The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments: A Translation of the First Book of the Rationale Divinorum OfficiorumDurand, Guillaume
Religion
The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments: A Translation of the First Book of the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum
Durand, Guillaume
Christian art and symbolism; Church architecture
[Footnote 504: 'Christians be named from Christ, and Christ from
_chrism_, being _anointed_. For He was anointed by God from the
beginning "with the oil of gladness above His fellows." In the Old
Testament priests and kings be called _Christs_ (or Anointed),
because they were anointed with a temporal unction. As it is
written, "Touch not my Christs" (_i.e._ mine anointed). Wherefore,
Christ is not a peculiar name of our Saviour, but is a common
appellation of dignity. But the name Jesus is peculiar to the person
of our Saviour alone, and was given Him, as the Evangelist doth
testify by the angel, Gabriel, at the Conception, and by men at His
Circumcision.'--Durand. _loco cit._ This will explain the reason,
to many persons so puzzling, why it is only to the name of Jesus
that our Church, after the Apostle, commands due obeisance to be
made: and will reprove the erroneous, though pious, zeal which makes
so many of the poor even now bow at the other names of our Blessed
Lord.]
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8. Again, according to Augustine, the first unction with oil showeth
us to be prepared fully to hear the faith, and called to the sweet
odour of Christ, and warned to renounce the devil. The second unction,
according to Rabanus, is upon the breast and between the shoulders,
that we may be fortified on both sides by faith, and confirmed by the
grace of God for the performance of good works. For by the breast is
rightly understood the virtue of faith: but by the shoulders--upon
which any burden is borne--the strength and working of a man:
according to that saying, 'They bind heavy burdens and lay them on the
shoulders of men,' etc. [Footnote 505] A man is anointed therefore on
the breast and between the shoulders, that both in thought and deed he
may relinquish the works of the devil, and become capable of
understanding the Word of God, and strong enough to bear its yoke and
the burden of the law.
[Footnote 505: S. Matthew xxiii, 4.]
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