Emptied exalted and Life giving

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross invites us to consider life that derives from gratitude, humility and giving.

Lifted Up

The Bronze Serpent created in the healing rite in the Book of Numbers is connected to the crucifixion of Jesus.

* [21:8] Everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover: in the Gospel of John this scene is regarded as a type for the crucifixion of Jesus (Jn 3:14–15).

The hymn inserted by Paul in the Letter to the Philippians describes the kenosis or “emptying of Jesus.

* [2:6–11] Perhaps an early Christian hymn quoted here by Paul. The short rhythmic lines fall into two parts, Phil 2:6–8 where the subject of every verb is Christ, and Phil 2:9–11 where the subject is God. The general pattern is thus of Christ’s humiliation and then exaltation. More precise analyses propose a division into six three-line stanzas (Phil 2:6; 7abc, 7d–8, 9, 10, 11) or into three stanzas (Phil 2:6–7ab, 7cd–8, 9–11). Phrases such as even death on a cross (Phil 2:8c) are considered by some to be additions (by Paul) to the hymn, as are Phil 2:10c, 11c.

The proclamation of the gift of Jesus for eternal Life in the Gospel of John concludes a lengthy monologue with Nicodemus.

* [3:14] Lifted up: in Nm 21:9 Moses simply “mounted” a serpent upon a pole. John here substitutes a verb implying glorification. Jesus, exalted to glory at his cross and resurrection, represents healing for all.
* [3:15] Eternal life: used here for the first time in John, this term stresses quality of life rather than duration.
* [3:16] Gave: as a gift in the incarnation, and also “over to death” in the crucifixion; cf. Rom 8:32.

Eileen Burke-Sullivan notes that the Scripture texts assigned the feast proclaim that the mystery of the defeat of death is by submission to its power in confidence that God’s greater power will defeat the very finality of death itself – because God’s power simply destroys sin.  It is the mystery that we consider when we think of the power of love to overcome hatred, of hope to overcome despair.

The Exaltation of the Cross invites us to desire God’s Will above our own.  It challenges us to become what we most desire but cannot accomplish for ourselves – to be utterly free to love and to be loved perfectly.  Only in God is such a gift possible. We were made for this, we long for it, but we allow ourselves to be satisfied with life with a snake in our bosom . . . the enemy of our flourishing who will engage any lie that we will listen to in order to prevent us from knowing the love of God perfectly revealed in Jesus’ death on a cross that forms the doorway between life and death.

Fr Harry Elias SJ helps us to see the cross as holy and understand how Jesus was ‘exalted’ in the crucifixion.

Exaltation in John’s Gospel, as we are told on this feast, is of Jesus as Son of Man: ‘No one has ascended into heaven except the one who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man’ (John 3:13). The Son of Man is the intermediary, the mediator between God and man, the ladder connecting heaven and earth (cf. John 1:51, a reference to the dream of Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 28:12-17). Jesus intercedes and comforts us with hope especially in times of trial and desperate need, when we are sorely tempted to ‘murmur’, to speak against God as the Israelites did in the first reading

Peter Edmonds SJ explores the context and content of one of Paul’s shortest but most appealing epistles to the Philippians.

In general, Paul found answers to the pastoral problems in his communities through theology and through Christ in particular. He finds an answer to the arrogance and disunity in Philippi by an appeal to the career of Christ.  The six verses in which he describes this are the verses from Philippians most familiar to the practising Catholic, since they are read out every Palm Sunday in the Catholic liturgy of the day (2:6-11). They are often referred to as the ‘kenosis hymn’. Kenosis is the Greek word which means ‘emptying’, and the emptying with which we are concerned here is the emptying of Christ; not just in his incarnation as the Son of God in refusing to hold on to his divine status, but, in obedience, accepting the human condition and dying the death of a slave in enduring the cross of the crucifixion. This is the content of the first half of the ‘hymn’; the three verses of the second half describe God’s response.

Don Schwager quotes the Story of Moses and the bronze serpent, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).

"This story is a type of the whole mystery of the incarnation. For the serpent signifies bitter and deadly sin, which was devouring the whole race on the earth... biting the Soul of man and infusing it with the venom of wickedness. And there is no way that we could have escaped being conquered by it, except by the relief that comes only from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, 'that he might condemn sin in the flesh' (Romans 8:3), as it is written. In this way, he becomes the Giver of unending salvation to those who comprehend the divine doctrines and gaze on him with steadfast faith. But the serpent, being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that Christ was clearly manifested by his passion on the cross, so that none could fail to see him." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.1)

The Word Among Us Meditation on John 3:13-17 comments that in the Gospel, Jesus promises Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be “lifted up” so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (John 3:14). He promises salvation to everyone who comes face-to-face with the consequences of their own sin. “Yes, I helped crucify him. It was my own violence, my own hatred, my own self-centeredness and fallen desires that put him up there”.

This is the final glorious irony. When we exalt the cross—when we lift it up and gaze on it—we experience God’s love and his healing. We see that it wasn’t just our sin that put Jesus there; it was also his love. It wasn’t just our enmity; it was his friendship. It wasn’t just our selfishness; it was his selflessness. We thought we were casting him out of our lives, when really he was giving himself to us in the fullest way possible.

Friar Jude Winkler explains the lack of gratitude of the Israelites in the desert and the possible confusion of the serpent with Baal worship. Kenosis as the emptying of pride and possessions derives from Jesus act in becoming fully human. The Son of Man, lifted up on the Cross, is the exaltation to give people eternal life, Friar Jude concludes.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, cites George Maloney (1924–2005), a Catholic priest in the Russian Byzantine Rite, who shows that in Eastern Christian spirituality, there has always been a special accent on the gentleness and humility of the Word made flesh as He comes to serve us in order to reflect the infinite love of the Father. He serves us not in power but in the weakness of a suffering servant on the cross. This is the kenotic spirituality of the Eastern mystics who (in Saint Paul’s words, “He emptied himself,” Philippians 2:7) strove to live a life of non-violence and of gentle and humble service in imitation of the suffering servant.

The Eastern Fathers have always stressed in line with the vision of Saint Paul especially, that if we are in Christ we participate in His paschal victory over sin and death. . . . [The Spirit] effects the likeness of Jesus Christ within us . . . [drawing] out the potentiality locked within us, as in a seed, to become transfigured into the very Body of the Risen Lord, Jesus. . . . Resurrection is already ours; we have entered into a sharing already, an anticipation, of the future resurrection as we die daily to our own selfishness and rise to let the power of Jesus’ resurrection . . . direct our lives in greater self-sacrificing love toward our neighbors. . . .

The consequences of not being grateful are a buildup of resentment that leads saps our life. Jesus is our model for self emptying. Acceptance of His invitation to be “born again” is our resurrection to full life.

References


(n.d.). Numbers chapter 21 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/numbers/21
Philippians chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/philippians/2
(n.d.). John 3:16-17. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john3.htm
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved September 14, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
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