Among the Pauline Christology hymns, the one present in the letter to the Philippians has a special place. In just a few verses the song, in fact, sums up, the whole Paschal mystery and puts it in the living context of the life of the Christian community to whom the letter is addressed. Every Christian community deals with problems of the communion and unity, values often experienced with superficiality and sometimes even forgotten and neglected. The Apostle identifies the reasons for these difficulties: they are born from the same misunderstanding of the paschal mystery. The "style" of the Lord, the strategy he pursued to earn us redemption are not sufficiently considered. Humility and lowering, the death on the cross as the ultimate sign of love and obedience to the Father, are a prime example for every Christian. No baptized person must forget the way Christ has saved us nor he can forget the suffering and humiliation the Lord had to face to obey his Father's salvific will. To have Jesus Christ’s same sentiments, means to follow him on the path of love and obedience, to share the way to be saved by his merits and to join them with our own obedience, fulfilling in us the effectiveness of the Paschal Mystery. The third verse is particularly meaningful for us all: "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but each of you, with humility, consider others better than himself." What drives our actions? Which is our attitude towards what others are doing? We often act out to be noticed, to become "someone" with ambition and vanity, with a feeling of revenge and arrogance. At times we have feelings of envy and rivalry, we look to the work of others with distrust and bitterness, as if the other people success could hurt us, could cause us demage. We are thrilled when someone who we believe has no merit, wins applause and consent that are not granted to us. All this makes us sad, bitter, hostile toward anyone who might impede our success. The reason is that we consider ourselves superior to others, we deem ourselves worthy of all honor and consideration, and we look at our brothers as usurpers of our glory. This attitude leads to bitterness and deep suffering and will not offer any advantage to those who give way to it. Paul, instead, presents the path of joy and serenity, the true joy that comes from humility. To consider others better than ourselves is difficult but it is healthy, to look to others with the same respect with which we look at a superior person keeps our mind in peace, as the Psalm 131 recites(130): "God does not relish my heart ... I rather rest quiet and peaceful like a child quieted at his mother’s. "Rest assured in the will of God and let not the heart exalt itself looking for great things but remain in the place where the Lord has led you and where his care operates over you protecting you with his will and giving peace to the heart of the believer. The brothers around us will no longer be our enemies but we will be able to share the joy and glory of their achievements. That is why Paul exhorts us to have "the same sentiments of Jesus Christ". In him we contemplate the greatest example of humility. Although God, he did not cosider his divine status a privilege but he "emptied himself", he gave himself totally to his total sag. He did just the opposite of what the superb does, he lowered himself becaming a slave for his love to men and considering them worthy of much love, worthy of much consideration: He, who was God, allowed himself to be refused, humiliated, flogged, crucified. But it is precisely this humiliation that becomes his greatness and that is why Christ is exalted by the Father. He, who gave up any right privilege, received a name above every name in heaven and on earth. Every knee will bow and worship him that became obedient up to death on the cross and is now exalted above all. The way of the Incarnation and Redemption does not pass through the glory of the world, nor through success and power, but it passes through the Cross and Love. Christ left us an example, he is the way to go, the truth to proclaim and the life to live. The paschal mystery, made of poverty, humiliation and suffering, opens us to endless joy and light, to eternal life and glory, because it leads us to the realization of the divine plan that want us heirs of the Kingdom of God. Christ triumphs over evil and death, because he took upon himself every sin of man and he cricified the old and decadent, arrogant and unhappy, evil and painful mankind,, destroying, with his humility, all impurities, burning, with his love, all the evils bringing back to his Father the renewed creation by his blood and making us rise with him in the glory of obedience as new men. The song ends with the joyful expression of those who recognize Christ as the Savior crucified: "every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is the Lord! To the glory of God the Father. " It is us who have to worship Jesus and proclaim the glory of the Lord, glorified with the Father. He invites us to follow him, to sit with him on his own throne of glory. But to do this we should follow his same path, we must find the way of simplicity and humility. "If you will not become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Several times the Lord reminds us of this fundamental requirement of the Kingdom, to be like children means to find the simplicity of our humanity, to be able to let the truth of the creature to emerge from the deep of ourselves so that the light of God the Father who resides deep in our hearts can shine and rise to the glory of God. We must look with confidence to others, we must rejoice in their joy, share their suffering with that kind of love that does not want its own interest but hovers light on the pettiness of men and is able to suffer and humiliate itself just as Christ’s love.This can save and redeem us, can comfort and rescue us. All this is possible only for those who love, for those who follow the path of Christ, servant of love.
(da “Culmine e fonte” 1/2009)
