Jesus, a Model of Humility

In today's first reading, 1 Peter 5: 5b-14, St. Peter says to us:  "Beloved: Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.  So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." 

Jesus models for us what it means to clothe oneself in  humility. Here is the Son of God hidden in our humanity. He is like us in all things but sin.  Most people, as they encountered Jesus during his short thirty-three years here on earth, did not know who he was, did not recognize him. They even accused him of being blasphemous, claiming to be God but being only a human being like them.  Jesus did not argue with them and, in fact, remained silent before Pilate and his executioners.  We are even told in the Scriptures that Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered and are reminded that we, too,
will learn obedience from what we suffer.  Jesus showed us the way to be fully human, to be humble and obedient to the will of His Father and ours!

Jesus, the Son of God,  is hidden today, as well: hidden in the piece of consecrated bread, hidden in each human being, hidden in all of creation, hidden in the events of our day!  What humility! He does not shout out, claiming to be the One, in fact, doing good through  us, in us, for us and around us.  He does stand up and shout: I DID THAT GOOD DEED THROUGH YOU! WHY ARE YOU TAKING CREDIT FOR WHAT I AM DOING IN YOU, THROUGH YOU AND FOR YOU?  Nor is Jesus offended by our egos claiming credit for what good is being accomplished by God at work in us.

Lord, help us in this battle with our egos. Our spirit selves recognize that it is You doing the good in and through us but our egos, like Adam and Eve's egos, insists on being God!  When we allow our egos to be in control, to assume power that belongs to You and You alone, we lose our sense of peace and the joy of being Your partner, Your companion, Your servant.  Yes, we cast ourselves out of the paradise of cooperating with you!

Putting on the Attitude of Jesus

In today's first reading, Phil 2: 5-11, S.Paul users us to put on the attitude of Jesus, who, "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 death, even death on a cross."

Jesus took on humanity, our humanity!  Jesus left heaven, emptying Himself and becoming our slave.  He worked Himself to the bone, so to speak, taking on and destroying death for our sakes.  Nothing was too much for Jesus to show us the depth, the breadth, the height and the length of God's love for us.  As St. Paul says to the Philippians, Jesus, the second person of the Blessed Trinity,  did "not regard equality with God" something to which He had to cling! He chooses humility. He chooses littleness. He chooses total dependence, as any infant, upon His mother and foster father Joseph! God, the Creator of heaven and earth, totally dependent for all of His needs upon a teenage mother, whom He Himself created and sustained in her existence!  He did not bulk. He did not sulk! He did not rebel! He humbly submitted to Mary and Joseph! Not only that! At the age of 33, He humbly submitted to those who rebelled against Him and had Him crucified like a notorious, despised criminal!

St. Paul begins this passage to the Philippians by asking each of us to have "the same attitude" that is ours "in Christ Jesus."  What attitude? A humble, obedient one by which we do not consider it necessary to cling to glory or significant positions of honor and power, being above others! We are asked to let go of entitlements, as Jesus did, and assume positions of humility, submission, and obedience to a High Power at work within our lives!

Jesus' Obedience and Our Challenge

We open today's liturgy with the following antiphon: At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend of those in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, for the Lord became obedient today, death on a cross: therefore Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"(cf. Phil 2: 10, 8, 11).

As Adam and Eve said "no" to God's design, Jesus and Mary said "yes" to God's plan.  Jesus left heaven and took on human nature and was like us entirely, except for sin.  That did not mean that sin would not impact his life and that He would not experience the effects of sin, of evil, rampart in the world, as Satan spares no one his taunts and jealousy, luring us into sin just as he lured Adam and Evil into sin.  He did not have that power over Jesus and Mary, who unequivocally said "yes" to God!

Jesus became sin for us and nailed it to the cross. In his death and resurrection sin was destroyed--it does not have the power to take away our freedom to say "yes" to God's love and plan for our eternal life with Him for all eternity.  In Christ Jesus, we will triumph over evil just as Jesus did, if we follow the Spirit's lead in our life, obedient to "small" and"big" invitations and not to the allurements of evil spirits at work in the world as well!  Small acts of evil lead to bigger and bigger acts of evil, as in he case with Judas.

Judas was caught in a web of sin throughout his following of Jesus. As treasurer, one who guarded the purse, Judas repeatedly stole money from throughout those three years. In the end, his greed and obsession with money lured him into betraying Jesus so as to add some money to the treasury.  He was led into a trap from which he did not escape.  In despair, after realizing that Jesus, this time, would willingly go to His death and not escape those who arrested Him, Judas despaired. Often, he had seen Jesus escape those out to trip Him up and probably expected the same to happen this time.

When you and I are careless with playing with the "fire" of sin, --"oh, it's just a little lie," or "I only shoplifted a small item," or "oh, I was mean a little--it's no big deal," do we realize that Satan is preparing us for one of his bigger traps out of which we might be unable to escape, as, it seems, was the case with Judas?  Let's not play with the "fire" of sin! May we not take lightly the Holy Spirit's nudges to not do certain things! Instead,  may we follow the Spirit's lead to make right choices, choices we are  capable of because of being baptized into Jesus' death and in His resurrection to new life in the Spirit through this sacrament!

As we pray in today's Collect, "O God, who willed your Son to submit for our sake to the yoke of the Cross, so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy, grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection.  Through  our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen."

A Blessed Holy Week, as you contemplative the Pascal Mystery.

Jesus' Obedience Saves us from our Disobedience

In the opening prayer of today’s liturgy, we pray “to attain the grace of the resurrection,” a grace secured for us by Jesus’ obedience to the Father unto death. Jesus submitted to death for our sake. He accepted His passion with all of its sufferings: submitting to being arrested with chains and clubs, to being betrayed by one of the apostles, to being falsely accused, of being scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked, being hit in the face and spit upon, to His beard being plucked, to being insulted while dying upon the cross for our disobedience.  Jesus did all of this in order to show God’s love and determination to redeem us from our sins against humanity and against God. Jesus did whatever it took to reconcile us to God and to one another in accord with the Father’s will!  Jesus suffered, died, was buried and rose from the dead. Death and Satan had no power over Him.

In Christ Jesus, we, too, will overcome satanic forces in our lives and rise from the dead with Jesus at the end of our trial here on earth.  In gratitude, we offer Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrifice of the Mass, praising God with all of the angels and saints in heaven and on earth for the "grace of the resurrection,"--the gift of our salvation--and, yes, begging for God’s ongoing mercy upon all of humankind, especially as we choose to worship other gods, ignore the needy, falsely accuse others of wrongdoing they did not commit or let those engaged in evil go scotch free, allowing leaders to enact corrupt decisions that will bring harm to ourselves and others, especially innocent children.  

How appropriate the prayer over the gifts of bread and wine that we prayed today at the liturgy:  “Receive, O Lord, we pray, the offerings made here, and graciously grant that, celebrating your Son’s Passion in mystery, we may experience the grace of its effects. Through Christ our Lord.

Jesus' Obedience to His Father's Will

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me: The Challenge of Obedience to the Father’s Will-- We are fast approaching Holy Week!  Jesus was very much aware that the hour was approaching for Him to go to Calvary, where He would surrender His life to the Father on the cross for the salvation of the world. I call His obedience to the Father unto death  the third aspect of His call.is His The first aspect, as I perceive it, was his obedience to the Father when He left the glories of heaven, not clinging to equality with God but becoming fully human, entering the womb  of our Blessed Mother. The second aspect, from my point of view, was His obedience to the Spirit when he left home, was baptized by John, led into the desert to confront Satan and then into his active ministry of giving service to others  that ultimately led the third aspect of His call, being put to death by those threatened by His way of life, His Truth and His  teachings.

Obedience to the will of the Father:  Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered, first of all, not clinging to equality with the Father (cf Phil 2:6) but becoming like us in all things except sin; second of all, in His active ministry, doing only what the Father did  (“…the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees the Father doing and whatever the Father does the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does himself… [John 5: 20]); and third of all, surrendering to His crucifixion and death on the cross, when, in Gethsemane, Jesus says to His Father:  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine” (Luke 22: 42-43).

Our call also has a three-fold aspect:  we  learn obedience from what we suffer, first of all,  by not clinging to our own wills, as though we are a god unto ourselves, as we strive to become our best self already as children and adolescents; second  of all, “by doing nothing” by ourselves but turning our eyes to the heavens, seeking the Father’s will in all things, especially in  regard to our chosen  ministries/careers by which  we choose  to serve others and the make the world a better place and by entering into the “deserts” we need to enter to  wrestle with Satan and confront his lies; and third of all, seeking the guidance of  the Spirit to make a right decision  in terms of our vocation in life (marriage, single life, or religious life) and saying to the Father, as Jesus said: “[L]et your will be done, not mine.”

Living out any aspect of call will entail carrying the cross of surrendering our will to the will of our Father, as Jesus did.  Will we take up our cross, as Jesus did? Will we take up our cross, as   Mary did all the way to Calvary’s hill, where, with Jesus, she, too, surrendered to the Father?  

To whom, to what, are we surrendering our lives? Let us use these last days of Lent to seriously consider these questions.