From: Philippians 2:6-11
Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-Emptying
([5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,) [6]
who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in
human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under
the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
Commentary:
5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves,
which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human
power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had
when He was offering Himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of
adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires
them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of
self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing
works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us
all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we
may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ'
(Galatians 2:19)" ([Pope] Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 22).
6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply
proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an
early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he
is--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--giving a very profound
exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of
faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced.
This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity
of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps
before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians
2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage
clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming,
even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem,
crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God
and man.
The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the
beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man.
The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole
passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as
man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses
9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is
conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he
centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example
of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like
us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it
also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which
reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He
had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He
is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine
nature and which His human nature has merited.
The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly
life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The
Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.
Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience.
"We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," Monsignor
Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the
glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as
God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7).
And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must
not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own
interests or human ambitions.
"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory
is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the
beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is
Passing By", 62).
6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of
God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it
is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer
to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of
referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is
that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the
"Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son
of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true
God from true God."
"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the
Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality
of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God
and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be
treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not
insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He
possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to
and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could
have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared
as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff);
instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7).
By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in
the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be
stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).
"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the
Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply
shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out
through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from
the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying
lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is,
to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a
human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself
manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could
not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of
rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.
Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and
Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis
3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered
desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying
God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon
himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is
symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and
by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis
3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory
from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility,
the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously
taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the
disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more
than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed
human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing
mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek),
this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after
death.
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").
This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking
the initiative to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude
at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty,
all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and
immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit
in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse
His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to
approach their Redeemer." ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).
8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we
profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had
a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His
redemptive work for, 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).
Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did
death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For,
in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true
humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc."). In St. Paul's time death
by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was
inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even
death on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was
perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine
glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious
of deaths.
His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the
Father's will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient:
His obedience was active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own.
He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to
redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not
humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility is present when one
debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. on Phil., ad
loc.").
Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love
for us, for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). His 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" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 236).
9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of
exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord
Himself foretold this when He said, "He who humbles himself will be
exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His
humiliation. The Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's
glorification affects his human nature only, for "in the form of God
the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the
Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in
majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose
anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" ([Pope]
St. Leo the Great, "Promisisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is
public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christ's humanity by
virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This
union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of
humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the
human nature He took on.
For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God
(Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe.
Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by
God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing
something that belonged to the very core of his personality.
Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human nature
the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue
of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the
entire universe.
St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar
to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was
given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and
languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed"
(Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all created things.
Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when referring to
the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is
emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here
be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal
sovereignty of Yahweh: "To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men
are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus
Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used here by St. Paul is the
word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old
Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this
sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."
The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God
who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His
exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also
Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless
we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and
suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross present in our
ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new
life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross
(Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. 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
matter how many" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
From: John 3:13-17
The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)
(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [13] "No one has ascended into Heaven but He
who descended from Heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
[15] that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." [16] For God
so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son
into world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him.
Commentary:
13. This is a formal declaration of the divinity of Jesus. No one has
gone up into Heaven and, therefore, no one can have perfect knowledge
of God's secrets, except God Himself who became man and came down from
Heaven--Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of Man
foretold in the Old Testament (cf. Daniel 7:13), to whom has been given
eternal lordship over all peoples.
The Word does not stop being God on becoming man: even when He is on
earth as man, He is in Heaven as God. It is only after the
Resurrection and the Ascension that Christ is in Heaven as man also.
14-15. The bronze serpent which Moses set up on a pole was established
by God to cure those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents in
the desert (cf. Numbers 21:8-9). Jesus compares this with His
crucifixion, to show the value of His being raised up on the cross:
those who look on Him with faith can obtain salvation. We could say
that the good thief was the first to experience the saving power of
Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Israel,
the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise
that very day (cf. Luke 23:39-43).
The Son of God took on our human nature to make known the hidden
mystery of God's own life (cf. Mark 4:11; John 1:18; 3:1-13; Ephesians
3:9) and to free from sin and death those who look at Him with faith
and love and who accept the cross of every day.
The faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance
of the truths He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God
(cf. 1 John 5:1), sharing His very life (cf. John 1:12) and
surrendering ourselves out of love and therefore becoming like Him (cf.
John 10:27; 1 John 3:2). But this faith is a gift of God (cf. John
3:3, 5-8), and we should ask Him to strengthen it and increase it as
the Apostles did: Lord "increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5). While faith
is a supernatural, free gift, it is also a virtue, a good habit, which
a person can practise and thereby develop: so the Christian, who
already has the divine gift of faith, needs with the help of grace to
make explicit acts of faith in order to make this virtue grow.
16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ's
death is the supreme sign of God's love for men (cf. the section on
charity in the "Introduction to the Gospel according to St. John": pp.
31ff above). "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for
its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of God's kindness,
mercy and love for us. `God is love' (1 John 4:16), that is, love
poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth,
which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be
seen in this light. `(He) loved me, St. Paul writes. Each of us can
and must repeat it for himself--`He loved me, and gave Himself for me'
(Galatians 2:20)" (Paul VI, "Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June 1976).
Christ's self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love
for us: "If it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed
us, that He loves us so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son
for us (John 3:16), that He waits for us--every day!--as eagerly as the
father of the prodigal son did (cf. Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt
that He wants us to respond to Him with all love? The strange thing
would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget Him, and busy
ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant promptings of
His grace" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 251).
"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not
revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not
experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate
intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer `fully reveals
man to himself'. If we may use the expression, this is the human
dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man
finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his
humanity.[...] The one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly
[...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weakness and
sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so
to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must `appropriate'
and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and
Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes
place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but
also of deep wonder at himself.
How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he `gained so
great a Redeemer', ("Roman Missal, Exultet" at Easter Vigil), and if
God `gave His only Son' in order that man `should not perish but have
eternal life'. [...]
`Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church
knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took
place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man
and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was
lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the
Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the
Cross and death to Resurrection" (John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis",
10).
Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to
sharing in His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light,
and sets us on the road to salvation. "He who does not believe is
condemned already" (verse 18).
"The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life
and death. For it is only by putting to death that which is old that
we can come to newness of life. Now, although this refers primarily to
people, it is also true of various worldly goods which bear the mark
both of man's sin and the blessing of God.[...] No one is freed from
sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above himself or
completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all
have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and
giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has
acted as a leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it
always offers itself as a leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and
peace" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes", 8).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Reading I 
