Word to the Wise
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 - Tuesday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Phil 2:5-11 and Luke 14:15-24]Have the same attitude among yourselves that is also yours in Christ Jesus...[He] humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. [Philippians]
"Mors autem crucis!" Even death on a cross! Those words ring in my memory from my novitiate experience of Good Friday! It is on that day that we come to terms with the stark reality of Jesus' death and its particularly brutal form. However, the emphasis is not on the instrument but on the person. In the Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul quotes a hymn about Jesus and his love for us, found in the humility of becoming human and dying for our sake. St. Paul states this again in Romans when he writes, "Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." [Rom 5:7-8].
St. Paul quotes the hymn in an effort to get the Philippians to show humility in their attitudes toward one another because there were tensions and disagreements. Traditional spirituality uses the expression, "dying to oneself." "Obedient unto death" is not a recipe for self-abasement, but a choice for ultimate values, especially love. When husband and wife marry, they pledge to be obedient to one another! When I made vows in the Dominican Order, I promised obedience to God, Blessed Mary, Blessed Dominic and the Master of the Order and his successors. These are choices made for others and they will indeed mean taking up the cross at times and dying to oneself. If we cannot believe that God or any person is worthy of that ultimate choice, can we truly say that we love anyone? Love that recognizes the need for humility will sustain us with the cross that inevitably comes. AMEN
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