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.”