NOTES for Php 2:5-11
We are accustomed to thinking that “Man—that has a proud sound,” that man is the crown of creation, the most beautiful thing on earth. In today’s apostolic reading, always read on feasts of the Most Holy Mother of God, the apostle Paul tells us that for Christ, who is the Son of God, God by nature, to become human is a humiliation. Christ took the form of a servant. The apostle says this so that we might sense what it would be like for a free person voluntarily to become a slave and lose his dignity. Who among us could do this? Who among us, out of love for our lesser brothers, would agree to become a kitten? Yet the distance between us and God is far greater. It is precisely in the fact that He crosses this distance and humbles Himself (the Greek ταπεινόω means to abase, to humble) that the greatness of His mercy is revealed to us.