In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see him at his happiest. The Christians in Philippi had none of the severe problems that beset other Churches, for example in Galatia or at Corinth. Here was Paul in his prison cell, chained either to a wall or to a soldier, and whenever he thought of the Philippians, he was cheered and consoled. Nevertheless: not quite everything in Philippi was perfect. There was anti-Christian persecution: but the Philippian Christians were standing up well to that. More worryingly, Paul had heard reports of certain internal tensions among them. A spirit of rivalry and contention was creeping in. There were some manifestations of envy, and of jostling for position. There was bickering, grumbling and disunity. Not a crisis, but definitely something worth addressing. So Paul wrote his wonderful letter. The passage we heard in today’s second reading is the second of four we are having in a short series over these Sundays.
Paul starts off here by reminding the Philippians of how they felt when he was with them, in the first fervour of their conversion. They’d been carried then, as it were, on a tidal wave of encouragement in Christ. They’d drawn huge comfort from the sheer power of love that was at the heart of Paul’s Gospel. They’d experienced beyond any doubt the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. They’d been strongly bound together in mutual affection and sympathy (2:1). Actually, this should all be normal for any Christian community. So, building on all that now: let them take care to strengthen the radical unity they have in Christ. Let them put aside all selfishness and pride. Let each put the interests of the others before his own.
Is that asking too much? No! Because they are Christians! Baptised into Christ, he is their life (1:21), and therefore their constant reference point. In the Holy Eucharist they eat his Body and drink his Blood. In Christ, and through sharing in his Spirit, they are already children of God. Already in principle they possess their eternal inheritance. So: they should have in them the mind, the attitude, of Christ. Ah: but what is this mind?
Here St. Paul launches into one of the most celebrated passages in all his writings. It’s often referred to as a “Hymn”. A lot of modern scholars think Paul might even have inherited these poetic-sounding words, rather than written them himself. Others though suggest that if Paul had wanted to express exactly what is expressed here, he would have used these very words. So maybe we don’t need to invent a pre-Pauline hymn? Unfortunately Paul’s Greek here is quite hard to unpick. A key word he uses in the middle is rare in all of Greek literature. It anyway occurs nowhere else at all in either the New Testament or in the Greek Old Testament. So from early times until now, people have used the obscurities of this passage to make Paul say more or less the opposite of what he intended. The aim of these commentators, in common with the aim of all heretics always, has been somehow to water down or diminish Paul’s thrilling and life-giving doctrine; to make it something a bit more tame, more easily acceptable; less personally challenging.
Partly against all that, and partly just from the joy of reading St. Paul with very close attention, yesterday I spoke about this text to our novices for over an hour. Now I only have a very few minutes. But let me try to say at least something to the point now.
Who is Jesus? Why is his life and death of such intense interest and relevance to me? Paul’s answer – the answer of the Catholic Church: Jesus is God. He existed from all eternity with his Father and the Holy Spirit. But simply out of love for us, and for the sake of our salvation, as the Creed says, “he came down from heaven”. From the form of God he took the form of man, and even the form of a slave. And then, plumbing the furthest depths of humility, in perfect obedience to his Father, the man Jesus, who we must remember was always also God, freely and willingly endured the shameful and terrible death on the Cross.
Can we ever get our heads around this? Can we ever cease to be utterly astonished at it?? Our religion is quite unlike any other. The Muslims and even the pagans, by and large, know that God is very great, and to be worshipped. We know that too. What they don’t know is that God - the real God – God who is above all things and who made all things – God who is infinite and eternal – he humbled himself before us. In Christ God bowed down low before us. He renounced all coercion, in order to draw us to himself only by the power of love. And for our sake he went down all the way into death, in solidarity with us sinners doomed to die. And that death, that horrible crucifixion of Jesus Christ: that is God’s supreme self-revelation, his supreme self-expression, his ultimate act of self-gift. But then: coming out the other side in triumph, Christ the Victor stands now ready to take us with him to eternal glory.
So, says Paul to the Philippians: Look at Jesus, and learn how to model your whole life and mind and behaviour on him. What do you see there? Self-giving love! Self-emptying love! Total selflessness, total generosity, total self-gift. Supreme holiness, supreme greatness expressed in the most radical humility imaginable. This is the mind of Jesus – and it’s also the mind of God. So: you Philippians have to be like that too, all of you. And you can be, by the power of the Holy Spirit!
How well all this fits with St. John’s Gospel! The pattern of descent and ascent: “I came from the Father and have come into the world”, says Jesus at the Last supper, according to St. John, “and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father” (16:28). The lesson of love also: “Love one another” says Jesus, “as I have loved you” (15:12). Or from St. Matthew, to reinforce the lesson of humility: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29).
There are many many other things I could say, but let me just quote a line from a Biblical scholar I admire. He says: “…in Pauline ethics, the principle is love, the pattern is Christ, the power is the Spirit, the ultimate purpose is the glory of God” (Gordon Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 1995, p. 227).
Let me leave you now with Pauls’ concluding words: “… let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!” (Phil 2:11) We have come here today precisely to do that! We are here now in order publicly, and in communion with the whole Catholic Church, to confess our faith in Jesus as Lord. And we’ve come to bow and kneel before him, especially as he is present in the holy Eucharist. Because here especially we have God with us, God loving us, God giving himself to us. And in the fragile eucharistic elements we see God before us in humility, in vulnerability, and in total self-gift. So we venerate Jesus both for who or what he is, and for what he has done. Insofar as we can, we respond to his great love with our own love. And we go out again in the power of his Name, refreshed by our encounter with him, determined henceforth to live in him; to live like him; to love him beyond and above all other things whatever.