The mystery of Christ in us and in our Church

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Friday 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 (12: 9-12a; 13:01-9) entitled “Salvation in Jerusalem”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a treatise On the Kingdom of Jesus by Saint John Eudes, priest.

St. John Eudes was born in the diocese of Seez in France in the year 1601. After his ordination to the priesthood he spent several years in giving missions. Then he founded congregations dedicated to improving priestly formation and to encouraging morally endangered women to lead Christian lives. He also fostered great devotion to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. He died in 1680.

Saint John Eudes explains that the Kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom that will be ruled by God's appointed Messiah, who will be not just the Redeemer of His people, but their King. In this work he develops his spiritual teaching on the Christian life, laying out the principle that the life of the Christian is, in and of itself, a continued extension of the of Jesus in each and every one of us.

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.