Saint Jerome (347-420)
priest, translator of the Bible, Doctor of the Church
Homilies on Saint Mark's gospel, no. 2 ; PLS 2, 125f. ; SC 494
"Quiet! Come out of this man!"
"Jesus rebuked the devil and said, 'Quiet! Come out of him!' " Truth has no need of the Deceiver's testimony. “I did not come to get the confirmation of your testimony but to cast you out of what I have created...; I have no need of the recognition of one whom I have vowed to destroy. Shut your mouth! Let your silence be my praise. I want no praise from your mouth; my praise is your torture, your punishment (…) Quiet! and come out of this man!” It is as though he said: “Come out of me; what are you doing in my house? It is I who want to enter in, so shut your mouth and get out of the man, this being endowed with reason. Get out of the man! Leave the home prepared for me! The Lord wants his house: quit this man” (…)
See just how precious man's soul is. This contradicts those who think that we human beings and animals have an identical soul and are animated by a same spirit. In another incident the devil is cast out of a single man and sent into two thousand pigs (Mt 8:32): what is precious is saved, what is unclean is lost. “Come out of the man and get into the pigs (…); go where you want, get along with you into the abyss. Leave the man, my private property, alone (…) I won't allow you to possess the man; it would be an insult to me if you were to make your home in him in my place. I took on a human body and dwell in man: the flesh you are possessing is part of my own flesh; get out of this man!”
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