Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time—Philippians 2:1-1

Our second reading this week includes Saint Paul’s famous Christ Hymn, which very well may have been an existent early Christian hymn. Whether he borrowed it or wrote it himself, this hymn certainly speaks to the poetic beauty and catechetical power of good hymns. They can help us grasp deeper truths about the Lord and about life and give us memorable phrasing to ponder. Consider praying over the lyrics to the hymns from this week’s Mass.

Immediately before launching into this great hymn, Saint Paul begins with an appeal to have a common outlook on Christian living and a common vision for Christian unity. That should give us pause. Do we have anything close to a vision for Christian living and unity, let alone one that is common? What does it mean to be a Christian outside of a church building? The original receivers of every New Testament letter read them as instructions for living as a Christian. I think sometimes we read them as mildly interesting bits of doctrine and prayer for inside the church. But that would be a Christianity better called a hobby. The New Testament speaks to a way of living in the world that is distinctly Christian. The Holy Spirit is inviting us to consider a couple key points here. What is your view of Christian living? And is it a Catholic (universal) vision?

The central point of this great Christ Hymn is Jesus’ humility, and it serves as wonderful food for thought and prayer. Perhaps the key phrase in the whole thing is that Jesus “did not regard equality with God something to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). The word grasped, harpagmos in Greek, is unique in the entire Bible. It is never used in the Old Testament, and it is only used here in the New Testament. In secular Greek, it refers to robbery, which leads to several different translations in English Bibles. While biblical scholars debate the exact meaning, the sense seems to be that Jesus did not see his divinity as something to be exploited for personal gain, which would constitute robbery, but rather as something to be given away. Therein lies a challenge to each of us.

There is nothing wrong with personal gain, and even the ability to earn and manage large amounts of money is a holy gift. But there is something wrong with exploitation, with grasping after gain. The humility that Jesus calls us to and models for us is not a self-deprecating lie that believes I have nothing to offer the world. Rather it is an honest assessment of what gifts from God that I can give to the world coupled with a refusal to exploit those things and grasp after gain. Our gifts and talents, just like Jesus’ gifts and talents, and indeed his divinity, are gifts we bring to the world, and as the Second Vatican Council put it, man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself (Gaudium et Spes, 24).

Jesus emptied himself. He gave himself away. He used even the gift of his divinity for others. What gifts has the Lord entrusted to you? And how can you give those gifts away, not grasping after gain, but with sincerity?