NOTES for Php 2:5-11

We are accustomed to thinking that “man—that has a proud ring,” that humanity is the crown of creation, the most beautiful thing on earth. In today’s apostolic reading, which is 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, becoming human is a humiliation.

Christ took the form of a servant. The apostle says this so that we may sense what it would mean for a free person voluntarily to become a slave and be stripped of dignity. Who among us could do this? Who among us, out of love for our lesser brothers and sisters, would agree to become a kitten? Yet the distance between us and God is far greater. And it is precisely in His crossing that distance, in His humbling Himself (the Greek ταπεινόω means to humble or abase), that the greatness of His mercy is revealed to us.