He Loves Us

(Photo courtesy of Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service, via Wikimedia Commons)

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Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I am sure many of you have heard the expression attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine in the fifth century: lex orandi, lex credendi—which is to say that in authentic Christianity, prayer informs our belief. Prayer and belief also inform how we live: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
Our scripture verses today from chapter two of Paul to the Philippians take us back to the mid-first century Church at prayer. The verses appear to be a hymn used by the early Church at prayer. Their hymn can teach us—how to pray, and so what to believe and do. The Philippians sang, “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” This early Christian hymn tells us that Jesus was not only born in human likeness; in doing so, he took the form of a slave.
Jesus identified himself as a slave, giving his life as a suffering servant in solidarity with the oppressed, the voiceless, and the suffering of the world. Authentic Christians go out to meet him in his resurrection in them, on the peripheries. He is risen, and we can go out to meet him in them. As we pray the Philippian hymn, our belief invites us to go to the peripheries of voicelessness, suffering, and oppression to meet him. Our Philippians chapter says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” We, too, can empty ourselves as suffering servants and go out to accompany him in our suffering neighbors. Lex orandi, lex ccredendi, lex vivandi.
The Czech Dominican theologian Tomáš Halík writes in The Afternoon of Christianity: the Courage to Change, “Let us reclaim our faith in the divinity of Jesus back from dogmatic definitions, whose language is incomprehensible to many of our contemporaries, back to the orthopraxy of our openness—in solidarity—to the theophany (the revelation of God) in the suffering of the people of the world. Here, in the wounds of our world, we can authentically see the invisible God in a Christian way and touch an otherwise barely touchable mystery” (127). Halík says, “Our freedom—our redemption from slavery of all kinds—is the most compelling testimony to the resurrection of Christ, to this cornerstone of our faith” (126).
Perhaps you have started to read the 65-page encyclical letter released last month by Pope Francis, titled in English, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. He loves us, and we can go out to meet him. As we pray and so believe, so can we now do: we can meet Risen Jesus on the peripheries and at the street corners. He is risen and lives among us, and he loves us. In turn, we can love him in them and work to set our world free from slavery of all kinds. He loves us and invites us to go out to meet him.

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Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.