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Christ, king and priest and king forever
Manage episode 425061004 series 3562678
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On the 12th Sunday of Ordinary time, our church invites us to reflect on a passage from the first book of Samuel (16:1–13) entitled “David is anointed king“. Our treasure is from a treatise on the Trinity by Faustus Luciferanus, priest.
The books of Samuel describe the rise and development of kingship in Israel. Samuel is a pivotal figure. He bridges the gap between the period of the Judges and the monarchy, and guides Israel’s transition to kingship. Each section of these books focuses on a major figure in the development of the monarchy: Samuel, the reluctant king maker (1 Sm 1–12); Saul, the king whom the Lord rejects (1 Sm 13–31); David, the king after the Lord’s own heart (2 Sm 1–24). A common theme unites these narratives: Israel’s God acts justly, prospering those who remain faithful and destroying those who reject his ways (1 Sm 2:9). Along with the rest of the Deuteronomistic History, the Books of Samuel become an object lesson for biblical Israel as it tries to re-establish its religious identity after the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss of its homeland (587/586 B.C.).
Faustinus (aka Faustus) Luciferanus wrote a treatise on the Trinity around the year 380 AD, most probably at the request of the wife of the Emperor Theodosius the Great, the one who made orthodox Catholic Christianity the faith of the Roman Empire. Faustinus is one of the lesser known of the Early Church Fathers. He was a priest who died in the Diocletian persecution of 304 AD. A small section of his treatise on the Trinity is still used in the Office of Readings for the 12th Week in Ordinary Time. It is well worth excerpting here:
"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 forever in the line of Melchizedek. …
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