by Fr. Tommy Lane
Priests and religious pray prescribed prayers five times a day, apart from our own personal and private prayer. We call these five prayer times every day the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office and these prayers are in our prayer book often called the Breviary. These prescribed prayers for priests and religious are mostly taken from Scripture. A small part of our evening prayer every Saturday evening is the second half of today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians (Phil 2:6-11). It is a most beautiful text in the New Testament.
Paul asks to make our own the mind of Jesus (Phil 2:5), in other words, to have the same attitude as Jesus. Whatever was the attitude of Jesus, that is also to be our attitude Paul tells us. What was the attitude of Jesus? Paul goes on to give one example in the remainder of today’s reading: Jesus’ humility. Jesus was God but emptied himself, lowering himself to become human. As Paul describes Jesus’ humility, it is like going downstairs. The first step down is Jesus becoming human. The next step down is Jesus dying. The final and lowest step down is the type of death Jesus accepted, death on a cross.
It was completely shocking that Jesus allowed himself to die on a cross. Palestine was part of the Roman Empire then and crucifixion was the form of capital punishment the Romans inflicted on criminals. Crucifixion was the death penalty for criminals. Crucifixion was so brutal that the Romans did not inflict it on Roman citizens, only on non-citizens.
(A small number of passages in the Old Testament describe some accurate details about Jesus’ crucifixion centuries beforehand. One of them is Psalm 22. It describes dividing garments and casting lots for them (Ps 22:19/18) which we know happened to Jesus’ clothes on Calvary (John 19:23-24). But there is an even more interesting statement in that Psalm, and it is translated from the Hebrew in different ways such as “they have pierced my hands and my feet” or “they tear holes in my hands and my feet.” (Ps 22:17/16) Some Psalms come from around 1000 BC and Psalm 22 seems to be one of those (because of its suggestion of David having authored it). The Roman Empire had not even come into existence at that time. The Roman Empire is commonly said to have been founded in 753 BC. So, Psalm 22 predicts a form of punishment, crucifixion, for someone, Jesus, and the empire that would use that as its capital punishment had not even come into being. This shows the divine inspiration of Scripture.)
Paul continues: the Father raised up Jesus in his resurrection and gave him the name above all other names. What is that name? At the end of today’s reading Paul tells us every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord (Phil 2:11). That is the name: Jesus Christ as Lord, the Lord Christ. The word “Christ” is the Greek word for “Anointed” and the word “Messiah” is the Hebrew word for “Anointed.” They each mean Jesus is the Anointed One of the heavenly Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit to carry out the Father’s task on earth.
Paul continues: all beings in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus (Phil 2:10). The name of Jesus is so sacred, in Paul’s mind, that every knee should bend at Jesus’ name and declare Jesus Christ as Lord. Compare that with the misuse of the name of Jesus that we hear all around us and on TV. God’s name in the Old Testament was considered so holy that when the Jewish people were reading Scripture, they did not even say the name God’s name but instead said Adonai. That was the reverence in which they held God’s name. There was one exception: the high priest could whisper God’s name under his breath on the one day every year when he went into the Holy of Holies in the temple. One of the commandments asks us not to take God’s name in vain and when we pray the Lord’s Prayer / Our Father, we pray “Hallowed be thy name,” in other words, may God’s name be hold holy. Again, Paul says all beings in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus.
At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer in every Mass, the priest elevates the paten with the Sacred Host and the Chalice with the Precious Blood and prays to the Father, “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours.” So, we pray that through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus, all glory and honor from all creation go to the Father. How true indeed that prayer is. Our Father in heaven does receive all honor and glory as the priest elevates the paten with the Body of Jesus and the Chalice with the Blood of Jesus. How sad that the same name of Jesus is not always honored in speech or on TV.
A priest blesses you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When a priest blesses you, to use an Old Testament expression (Num 6:27), it is putting God’s name upon you. So, when a priest blesses you, he is putting the name of the Father, the name of Jesus and the name of the Holy Spirit upon you. The priest pronounces the words, but it is God’s blessing through the priest. That is why people often ask a priest for his blessing. We are blessed at the end of every Mass with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. How sad that we have to endure listening to the name of Jesus being used in a way not intended.
Paul asks in the second reading to make our own the mind of Jesus, in other words to have the same attitude as Jesus and he goes on to describe Jesus’ humility in accepting death on a cross, but the Father raised Jesus. That is why all beings in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2020
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday Year A
Do you only know about Jesus or do you know Jesus? 2008
Related Homilies: Some of each son in us 2007
Second Reading Related: having the same attitude as Christ
Stories about conversion