21st January 2020

ANOINTED OR DEFEATED?

“Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.” —1 Samuel 16:13

Samuel had anointed Saul, but Saul had been unfaithful. Samuel grieved over Saul’s unfaithfulness, but the Lord told Samuel to quit crying and to anoint someone else (1 Sm 16:1ff). We likewise need to quit bemoaning the evils of our time and proceed to anoint others. This means that we should lead people to be baptized into Jesus (see Acts 2:38), to receive the anointings of Baptism and also Confirmation. We should also devote our lives to helping the two billion baptized people in the world live their Baptisms to the full.

The title “Christ” means “anointed one.” We who are baptized into Christ are “anointed ones.” Through our anointings, we have all the wisdom, power, and love to transform the world for Jesus. We need only live our anointings, especially by leading others to the anointed life in Christ. How could two billion Christians anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit fail to transform the world and to hasten the final coming of the Christ? Only if we fail to live our anointings can we falter. Therefore, let us be Christians to the full. Nothing more or less is necessary to renew the face of the earth (see Ps 104:30).

The Gospel also portrays a tug of war between the ‘elders’ and the ‘young, immature disciples’. But Jesus defends the disciples’ actions as being genuine and from the heart. And in His defence He quotes from the life of David, the then anointed King. If the Mosaic law could be set aside for David and his followers on account of their hunger, then it could be set aside again for the very same reason. God’s reasoning resounds in Jesus’ statement, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”.

St Agnes (- 304)

As with so many of the early Roman martyrs, very little is now known about Agnes’ life. Partly this is because the details have been obscured by the light that shines from her martyrdom and the cult that it inspired, and partly because if you are martyred at the age of 12, your life has not really acquired that many details in any case. Agnes was filled with the love of God from an early age, vowed herself to celibacy, and when the opportunity of martyrdom arose, she did not hide away but stepped forward and took it.
That is really all that is known: but it is enough. We who are used to compromising with the world at every turn, and would find excuses to avoid any inconveniences that our faith might cause us, let alone martyrdom (“yes, of course I would die for my faith in principle, but wouldn’t I be able to do more good in the long run if I stayed alive just now?”), should admire the simple wisdom of Agnes, realise that there are moments where compromise and moral ambiguity just will not do, and pray for the strength to live up to such moments when they happen.