Jesus the Lord is Christ, for he is anointed, as with oil, by God the Father with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Christ and Lord because he is God and Man and in him Man is perfectly reconciled to God,; God’s salvation is made completely available to all men. This work continues each day in the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the perfect offering of Christ mad visible and present in the midst of His Body, the Church.
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 anointing.”(St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 3, 18, 3:PG 7 / 1, 934.) 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” (Acts 10:38; Jn 1:31) as its Messiah. His works and words will manifest him as “the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24; John 6:69; Acts 3:14) (CCC 438)
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we “meet Christ in the liturgy”, Father Cusick