Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
Jesus, the Christ-Messiah
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today, Andrew has known Jesus and he acknowledges Him as the Christ, the Messiah. Indeed, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ (which concludes the baptismal scene) is to be understood as a kind of formal investiture with the messianic office. The Fathers of the church rightly saw this event as analogous to the anointing by which kings and priests in Israel were installed in office. The words "Christ" and "Messiah" means "the Anointed one".
In the Old Covenant, anointing was regarded as the visible sign that the person anointed was being invested with the gifts of office, with the Spirit of God. For this reason, Isaiah (11:2) develops this theme into a hope for the "Anointed One", whose "anointing" consists precisely in the fact that the Spirit of the Lord comes down to rest on Him: "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, spirit of counsel and might, spirit of piety and the fear of the Lord". Later on, Jesus presented himself in the Synagogue citing a related passage from the prophet (cf. Lk 4:18).
—O Jesus, you are the "awaited Anointed One" our King and Priest.