Fr. JC Maximilian

“Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” This is a serious admonition that St. Paul gives to the Christians living in Philippi in today’s second reading. Why does he urge this on the Philippians so strongly, and what is the attitude of Christ Jesus? 

Often when St. Paul sent a letter to one of the Christian communities that he had founded during his missionary journeys, it was to address a particular conflict or crisis in that community. Sometimes it addressed a doctrinal confusion, other times as warnings against false brethren, usually those he called “Judaizers,” or to address some rivalries within the community. This was not the case with the Philippians. They seemed to be living a near ideal Christian life — not that everything was going smoothly for them, but rather they were facing the struggles of life as Christians should, trusting in God’s love and showing that love to others.  St Paul was writing to the Philippians while he was under house arrest in Rome, to thank them for all the prayers and support, even money, that they had sent him during his imprisonment.  Yet, as any good father, St. Paul worried about them, and one of St. Paul’s greatest worries was the problem of disunity. In fact he address this problem more than any other in his letters. 

The attitude of Christ Jesus that St. Paul wanted the Philippians to have, that which would “complete my joy” as he says, is for them to be “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, and thinking one thing.” In other words, he wanted them to have that for which the Lord prayed on the night before He suffered and died when He asked His Father that “they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one” (John 17: 22-23). 

St. Paul could not understand how if we are all walking with the Lord, as His disciples, we can clash with each other?  If we are all filled with the same Holy Spirit how can we permit divisions in our families and church communities?  If we are as committed to mercy -forgiving others as God has forgiven us –how can we allow jealousy, envy, and grudges to poison our hearts and actions? 

Division and disunity continues to threaten the Church; it has weakened the Catholic voice in the world today, and this has given free reign to so many social evils and has opened the door to the culture of death which infects society. In order to heal and prevent further disunity within the Church, it will benefit us to reflect more on the causes of disunity. St. Paul identifies the two main causes of disunity. 

First he says, “Do nothing out of selfishness….” The Greek word that St Paul uses for “selfishness” refers to a kind of unhealthy ambition that leads us to lie, cheat and compromise in order to climb the ladder of success. Don’t we see that today? 

When Catholic professors openly oppose the Church’s moral teaching on human sexuality so that they can fit in better with mainline, secular academia they become a source of confusion and division for the Church. When Catholic politicians support abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, unjust economic policies, or cloning in order to climb the ranks of party leadership they are a source of scandal and division for the Church.  When Catholic businessmen and women go along with shady accounting practices and immoral investments just to win their bosses favor, even though the Church teaches that justice demands honesty and integrity, they create confusion and division in the Church. 

“Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” This means that we should be ambitious not for ourselves and our own gain, but rather for the Truth. This is what Christ Jesus did. This is what we Christians should do. 

The second cause of division and disunity, St. Paul calls vainglory, but we might call it vanity.  There is a natural tendency to enjoy being recognized, praised and honored.  There is nothing wrong with that in itself. However, when our thirst for praise, recognition and popularity leads us to care more about what other people think of us than about what God thinks of us, then we have crossed a line.  We have stepped onto the slippery slope of vainglory, which is so destructive.  Vainglory causes division because the vain person is always trying to make themselves stand out from everyone else, often by trying to make others look bad by spreading rumors about them, criticizing them behind their backs, and perhaps even lying about them. 

The priest who regularly criticizes his fellow priest in front of others, just so that people will lose their confidence in that priest and put more confidence in him is dividing the Church, and not building it up. The long-time parishioner who criticizes a new parishioner who is trying to start a new program at the parish is hindering Christ’s Kingdom, not advancing it. The person at work who promises to help a colleague with a project but then leaves them stranded on purpose just so that the colleague will look bad, is pounding another nail into the cross and not loving Christ Jesus. 

“Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” St. Paul warns that the road of vainglory is a dead-end, no matter how tempting it may seem. Rather he urges us to follow a beautiful alternative, “rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interest, but also for those of others.” 

Clearly, disunity is as much a threat to the Church today as it was 2000 years ago. Thankfully we do not need to depend on our own, weak human efforts to resist it. Jesus has given us unconquerable weapons that all of us can use to both protect and build up the unity of the Church. 

The first is the Papacy. Jesus has guaranteed that His Church will always give sure and dependable teaching on matters of faith and morals through the teaching authority of the popes and the bishops united with them. Unlike our non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters, we Catholics can know clearly whenever our pastor is wrong about Church issues –all we need to do is look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Instead of arguing each other into the ground, we can build together on the solid, common ground of true Catholic doctrine. 

The second, and most important, source of Christian unity is the Eucharist. St Paul says that it is not enough to be of ”one mind,” that is accepting the Church’s teaching. We also need to “be of one heart,” that is we must live out that teaching. Through, with and in the Eucharist, Christ’s own heart is united to each of our hearts. From the Eucharist, Jesus gives us His own divine strength, and draws us closer together into one spiritual family. 

As we prepare to receive this great gift in Holy Communion today, let us renew our faith in the unity, the oneness, of Christ’s Church. Let us promise Jesus that we will do our very best never to damage the unity of the Church. Rather,let us commit ourselves to use all of our God given abilities to humbly build up the Church according to God’s will. “Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” 

[Statue of Christ's Victory of the Cross by Michelangelo]

In the past two weeks since I arrived here at St. Theresa’s, as I have started to get to know many of you, I have been hearing a lot of stories.  Isn’t this pretty typical?  When people meet for the first time, they start sharing stories about themselves, especially about their accomplishments.  For example, the people who have chatted with me have learned that I used to be a college professor, that a long time ago I was a Congressional Page in the U.S. House of Representatives, and other things about me.  And I have gotten to know many things about some of you; where you worked, stories about your children and grandchildren.  It has been so much fun getting to hear about the successes and achievements in people’s lives, and I truly hope that we continue to share our stories.

During the Mass, in the Liturgy of the Word, we hear a lot of stories about God and the People of Israel, and of course the Gospels are stories about Jesus.  By modern standards, the stories we hear about Jesus seems to make Him seem like a total failure.  He did not go to college; in fact He probably had very little formal education.  For the last three years of His adult life He had no paying job, and lived off the donations that were generously given to Him and his Apostles by the people who listened to Him.  As far as we know, He had no house and most likely slept under the stars most nights.  He did not have powerful friends among the cultural and political elite.  In fact, He wasn’t even popular among the people of His home town, who once tried to throw Him off a cliff.

Despite all this, St. Paul writes in today’s Second Reading that God the Father has given Jesus “the name that is above every every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend….”  Why did God the Father raise Jesus to the eternal throne of glory, exalting Him so thoroughly, if His life was a failure?  Because God’s standards are so very different than this world’s standards.  According to God’s standards, the one category that really matters, and which Jesus completely triumphed in, is humility.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians which we heard from in today’s Second Reading, shares what seems to be one of the first hymns that Christians sang, which empathizes Christ’s humility.  We hear that Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave…” and that “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”  This is what the Church is celebrating in today’s Feast of the Exaltation or Triumph of the Cross; the victory of Christ’s humility over the arrogance of Satan.

Humility is exactly what the Israelites lacked in today’s first reading.  They were in the desert, after God had freed them from slavery in Egypt through a series of magnificent miracles.  They were on their way to the Promise Land, yet all they could focus on was the sand of the desert.  They were grumbling about everything.  They felt that their food, the miraculous manna that God was providing them, was boring.  Their journey was long and hard, true, but God was promising them something so fantastic.  They had forgotten that everything they had came from God’s generous love.  Rather, they started thinking that they deserved a better deal.

In His great love, God taught them humility but humbling them so that they would think more of their mission in life than their comfort in this life.  By sending the serpents, God reminds the Israelites that their lives, their hopes, their freedom, and all of life’s joys are God’s free gift.

Are we ever like those Israelites of old?  Do we ever get so caught up in the trials and struggles of life that we fail to appreciate that everything that we have — literally every beat of our heart and breath we take — are gifts of God’s generous love?  How often do we become blinded by the “desert sand” in our lives that we grumble — about others and perhaps even God?  Should not we rather be joyful in the Lord?

Of course the ultimate lesson in humility is Jesus Christ.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  Christ is a humble God, more interested in us and our needs than in himself and his comfort.  That’s why Christ’s self-sacrificial death on the cross won an eternal victory over the self-centered self-indulgence of sin.

Humility was clearly the key to Christ’s victory over sin and evil.  For those of us who are Christ’s followers, humility should also be a key characteristic of our lives.  So, how are we doing in this crucial area of our Christian life?  There is an easy way of measuring how humble we are.  We are humble to the degree that we are able to deny ourselves for the good of others.  This is what the Cross is all about, and this is how Jesus summarized what it means to be a Christian, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).

When we are talking with other people, are we able to concede to others, graciously and without grumbling?  Or do we always insist on our own point of view?

In our daily responsibilities, are we able to work hard, to push ourselves to fulfill our duties, without other people having to recognize and reward us all the time?

Do we use our free time entertainment as a way to recharge our batteries so that we can serve those around us better, or has indulging our own pleasures become an end in itself, a priority that makes us get angry when other people’s needs interfere?

How capable are we of climbing onto our daily cross?  Does Christ’s Cross Triumph in our souls?  To share in Christ Triumph, we must ask for a heart as meek and humble as our Lord’s.