For this Sunday’s reflection upon the Readings for Mass, I would like to make the following suggestion for you in your own time and space.
Take the second reading, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, ch.2:1-11, and read it out aloud for yourself.
Pause for some minutes and then read it our aloud again.
Pause again for some minutes and read it out aloud once more.
I make this suggestion because the words of Paul are almost beyond comment. They speak of something that is a great mystery.
There is such a sense of authority, of sureness, of wholesomeness in the message. Truly there is no need for comment on the words. They speak for themselves.
Let the words speak to you. Let the quiet, wholesome sureness that possesses Paul speak to you.
Let the gentle preface to his main message prepare you for the shock of the self-emptying that Christ enters into in his Incarnation and in the obedience of his death on a cross.
How empty was Christ on the cross! Utterly!
Then into that emptiness and openness comes an exaltation of Christ that brings us to our knees.
Not only us, but of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue to confess Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the great mystery in our midst – Christ among us.
And Paul’s suggestion to us?
What is it?
Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus!
*****
PHIL 2:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
*****