The second reading for this Sunday (Phil 2:1-11) definitely ranks among my favorite passages in all of St. Paul’s writings: in the space of 11 punchy verses, he gives us not only a beautiful vision for community and the daily walk with Christ, but also a beautiful hymn in praise of Christ. Many biblical scholars think that the second half of this passage (“though he was in the form of God …”) is St. Paul quoting an early Christian liturgical hymn. This gives us a fascinating vignette into the liturgical worship of the first few decades of our Church (focused on the person of Christ Jesus, his humility and obedience) and still serves us today as a healing balm for our souls.
Usually, when folks come to confession and bring up the sin of pride, I’ll give them the penance of praying with this passage, because the sin of pride is a thorny reality. It can manifest in so many different and subtle ways, and as our faith teaches, can tear us away from the heart of God in a much more profound way than sins of the flesh. If we look at the company that Jesus keeps in the Gospels, tax collectors and prostitutes (i.e., those most commonly identified with sins of the flesh) were comfortable enough around him to invite him over for dinner, while the proud and self-righteous were busy plotting his demise. Yes, absolutely, we should work at removing all sin from our lives as a response to God’s grace, but the geography of the heart which the Gospels propose is that pride will very quickly set ourselves at odds with the Lord.
Even thornier than that is the notion that I can accurately judge my own pride, for even that itself is a temptation toward pride. St. Paul goes so far to say that we ought not even hold ourselves in judgment (see 1 Cor 4:3), because judgment belongs to the Lord. So, what is the way forward?
The reason I give this passage out as penance is because the solution to the thorniness of pride is — like all things — to cast it onto the rock of Christ. Paul would have us meditate on Christ’s humility and obedience to the Father, willingness to suffer and let go of glory, and let the Father be the one to bring about any exultation. We can drive ourselves crazy if we put all the attention on removing pride and growing in humility, while the way forward is to get outside of ourselves and put the focus on love of God and neighbor. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but of thinking of ourselves less, to accept the fact that our lives are not about us, but rather we learn humility and obedience by looking at Jesus, the only one who can take away our thorny pride and make us into true children of God.
Father Vance is parochial vicar of Our Lady of Grace in Edina.
