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.

This week, we begin a four-week reading of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. The four chapters of this short book represent one of Saint Paul’s warmest letters because it is primarily a letter of encouragement and thanks rather than a letter of correction. He probably wrote it in the early 60’s A.D. from prison in Rome (Acts 28:16, 30). Philippi was the leading city of Macedonia (Northern Greece), and was inhabited mostly by retired veterans of the Roman army and only a small Jewish community. The Church in Philippi was the first church established in continental Europe.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the longest epistle in the New Testament and one of the most theologically important and illuminating documents in the entire Bible. Our second readings have been occupied with this book for several months, and this week’s reading is the final section we will read during Mass, though the letter itself goes on for another two and a half chapters.

Last week, we read Saint Paul’s introduction to the final section of Romans, his moral catechesis. This week, he digs into the foundational principal of the moral life: love. In the wider context of Romans 13, he uses the analogy of debts, of things owed to another. He says that we owe respectful obedience to civil authorities—unless they demand that we do something immoral—and we also owe them taxes.

This week’s second reading comes from the final section of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, encompassing chapters 12-15. In this moral catechesis, he addresses life in the Church, responsibility toward civil governments, and avoiding scandal. In the two verse of this reading, he urges us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice which he says is holy and acceptable to God. What is the Holy Spirit saying by this?