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fr Austin Milner, OP
We are
preparing to celebrate the paschal mystery and in our
preparation we have to try not only to come to a better
understanding of this mystery but to enter into it. We
can only enter into it by learning to think as Christ
thought.
In the
epistle to the Philippians Paul exhorts his converts to
adopt this way of thinking:
Have this
mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. And being found in human form he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
In
today's second reading, from the third chapter of the
same epistle, Paul encourages us by telling the story of
how he himself has endeavoured to imitate Christ. Jesus
did not count his identity with God a prize to be clung
to: so Paul is abandoned his self-identity and his self
righteousness as a born member of the people of God, a
rabbi, and one who kept the law: 'Whatever gain I had, I
counted as loss for the sake of Christ.'
Like
Christ he empties himself; 'indeed', he says, 'I count
everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them as
refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.'
He has
renounced all his assets to trust solely in Christ and
possess him alone -- like that one beautiful pearl the
merchant found. Paul empties himself of any claim on
God's favour he may have had and desired only to be
found in Christ, to 'be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own, based on the keeping of the
Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith'.
Paul
knows that Christ came to reconcile the world to God, by
making us all one with himself. He wants only to be seen
by God as a member of Christ through trust in him, and
thus be clothed in the righteousness of Christ himself.
But if this is to happen he needs, like Christ to 'be
obedient unto death', a death to his old self. And so
Paul wants to 'share his sufferings, becoming like him
in his death', in order that he 'may know him and the
power of his resurrection, that if possible I may attain
the resurrection from the dead'.
This is
what our celebration of the Paschal Mystery is about. We
celebrate it so that we may know Christ and the power of
his resurrection. But let us not delude ourselves. What
Paul says about himself must be a warning to us: 'Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect;
but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus
has made me his own.'
Yes, we can be confident of
this much, that Christ has made us his own, but if we
are his own there is work to be done, there is a death
to be undergone to all our false securities and
self-righteousness. There is suffering to be willingly
undergone so that we may share Christ's sufferings. Then
God will exalt us as he exalted his Son. So, therefore,
like Paul, 'forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead,' we must 'press on toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus'. |
