Reflection
Phil 2, 6-11
Today’s second reading is another great one, like last Sunday’s, and they have similar themes.
As I was sifting through the many thoughts that come to mind after reading these short verses, I think it might do us some good to reflect on Christ’s obedience. Obedience is truly an entirely undervalued virtue today. We like to think of ourselves as a society of law and order, of structure and authority, of liberty and not libertinism, yet it seems that the opposite is true; it can seem like the elephant in the living room.
Our Good Lord taught us the value of obedience, valuing it even more than the ancient civilizations—and we all know the immense value they gave it, given our studies in the humanities. Christ shows us that life-giving love that flows through the Trinity; he loves the Father and the Holy Spirit with that unreserved self-donation that makes the Father’s Will his. This love for His Father’s Will, this obedience, brought him to his passion and death, even though experiencing physical and emotional pain and agony;
Christ’s loving obedience led him to death, though fulfillment of the Father’s will achieved victory over death and our possibility for eternal life.
Following this theme, I like these excerpts from Psalm 115 and St Ambrose:
What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things he hath rendered unto me? I will take the chalice of salvation; and I will call upon the name of the Lord.
St Ambrose gives us this advice:
Embrace him, the one you have sought; turn to him, and be enlightened; hold him fast, ask him not to go in haste, beg him not to leave you.”
These words are good for us to reflect on, as priests and future priests. Our vocation is to be another Christ, to love God with our entire being, to make His will ours, to carry our cross with Christ and to follow him to his death, only to rise with Him into eternal life.
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