(Please read the passage cited above first.)
My sisters and brothers,
Homily: March 28 2021: Philippians 2:6-11
(Please read the passage cited above first.)
My sisters and brothers,
Christ Jesus, 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. Have the same attitudes that those in union with Christ Jesus have. I need to have the same attitudes that those in union with Christ Jesus have.
Does this mean that we have to die on crosses? The cross was a punishment the Romans used to make those convicted of crimes suffer tortuously. Nowadays we have others way of punishing people we do not like. We shun people, avoid speaking to people, blackmail people, we block them off of social media.
Why did Jesus die? He threatened the public order. He ate with sinners. He welcomed women with bad reputations, foreigners and lepers. He forgave sins and healed the sick and forgave them. He stood with the underdog, with widows and those other people looked down upon.
We are not going to receive national attention like Martin Luther King Junior, but we have to be examples to our families by welcoming people from minority groups.
We have the same attitudes Christ had when we lay aside our grandiosity and fullness with self, when we serve others and when we work more for the common good than for ourselves. We seek the common good and find eternal life with God. This is the example of Christ, the attitude Christ has.