Self-emptying

31st Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (6 November 2018)

Philippians 2:5-11

Luke 14:15-24

“His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself.”

Today's first reading gives one of the earliest hymns of the Church, where St Paul portrays Christ Jesus emptying himself totally, and not clinging to his Godhead. In fact, the above quoted words, in their fullness, can be applied not only to Jesus but also to the entire Trinity. The Three Persons live in a perfect and generous self-emptying (in Greek: kenosis). We can give a thousand names and more to the One, Two and Three of God: Infinity, Imminence and Intimacy; Father, Son and Spirit; Unconditional Love, Unconditional Forgiveness and Unconditional Presence.

But interestingly the names, energies and roles of the Three are interchangeable. The Father is not just the Unconditional Love, the Son and the Spirit too are. The Spirit is not just the Intimate One, the Son and the Father too are so. All is absolutely given to the other and let go of; but for the sake of our mind, it's helpful to identify this dynamism as three persons.

So as St Paul says we need to imitate Christ himself; we need to imitate God Himself in His generosity and self-emptying. We are drawn into the divine qualities so that we may cherish and enjoy God's life within us. The more we accept God as love-forgiveness-presence, we too want to do our best to love and forgive and be present to the other. We too feel the importance of self-emptying. Emptiness alone is prepared for fullness!

If we are still protecting ourselves and are just interested in securing our own self-image and identity, then we are not generous enough. Our ego perhaps is still at the centre of our lives. The moment we embrace God's mystery of self-emptying, then we too become so. We become the Fourth Person of the Trinity!

Some very good examples of self-empyting come from those persons who are differently abled. They teach us trust, communion, solidarity, relationship. The more they are vulnerable, the more they are in need of others. They profit from mutuality; they are always in relationship. Life teaches us the same. In the weakest and most fragile moments of our lives, we really feel the need for strength and support. At these moments, our relationship is at its best (or has the possibility of it).

Isn't this why today's gospel instructs us to go out quickly into the streets and alleys and open roads to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame: the differently abled?

The poor and the differently abled have ability to save us from our apathy and mediocrity. They can teach us the meaning of self-emptying. They can show us the true meaning of our Christian lives: to imitate God Himself in His generosity.

(For another reflection on the gospel passage, please see https://anthuvanmaria.blogspot.com/2018/08/attracted-by-god.html)