Behold, your king is coming, the Holy One, the Savior

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to first read and reflect on a passage from the book of the prophet Zechariah (9: 1—10: 2) entitled “Salvation is promised to Zion”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a discourse by Saint Adrew of Crete, bishop.

Saint Andrew of Crete, also known as Andrew of Jerusalem, was an eighth century bishop, theologian, homilist, and hymnographer. He is venerated as a saint in both Eastern Orthodoxy and the Catholic Church. He is principally interesting to us in that he is credited with the invention of the canon, a new form of hymnody of which we have no intimation before his time. Nine canons are assigned to him.

The Book of Zechariah, because of its great variation in style, content, and language, is widely believed to be a composite work. Made up of First and Second Zechariah, the book has been attributed to at least two different prophets. The prophecies of First Zechariah can be dated to the late sixth century B.C., contemporary with those of Haggai; the oracles of Second Zechariah are somewhat later.

The most striking feature of First Zechariah is a series of visions in which the prophet describes the centrality of Jerusalem, its Temple, and its leaders, who function both in the politics of the region and of the Persian empire and in God’s universal rule. Zechariah was instrumental in organizing and inspiring the Jews to finish rebuilding the Temple which began in 520 B.C.