Oh! Branch of the trunk of Jesse, who rises as a sign for the people, before whom kings are silent and whose help the nations implore, come and free us, Don’t delay any longer!
The third antiphon refers us again to Old Testament elements, since Christ is recognized as a descendant of the root of Jesse, that is, of the lineage of David. In Christ the promises that God made in the Old Testament to the people are fulfilled, patriarchs and prophets, as well as the prophecies made to David: that a descendant of his would sit on his throne forever (1 Kings 9:5; Ps 132:11).
Saint Augustine contemplates Christ as a descendant of David, that is, as the promised king to rule his people forever. Likewise, Christ is the Eternal priest, since he became man to offer to God the sacrifice of the cross for the redemption of all men. And as Saint Augustine points out, he is at the same time the priest and the victim. All this to show the infinite love of God to men:
“Oh, how you loved us, good Father, who did not spare your only Son, but you handed him over for us, wicked ones! Oh, how you loved us, becoming for us, who did not consider it usurpation to be equal to you, obedient to the death of a cross, being the only one free among the dead, having power to give his life and to give it again recover it. For us he became victor and victim before you, and therefore victorious, because he was victim; for us a priest and sacrifice before you, and for that reason a priest, for being sacrifice, making us sons of slaves for you, and being born of you to serve us”. (Confessions 10, 69)
Christ is the root of Jesse that blooms again to give hope to the people of God. Therefore, David is only a figure of Christ. In fact, Saint Augustine within his comments on his psalms remind us that David’s name means “the one of strong hand” (Commentary on Psalm 33, 1, 4) and which, therefore, is a figure of the same Christ. For this reason, when commenting on the text of 1 Sam 21:13-16, in which David—who had fled to the land of Get to protect himself from Saul—he suddenly realizes that in that place is also in danger. Therefore, in order to let him leave that place, David pretends to be crazy.
Saint Augustine interprets the gestures made by David in a Christological way. In this way, according to the story of the biblical text (according to the LXX version), David casts at the gates of the city and drummed on them. He also carried in his hands, possibly referring to the fact that he was walking upside down leaning on his hands, like tightrope walkers do in circuses.
Saint Augustine interprets all these facts in the sense that David, like figure of Christ, represents the humility of our Lord, who reclines at the doors of hearts to invite everyone to conversion. The act of drumming at the doors is interpreted as a sign of the crucifixion, since Saint Augustine points out that whoever is crucified remains spread out on the cross, like leather on the frame of the drum.
Finally, the fact that he was carried in his hands means that he is Christ who has left as a memorial of his love, the admirable sacrament of his body and of his blood, the Eucharist, for no one can take himself in his own hands. Only Christ, at the last supper, carried himself in his hands, when he turned the bread in his own body and wine in his blood. At that moment Christ took to himself himself in his own hands (cf. Commentary on Psalm 33, 1, 9-10).
Christ is the root of Jesse. In it the prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled. As the new David, he is our eternal King, who has offered himself to the Father in sacrifice of the cross, and he has left us as a memorial the admirable sacrament of his body and his blood, inviting us to receive it with piety and devotion.
