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Letters Twenty-Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
September 27, 2002At the end of last Sunday’s reading, Paul began one of the two sections of Philippians dedicated to practical instruction in Christian life. In the first exhortative passage (1.27-2.17) he calls his beloved Philippians to steadfastness in the faith, to unity of heart and mind, and to cheerful dedication to the demands of the gospel.
This Sunday’s reading gives us the section on unity. Elsewhere in his letters (e.g. Rom. 14 and 15), Paul calls for patience and tolerance of various approaches to spirituality and religious observance, though always in the context of our common life in Christ. Here he is emphasizing the need for oneness of mind. He offers the saving self-gift of Jesus as the context on which this union of familial love should be founded.
Our passage begins with a series of motivating forces. If Christ’s love and compassion and mercy inspire you in any way, if Christ’s Spirit means anything to you, then make me happy by your oneness of mind, heart, love, and spiritual orientation ("thinking one thing"). Your communion should not be a matter of each one looking out primarily for him or herself, but of each looking out for the well-being of others, each putting him or herself second, each regarding the others as more important.
Next there follows the main point that Paul wants to make: think and act toward one another the same way Christ thought and acted toward us all. To illustrate what he means, Paul now offers a long poetic passage, probably an early Christian hymn, that outlines what Christ did for us and the response of the Father. Christ gave up the glory that was due to Him as God and became a human being, further humbling Himself by accepting an ignominious death. In response, the Father conferred a unique glory upon Him that involves the adoration of all creation and universal acknowledgment of His lordship. The confession of this lordship brings new and unlimited praise to the Father.
The justification of Paul’s appeal to the Philippians, i.e., the quote from the early Christian hymn, is well known to us. We hear it each year on Palm Sunday as the theological explanation of the passion and death of Jesus. It’s probably among the best known passages of the New Testament. But it is to the first part of the reading that the Church wants to draw our attention on this Sunday, i.e., to Paul’s appeal for fraternal love and generosity. This is the original context in which the hymn of Christ’s passion is situated, the original point that Paul intended the quotation to illustrate. Moreover, it is this first part of the reading that is presented by the Lectionary in the optional shorter version. Even if we don’t read the whole reading, we at least have to pay attention to the first part.
Paul is really asking a lot of his readers in this passage. He’s asking them to love one another and to be generous to one another not to the extent that they find it convenient or appealing, but to the extent that Christ was loving and generous to each of us. Christ’s attitude is to be their attitude. Christ’s mind is to be their mind. They are to be Christ for one another. Paul is telling the Philippians - and us - that our common life in Christ makes demands on us. It may also be that Paul means to teach them - and us - what the life of Christ makes possible for us.
One way to follow Paul’s directive is to strive to reproduce in our life the behavior of Jesus, to make Him the model on which we form our earthly existence, to examine the life and ministry of Jesus and to work into our own relationships as much of Him as we can. "The imitation of Christ" is a fundamental part of Christian life, something to which we are all called, something to which the Church directs us over and over again.
But there is another way to respond to what Paul recommends to the Philippians. Having "the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus" can mean more than just looking on Jesus as an exterior pattern on which to fashion our individual lives. It can mean acknowledging the presence and the life of the risen Christ in ourselves and striving not so much to make ourselves live "like Jesus" but rather striving to let Jesus live in and through us. Rather than having John Doe, Christian believer, reproducing and interpreting the life of Christ as best he can, we can have Christ continuing His life and ministry in the tonality and particularity of John Doe. One might suggest that what Jesus had in mind in His project of redemption was not to have a whole lot of followers each reflecting a little piece of Him in their lives, but to have one life - His - expressed fully in each of His followers.
In whichever way we choose to interpret Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians, it is clear that the Christian way of life makes significant demands on those who would be part of it and that it necessarily involves accepting and sharing the life of Christ. Nothing less than that will do.
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Conversation Questions.
To what extent do I put the needs of others ahead of my own?
How is my life guided by the self-gift of Jesus?
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