Fr. Paul Pecchie
One of the best ways to understand the Bible is to think of the Old Testament as presenting God’s many promises to Israel and to think of the New Testament as the fulfillment of all those promises. The Old Testament tells the story of “promises made.” The New Testament tells the story of “promises kept.” For example, the Old Testament includes events which point to or foreshadows a newer reality in the New Testament, such as Noah and the flood, Israel passing through the Red sea and the Manna in the desert. The New Testament reveals the deeper meaning of these, such as the flood and exodus pointing to baptism as well as the New Manna, the Eucharist.
Today’s feast gives us the Old Testament King David as a foreshadowing of the kingship of Christ, the King of kings. The Covenant that God made with David promised an everlasting kingdom to David’s descend ant, fulfilled in Jesus. To David, God said:
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. -2 Samuel 7:12-14
The Biblical links between David and Jesus are plentiful. Here are just five:
· First, both David and Christ were born in Bethlehem. This highlights that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic Kingship and the prom ised Messiah. What started with David was fulfilled by Jesus.
· Second, David was a humble shepherd protecting his flock. David thus prefigured Jesus as the Good Shepherd who will lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:11). Jesus, as our King, rules over us with love, care, and protection, as the Good Shepherd.
· Third, David was anointed with oil by the prophet Samuel as God’s chosen king. Jesus, the Anointed One, received the Holy Spirit’s anointing at His baptism in the presence of the prophet John the Baptist.
· Fourth, David was rejected by his own people, betrayed, and forced into exile when Absalom rose against him (2 Samuel 15). This pre figures Jesus’ rejection by Israel, betrayal by Judas, and His suffering and death on a cross.
· Fifth, David was able to defeat giants. He conquered the great enemy of Israel: Goliath. In this battle, David was unexpectedly victorious.
Jesus also defeats giants, namely Satan and Death. When Jesus defeated the powers of evil, one could say He did this, from the perspective of the world, unexpectedly: by dying on a cross.
This is partly why our Gospel reading presents to us Christ on His cross. We should, as His loyal subjects, accompany Him on the cross by joining our daily prayers and sacrifices to Him. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. It is different. We may also need to purify our understanding of the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdoms of this world. Jesus is a different kind of King than we are used to. He is not like other kings. Rather than use His Kingship for His own benefit, Christ uses His reign for our good.
The Catechism says: 786 [Christ] exercises His kingship by drawing all men to Himself through His death and Resurrection. Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made Himself the servant of all, for he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
This feast invites us to make Jesus the Lord of our lives. Crowning Jesus as King of our lives means aligning our actions and decisions more closely with the Gospel. Many Christians struggle with keeping their Mondays united to their Sundays. They are a good Christian on Sunday morning while at mass, but then Monday morning, in traffic on the way to work, they become like any other pagan in the world. Jesus doesn’t really reign over their life.
We often, as Christians in the culture today, keep our personal religious beliefs private. In a sense, it is culturally not acceptable to proselytize, to wear our faith on our sleeve, or to try to influence public affairs with “private beliefs”.
But religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion. Rather, religious freedom means freedom for religion.
Religious freedom means our faith can’t be kicked out of the public square, not that the public square is protected from religion.
The Church celebrates the authority and kingship of Christ not on a private level, but she proclaims this truth openly to the world. Christians should not fall into the habit of compartmentalizing their lives. We are Catholics both on Sunday morning and on Monday morning at work and school. Today, Jesus is asking us to reflect on whether our Sundays match our Mondays. Oremus pro Invicem!