Categories: bible, spiritual-writings
Date: 25 June 2007 11:34:44
I confess it has been a while since I have read my Bible regularly as part of my Daily Prayer life. I opened my Bible last week and found to my joy I was up to Philippians 2 in the Captivity Epistles book I am, slowly, reading and praying through. As I may've mentioned before, I'm very happy with The Navarre Bible Text and Commentaries: a beautiful translation and useful, informative, challenging and edifying commentary, with quotes from ancient as well as modern Fathers and theologians, on the books and the individual passages within the books.
Verses 6 to 11 of Philippians 2 are thought to be an early Christian hymn, and it is a wonderful passage of Scripture let alone a hymn of praise. Below is the text [translation is the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition] and some of the commentary from the Navarre Bible which I found most edifying.
Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 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.
v6-7: ... Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. "What is more humble" St Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; he who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself." (Oratio I in beatitudinibus)
v8: ...as St Gregory of Nyssa says, "he did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, he took birth upon himself in order to die." (Oratio catechetica magna, 32)
...[Christ's] loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one with him, for love "seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate his life of dedication, his unlimited love and his sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others." (J Escrivá, Friends of God, 236)
v9-11: ..."If we obey God's will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no mater how many." (J Escrivá, Christ is passing by, 21)
And, going back a few verses and quoting Monsignor J Escrivá on verses 3 and 4, "Christian charity cannot confine itself to giving things or money to the needy. It seeks, above all, to respect and understand each person for what he is, in his intrinsic dignity as a man and child of God." (Christ is passing by, 72)
May God help me in remembering these lessons, and, by His grace, may He help me to show my faith in visible and loving actions. Amen.