Today’s second reading from
St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians probably sounds very familiar to all of us,
since we hear the second part of this reading every year on Palm Sunday. Many biblical scholars believe that Paul
adapted these words from an ancient hymn in the early Church. The contrasts that Paul points out in this
reading are striking: Jesus was divine, but he took on human likeness; those
both in heaven and on earth are to bend their knee to honor Jesus; and in the
humiliation that Jesus suffered in his death on the cross, he gained for us
victory over sin, and through this humiliation, he has earned our
exaltation.
So often, we human being want all of the answers. We don’t like the unknown. We don’t want to leave a question without
getting an answers. We as believers are
always called to seek greater understanding in matters of faith, that is true. Since we have just started our year of
religious education in our parishes, we’re excited about all the programs we
have going on this year, of all the opportunities we will have to truly grow in
our faith. Yet, we must remember that there is always a part of God, a part of
our faith, that is going to remain a mystery for us. In seminary, when I was studying to become a
priest, I took a course in my last year of studies that explored the Trinity as
well as the divine and human nature of Christ. This class was entitled “The
Mystery of God”, which reflects how no matter how much we learn about God, there
is always more for us to learn. This
brings to my mind Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest who taught at the
University of Paris in the 13th century, who is considered one of
our Church’s greatest theologians. Even
more than 700 years after he wrote his famous works on theology, his writings
are still fundamental to our Catholic understanding of the faith. Yet, several months before he died, he was
meditating in a chapel where he had a mystical vision of God, which prompted
him to say that all of his writings and all of the knowledge that he had accumulated
over his lifetime were mere straw compared to this vision and first-hand
experience of God that he just had.
Looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see that
Paul starts with words that try to encourage this community of faith, telling
them to be of the same mind, the same heart, and the same love of Christ. Yet, in all of the enthusiasm we can have for
our faith, we’re not to live out our faith with arrogance or pride, we are not
to lord our faith over others, but we are to live in the same manner that Jesus
lived, by being humble, by being a servant, by not seeking glory for himself,
but by proclaiming the kingdom of God in all things.
Paul saw hope, joy, and encouragement in his faith, in the
new life he had in Christ, which he tried to pass down to the communities he
founded as he asked those in Philippi to imitate him and the way he lived out
his faith. So, in our modern world, as
we follow along this same journey of discipleship that Paul walked, where do we
see hope, joy, and support in those difficult realities that confront us in
life, in the sufferings we have to endure?
One of my heroes and role models in ministry is Father Gustavo
Gutierrez, a Dominican priest who started working with the poor in Lima, Peru
and who developed an entire theology around the way the poor see God
interacting in their lives. Father Gutierrez now teaches theology at the
University of Notre Dame. As a youth, he
was confined to a bed for 6 years from the age of 12 to the age of 18 as he
suffered from an illness called osteomyelitis, which is a very terrible
infection in the bone marrow. As a
result of this illness, Father Gutierrez has had to walk with a cane for most
of his life and he has great difficulty getting around. He said that he had much reason for
discouragement during those years he was confined in bed, but he found hope and
new life through prayer, reading, and the support he received from family and
friends. Later as a priest, Gutierrez
says that he learned a lot about hope from his parishioners in the poor
neighborhoods where he served in Peru.
He says that the gift of hope that God gives us is not for those easy,
comfortable moments in life, but rather for those difficult, challenging
times. Gutierrez has learned that while
the poor most often do not have a rational understanding for their suffering,
while they don’t fully understand its causes or recognize its beginning, the
hope that the poor are able to embrace helps them endure and believe. Father Gustavo Gutierrez, this poor, humble
priest from South America, exemplifies for me the love, compassion, and
humility that we are all called to bring to our faith, that we to use for the
compass that will guide us in life.
Paul
was trying to convince the Philippians that they need to imitate him, since
Paul himself imitated Christ in his own life.
Yes, as followers of Christ, we are to imitate Christ himself. And in imitating Christ in our life of
discipleship, we are to be just like Christ in the way he was obedient to the
divine purpose to which God called him to in his earthly existence. Jesus was aware that he could have grasped or
exploited the equality that he had with God, for Jesus was aware of his identity
as the only begotten Son of God the Father.
Yet, instead of seeking special privileges, instead of demanding that
all of creation bow down to him, Jesus submitted himself obediently to God,
allowing himself to die on the cross according to Father’s will and his divine
plan of salvation. We as followers of
Christ should strive toward this same level of obedience to God’s will, even though
it’s not always the easiest path and not always the way our secular world calls
out to us to live our lives.
In the midst of submitting ourselves to God, to obeying him,
to trying to discern his will, we hear our psalmist cry out: Remember your
mercies, O Lord. Remember me in your
compassion. Make your ways known to me
as you teach me and guide me in your truth. God shows us sinners the way to
salvation. We are never to forget that
God is the purest form of love and mercy that we can ever find, that the love
of God surpasses anything we can imagine in our limited human understanding of
things. But if we bring God’s love and
compassion to all we do, then the love of God will be even more widespread here
on earth, then we are doing our part of proclaiming God’s kingdom in the here
and now. So, as we are called to imitate
Christ, as we are called to submit to God’s holy will and to be obedient, let
us do so not in fear and trepidation, but in joy and in hope.
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