Today’s
second reading is from the second chapter of Paul’s Letter to the
Philippians. The reading contains one of
the most beautiful Christological hymns in scripture. Paul begins by telling
the Philippians to care for each other, be united in one heart and do nothing
out of selfishness and vainglory. He then tells us to have the same attitude as
Christ Jesus. The Christological hymn follows: who though he was in the form of God did not deem equality with God
something to be grasped, but rather emptied himself....[1]
For God to work through us, we have to take on the
humility of Christ and be more concerned with those for whom we are called to
care then with ourselves[2].
As a priest, I have had times when I’ve been treated
rather poorly and have come close to saying, “This I don’t need. Let them figure out how to handle this
without me.” There are times that I want
to pack up and go home. But then I have to ask myself, “Why are you here in the
first place?” I often have to remind
myself that I am a priest, and the people need a priest. When I realize that, I
am far more open to letting God work through me. Then I end up experiencing a
great comfort and success in ministry in various ways because I realize that I
have to be concerned with Christ, not with myself.
I am sure you have had similar situations. I am sure that every married person has had
to be more concerned with caring for his or her spouse then with how he or she
has been treated by that same spouse. One snaps at the other, and the other has
various choices: retaliate and snap back, employ the old classic passive
aggressive behavior known as the silent treatment, sulk, or say, “I’m sorry,”
and look for something to do together to ease the upset. Certainly, the
silliest words ever uttered by Hollywood were from the old movie, Love Story,
“Love means never having to say you are sorry.”
No, love means always having to say you are sorry. But that takes humility. Pride and marriage cannot co-exist, at least
not peacefully. But through humility you
can be like Jesus for each other.
I am sure that every parent has had to swallow hard
when their children have said something thoughtless. Parents know that they have to be more
concerned with caring for the children than their own feelings. Parents do not bring children into the world
so they can have little people telling them how wonderful they are. They have children to expand their love and
to fill the world with new reflections of God’s love. And yes it is an
important part of parenting to bring children up to respect authority, but for
their sake, not for the parents’ sake.
I am also sure that every single person has been
confronted with the choice of serving God or receiving the proper respect he or
she feels due. We can’t serve God when we are so concerned about how we are
treated by others.
Why? Why do we
have to be more concerned with others than with, as the athletes would say,
“Receiving our props.” (By that they
mean, our proper respect.) That is the
way that God works through us. When we
are concerned with ourselves, or proper respect, vain-glory the reading calls
it, and then we make ourselves the center of our action instead of the work of
God. When we empty ourselves of our
desire for status, position, respect, what have you, and then we are like
Christ, who humbled himself. For the Christian, empty means full. We empty ourselves of our self concern and
find ourselves full of Christ.
We often come upon the scripture passages where the
Lord tells us to pick up our crosses and follow Him. We know that this means accepting our
suffering so the world can be filled with sacrificial love, and the Kingdom of
God might grow. But we usually just
relegate these passages to the way that we handle crises. Today’s second reading is more expansive, it
tells us that to follow Christ we have to change our attitude in life to be
like His. We have to be like the One who
humbled Himself. This is difficult. It
is difficult because pride is so deeply rooted in each of us. But through the
Grace of God we can conquer pride. And
then we can be the people that God needs us to be for His Kingdom. Christ is the
victor, even over our pride. And because He can conquer our pride, He makes us an eternal offering to the
Father[3] ■
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