Florida Catholic | Bishop Barbarito’s Column

Knowing Christ Jesus

Published: 09.26.08

The Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians is a significant one for us to reflect upon during this Year of St. Paul. It is also significant for us as we approach our 25th year as a diocesan family in Palm Beach.

The Letter to the Philippians was one written to friends. With the exception of the Letter to the Thessalonians and the little personal note to Philemon, St. Paul began every one of his letters with a formal statement of his official position as an apostle. He did not do this in his letter to the Philippians. Of all the churches, the Church of Philippi was closest to Paul and he wrote as a friend to his friends.

New American Bible
Introduction to Philippians
Philippians Chapter 1
Philippians Chapter 2
Philippians Chapter 3
Philippians Chapter 4

While Paul did not introduce himself as an apostle to the Philippians, he used another title that was particularly pertinent for the letter. He referred to himself as a “slave of Christ Jesus.” Since slavery was a reality in the time of St. Paul, that word had a powerful significance to it. A slave was the possession of his master. This was the meaning that Paul understood by the term. Paul saw himself as the complete possession of Jesus Christ. He belonged totally to Christ and Christ was the beginning and the end of his existence. Paul lived for no other reason than for Jesus Christ.

A little further in the same Letter to the Philippians, Paul gave a deeper significance to the title “slave.” He referred to Christ as “a slave” as well. In the great “Philippians Hymn,” St. Paul exhorted: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:5-8).

How powerful and meaningful are these words of St. Paul for all of us. Jesus Christ became one of us so that God’s merciful love could be manifest to us and so that we could share the very life of God. God becomes a slave in order that we might have an intimate relationship as a friend with him. Before Jesus went to his death on the cross, he told his disciples at the Last Supper: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father” (Jn 15:14-15).

In the Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul tells us that the supreme good is “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8). St. Paul knew Christ because he knew the love of Christ, which was revealed in his becoming a slave and giving his life on a cross for all. St. Paul was totally possessed by this reality, which he fearlessly and zealously preached. In his homily opening the Year of St. Paul this past June, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, expressed well this overreaching conviction of St. Paul which was the center of Paul’s faith and life. The pope said: “His faith is the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a very personal way. It is the awareness that Christ did not face death for something anonymous, but rather for love of him – of Paul – and that, as the risen one, he still loves him; in other words, Christ gave himself up for him. Paul’s faith is being struck by the love of Jesus Christ, a love that overwhelms him to his depths and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an opinion about God and the world. His faith is the impact of God’s love in his heart.”

For us to know Christ Jesus is to know personally his love, who gave himself for each and every one of us as if we were the only ones ever to exist. What a tremendous reality: Christ would die for you if you were the only one who existed!

Paul’s knowledge of Christ’s love is best experienced in Paul’s acceptance of Christ’s mercy. Forgiveness is the ultimate sign of love, and acceptance of forgiveness is to love in return. It is not being critical of Paul to keep in mind at every stage of his apostolic life that Paul had to undergo a conversion to Christ. Paul, while always a devout man, was a persecutor of Christ and his church. He was responsible for the death of the first martyr of the church, St. Stephen. Paul was relentless in his persecution of Christ and his church before his conversion. It was to Paul that the Lord addressed the words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? ... I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5).

Nevertheless, Paul did change his ways and accepted God’s mercy for what he had done, to the extent that he became a proclaimer of this mercy and forgiveness to others. Paul was able to do this because he experienced God’s mercy himself. He was able to proclaim that his whole life was the fruit of God’s freely given and merciful love. This is indeed a great lesson for all of us in our lives. God loves us so much that there is nothing that can separate us from him, not even our greatest sins or faults. As long as we are willing to seek his forgiveness and to change, God forgives us. He wants nothing more than to forgive us.

St. Paul had another powerful message for his beloved friends in the Church of Philippi. It was about that of God’s eternal kingdom of heaven which awaits all of us. Paul told the Philippians and tells us: “I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14). Paul was familiar with great joy and with great suffering. He was familiar with sin and with God’s mercy. Paul knew that his life meant nothing without Christ and that his life would reach its culmination in heaven. This was Paul’s goal – this was the destination which he looked forward to with unrelenting hope.

Again, Paul told the Philippians, “For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil 3:8-9). Paul’s journeys were always directed to his ultimate journey, the kingdom of God in heaven. All of our journeys are directed toward the same. In this kingdom of heaven, Christ will possess all of us totally and completely. We will know him fully and perfectly as his friends, and every tear and suffering will be wiped from our existence forever.

St. Paul is not a figure of the past, but one who speaks to us today. As he spoke to his friends in Philippi, he speaks to us in southern Florida. He speaks the message that in Jesus Christ we find the meaning of our lives by knowing the depth of God’s merciful love, which brings us joy in this world and ultimately in the fullness of his kingdom in heaven. This is what he means by “knowing Christ Jesus.” Above all, the letter to the Philippians is a letter of joy – supreme joy. In fact, it has been termed the “Epistle of Joy.” Paul spoke of joy many times in the letter and it is a joy which comes from knowing Christ Jesus who gives meaning and purpose to our lives here and which will reach its culmination in heaven.

Let us continue to be confident in God and eager to support one another in Christ to build up his kingdom in this city of God as we journey on our way to his everlasting kingdom. The Eucharist united Paul to his friends in Philippi as it unites us in the fullest bond of unity in the one bread and body of Christ. May we experience the joy of knowing Christ Jesus who is the foundation of our lives and of our diocesan family, especially as we prepare to celebrate 25 years as a eucharistic people!

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