Christ was
Anointed
both Priest
and King
This is an excerpt from a
treatise on the Trinity by Faustinus (aka Faustus) Luciferanus, an Early Church
Father who most probably wrote his treatise "De Trinitate" around 380 AD at the
request of the wife of the Emperor Theodosius (Nn. 39-40; CCl 69, 340-341). It
shows how our Savior Jesus Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit, the oil of
gladness, as both priest and king. In this he is unlike all Old Testament
figures except Melchizedek. It is used in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings
for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time with the accompanying biblical reading
taken from I Samuel 16:1-13, reccounting the anointing of King David by the
prophet Samuel.
Our Savior received a bodily anointing and so
became a true king and a true priest. Both king and priest he was of his very
self; a savior could be nothing less. Hear in his own words how he himself
became a king: I have been appointed king by God on Zion his holy
mountain. Hear in the Father’s words that he was a priest: You are a
priest for ever in the line of Melchizedek. Aaron was the first under the
law to be made a priest by being anointed with chrism, yet the Father does not
say, “in the line of Aaron”, lest it be believed that the Saviour’s priesthood
could be passed on by inheritance, for at that time Aaron’s priesthood was
transmitted by lineal descent. But the Savior’s priesthood is not inherited
because this priest lives on for ever. Therefore Scripture says: You are a
priest for ever in the line of Melchizedek.
There is, therefore, a savior in the flesh who is
both a king and a priest, though his anointing was not physical but spiritual.
Among the Israelites, those kings and priests who were actually anointed with
oil were either kings or priests. No man could be both king and priest; he had
to be one or the other. Only Christ was both king and priest; because he had
come to fulfil the law, he alone possessed the twofold perfection of kingship
and priesthood.
Those who had been anointed with the oil of
kingship or priesthood, although they received only one of these anointings,
were called messiahs. Our Savior, however, who is the Christ, was anointed by
the Holy Spirit so that the passage in Scripture might be fulfilled: God,
your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness and raised you above your
companions. The difference, then, between the one Christ and the many
christs is in the anointing, since he was anointed with the oil of gladness,
which signifies nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
This we know to be true from the Savior himself.
When he took the book of Isaiah, he opened it and read: The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. He then said that the prophecy
was fulfilled in the hearing of those listening.
Peter, the prince of the apostles, also
taught that the chrism which made the Saviour a christ was the Holy Spirit; that
is to say, the power of God. When in the Acts of the Apostles Peter spoke to
that faithful and merciful man, the centurion, he said among other things:
After the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed
with the Holy Spirit and with power, started out in Galilee and travelled about
performing powerful miracles, and freeing all who were possessed by the
devil.
So you said that Peter too said that Jesus in his
humanity was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Thus Jesus in his
humanity truly became the Christ. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he was
made both king and priest for ever.
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