The Second Reading for this Sunday includes one of the most famous description of Christ in the New Testament, stating that Christ, "though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8). Christ is God Himself, who became incarnate, taking on human nature. He lived among us as one of us. He did not use his divine powers for his own glory but only to perform miracles in support of his proclamation of the Gospel message. At the culmination of his earthly ministry, he accepted death upon the Cross, in atonement for our sins.
As Christians, we are all called to be like Christ. We are called to invite Christ into our lives, into our very being, and become channels of Christ's love. We are to be humble like Christ, regarding "others as more important than" ourselves (Philippians 2:3), as St. Paul says. We are to love sacrificially, giving of ourselves to others not just from the surplus of our lives, but from the very core of our being. Sacrificial giving also means that we are to be crucified for each other, as Christ was crucified for us. For some of us, the Cross might mean literally dying in service of others. But for most of us the Cross entails daily acts of unselfish self-giving, serving those around us in small ways and great ones. Taking care of our children when we don't feel like it, being there for elderly parents even when it's hard, visiting a lonely family member in a retirement home instead of watching movies -- all these acts and more are examples of sacrificial love.
The more we die to ourselves, the more Christlike we become and the more we are filled with the life of Christ, which is true life. Thus, paradoxically, the more we die to ourselves, the more we come to life. Also, just as Christ was glorified by the Father after completing his earthly mission of the Cross, so too we will be glorified in Heaven if we humble ourselves even onto the Cross in this life.
However, as we reflect on humility, we need to raise one caveat. Sometimes Christians interpret humility in such a way that they lose their focus on Christ in the face of other religions or systems of thought. According to this attitude, to be truly humble as Christians, we should elevate other faiths, giving them encouragement or even preference in society. Instead of putting Christ in the center, such a view looks toward a generic, overarching brotherhood of all men, which was one of the slogans of the French Revelation.
But such an attitude could be described as false empathy, or in the parlance of our time, as suicidal empathy. Christian love does not mean that we surrender Christian civilization, Christian culture, and Christian structures to other religions. On the contrary, Christian love means that Christ is always in the center of not only our individual lives but of how we seek to build and run society. Historically, the Church has taught the doctrine of the social kingship of Christ, meaning that Christ is not only the King of Heaven, but the King of our world here and now and that we need to organize our world according to the values of Christ.
Doing so is not a desire for control or power, but love for all of humanity. God is love and he created the world out of love to share his love with us. He created us with a fundamental inner hunger, an existential yearning for his love. He became one of us, came among us, and died for us, so that we could receive his love. Only the love of Christ can truly fulfill the yearning of our heart, the deepest desire of humanity. Thus, if we stop proclaiming Christ to others, if we stop advocating for Christian values in society, we are robbing others of the opportunity to encounter the only true source of joy, the only complete fulfillment.
The First Reading discusses how sin leads to death, while following the path of goodness leads to life. That does not mean that all sinners will immediately die. In fact, some live to a ripe old age. Nor do the good necessarily live long. Sometimes the best of people die young. But sin causes spiritual death; whereas following God leads to spiritual life. Embracing the love of Christ is not merely one of many equally good options in life. Embracing Christ is the only way we receive true life in this life and the next.
At the same time, the Gospel Reading shows us that we must not be Christians in word only. We see one son promising to obey his father, but failing to do so, and another son saying he won't obey but then doing so. Jesus holds up the son who did as the father had asked as the better of the two. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. It is not enough for us to say that we are Christians and to proclaim Christ with our lips. We must live out our relationship with Christ every day, every moment of each day.
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The readings for Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A are:
Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Philippians 2:1-11
Matthew 21:28-32
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Golgotha, the site of the Crucifixion of Christ (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.