrow.
Wine skins – Containers for wine that, if not properly cut or prepared, could burst under pressure; here symbolising the unrepentant heart.
God’s repentance – A biblical expression describing God’s change of course when people repent, not implying divine fickleness but highlighting mercy (cf. Jonah 3:10).
Evil (malum) – In Jerome’s interpretation, refers to misfortune or affliction, not moral wickedness; a way of describing divine chastisement or testing.
Who knows? – A phrase used in prophetic literature (cf. Jonah 3:9; Joel 2:14) to emphasise humility before the hidden purposes of God.
Offerings and libations – Sacrificial acts in the Temple, restored only once sin has been forgiven, symbolising reconciliation between God and his people.
Saint Basil the Great’s reflection on baptism and the Holy Spirit is grounded in the rich theological and liturgical tradition of the fourth-century Church, when the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was under fierce debate. Writing against those who denied the divinity of the Spirit (notably the Pneumatomachians), Basil’s On the Holy Spirit defends the Spirit’s full equality with the Father and the Son. In this passage, he focuses on baptism as the sacrament by which the believer enters into new life, through the cooperation of both water and Spirit [ … ]
We all face difficulties in our lives. The crowds who listen to Jesus must have felt cruelly burdened, labouring and seeming to find no true reward. They must have sensed injustice and longed for their Messiah to set them free [ … ]
Christian Art | Parousia | Second Coming | Lamb Of God, You Take Away The Sins Of The World Luke 17: 26-37 (Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word) Early Christian thought about the Parousia – the second coming – was largely influenced by the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Saint Paul. In the early Christian community, expectation of Christ’s return was strong, and many Christians believed that it would happen in their lifetime. This belief is evident in the New Testament, where the authors express a sense of urgency in their writings and encourage their readers to be prepared for Christ’s imminent return. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the idea of the Parousia became more complex and nuanced. Theological debates arose around the nature of Christ’s return and the events that would precede it. Some theologians, such as Origen and Augustine, saw the Parousia as a spiritual event that was already happening in the Church. Others, such as the Montanists and the millenarians, believed in a literal, physical return of Christ and the establishment of a new, earthly Kingdom. In the Middle Ages, the Parousia was often associated with apocalypticism and the idea of a final, cataclysmic battle between good and evil – the last battle. The idea of the Antichrist, who would precede Christ’s return, became a popular theme in Christian literature, and the book of Revelation (Apocalypse – meaning to reveal, to uncover) was interpreted as a prophetic guide to the end of the world. Biblical Basis For The Parousia | The Second Coming The concept of the Parousia, or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, is central to Christian eschatology and is supported by numerous biblical passages in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, there are numerous passages that refer to the coming of a Messiah who will restore Israel and bring about the final judgment. For example, in Daniel 7:13-14, it is written: ‘I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’ This passage describes a divine figure who comes in the clouds and is given dominion over all nations. In the New Testament, the Parousia is described in greater detail, particularly in the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Saint Paul. Jesus speaks of his return in many passages, including Matthew 24:30-31, where Jesus says: ‘And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ Here, Jesus describes his return in power and glory, accompanied by angels who gather Jesus’ elect from all over the world. In Saint Paul’s letters, the Parousia is also described in detail. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Saint Paul writes: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ This passage describes a resurrection of the dead and the gathering of believers to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. The language and imagery used to describe the Parousia are often dramatic and apocalyptic in nature. The Parousia is often described as a time of judgment, when the righteous will be separated from the wicked, and God’s justice will be fully revealed. The imagery of clouds, trumpets, and angels is used to depict the power and glory of Christ’s return. Theological Interpretations Of The Parousia | Jesus’ Second Coming The concept of the Parousia has been interpreted in a variety of ways throughout Christian history. Dispensationalism Dispensationalism is a theological framework that emerged in the 19th Century and has since become popular among some evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. Dispensationalists believe that history is divided into distinct periods or ‘dispensations’, each of which is marked by a particular mode of divine revelation and a specific plan of salvation. According to dispensationalist theology, the Parousia will be preceded by a period of tribulation, during which the Antichrist will establish a one-world government and the Jews will be restored to their homeland. The Parousia itself will involve a physical, visible return of Christ, who will establish a thousand-year reign on earth before the final judgment. Preterism Preterism is a theological interpretation of the Parousia that holds that many of the prophecies in the New Testament, particularly those in the book of Revelation, were fulfilled in the first century AD. According to this view, the Parousia occurred in a spiritual sense when Christ ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to empower the Church. Preterists argue that the tribulation and other end-time events predicted in the New Testament were fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. Postmillennialism Postmillennialism is a theological view that holds that the Parousia will occur after a period of history in which the Church will gradually bring about the kingdom of God on earth. According to this view, the Church will spread the gospel throughout the world, and social, political, and economic conditions will gradually improve. Eventually, Christ will return to a world that has been largely transformed by the Gospel. Amillennialism […]
