4 November: Philippians 2:12-18: Homily

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(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)

Not everything in Philippi was neat and cozy.  Much as St Paul loved the people, the people did not always love one another or work together well.  They needed much help.

Paul had proposed to them, in the first eleven verses of this chapter, the example of Christ who did not deem it beneath his dignity to take on the condition of a slave and die as a criminal on a cross.  Paul had labored among the Philippians to bring them to imitate the example of Christ.  He did not want his legacy to fall apart or his labor among them to have been in vain.

Not everything in the United States is neat and cozy.  Much as we should like to think otherwise, we have some serious problems to face.  Our election is over, but the winner we do not know.  The election is not a problem, nor is the winner a problem.  The problem is that we have to have the mind of Christ and the example of Paul.  We do not and this is the problem.

Paul wants us blameless and innocent.  He wants us to work humbly before God, with fear and trembling, not with the fear and trembling of worthless people, but with that of people who know that their ancestry is from God.

We are Catholic Christians.  We have been born of God.  We are descendants of the One who did not consider himself as above us, although he was God, but who rather humbled himself and so became the source of eternal salvation for the world.  We have the same challenge that the Philippians had, to shine like lights in the midst of a world darkened by rivalries, hatreds, bigotries, greeds and other prides.  Like Paul, we have to be ready to pour out our lives as a libation and offering to God.

We await the announcement of the winner of the campaign, not to gloat over those who did not win, nor to brag about our success, but to pledge ourselves, as the Lord Jesus pledged himself, to bring all together to be the blameless and innocent children of God who has enabled us to be in Christ the Lord.  We must all imitate the example of the Lord Jesus in giving of self in the service of others and of God.

This is Paul’s message to us this day after Election Day.