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Part One
God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively.
30
It was
necessary that theMessiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once
as king and priest, and also as prophet.
31
Jesus fulfilled the messianic
hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet, and king.
437
To the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus
as the Messiah promised to Israel: “To you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
32
From the begin-
ning he was “the one whom the Father consecrated and sent into
the world,” conceived as “holy” in Mary’s virginal womb.
33
God
called Joseph to “take Mary as your wife, for that which is con-
ceived in her is of the Holy Spirit,” so that Jesus, “who is called
Christ,” should be born of Joseph’s spouse into the messianic
lineage of David.
34
438
Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his divine mission,
“for the name ‘Christ’ implies ‘he who anointed,’ ‘he who was
anointed’ and ‘the very anointing with which he was anointed.’
The one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is
the Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anoint-
ing.”
35
His eternal messianic consecration was revealed during the
time of his earthly life at the moment of his baptism by John, when
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power,” “that he might be revealed to Israel”
36
as its Messiah. His
works and words will manifest him as “the Holy One of God.”
37
439
Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their
hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messi-
anic “Son of David,” promised by God to Israel.
38
Jesus accepted
his rightful title of Messiah, though with some reserve because it
was understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a
sense, as essentially political.
39
30 Cf.
Ps
2:2;
Acts
4:26-27.
31 Cf.
Isa
11:2; 61:1;
Zech
4:14; 6:13:
Lk
4:16-21.
32
Lk
2:11.
33
Jn
10:36: cf.
Lk
1:35.
34
Mt
1:20; cf.
Mt
1:16;
Rom
1:1;
2 Tim
2:8;
Rev
22:16.
35 St. Irenaeus,
Adv. haeres.,
3, 18, 3: PG 7/1, 934.
36
Acts
10:38;
Jn
1:31.
37
Mk
1:24;
Jn
6:69;
Acts
3:14.
38 Cf.
Mt
2:2; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30; 21:9, 15.
39 Cf.
Jn
4:25-26; 6:15; 11:27;
Mt
22:41-46;
Lk
24:21.
711-716
783
525, 486
727
535
528-529
547