"At His Feet: Devoted Love" (Part
Four)
"Learn from me" (Mt. 11:29): "He emptied himself"
(Phil. 2:7A)
We have been
speaking about the personal, intimate, heart-felt experience of God in prayer
that is called knowledge of God. This knowledge is indispensable
for one's growth in devoted love, holiness, and intercession. We have been
created to know God personally. Yet, as intercessors we must realize that we
are to know the Lord also for the benefit of others. For, intercession
is always prayer for others. It is from the depths of devoted love and sanctity
that effective intercession comes forth. To know Jesus Christ is to know the
self-giving love of God in the world, for the world. To know Jesus is to
know the holiness of a heart that willingly accepts the cross for others.
To know Jesus is to know the self-emptying of the Eternal Word in the
world for the sake of salvation.
The mystery of
the Incarnation is about God and humanity 'coming together' as one in the
divine person of Jesus Christ; it is about the descent of God "in the form of a
slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin" (CCC 602) for the
purpose of the intercessory-saving mission of Jesus; it is about the emptying
of God (the second person of the Trinity) into a human nature, the enfleshment of the crucified Love of Jesus, the one
Mediator between God and humanity:
"[Jesus] did not cease to be God when he became a human being, but he renounced
all divine privileges--honor, glory, power--in order to become the obedient
servant of his Father's plans"
(Days of the Lord, vol. 2; p.
222)
St. Paul says this about Jesus: "He emptied himself" (Phil.
2:7A). Through the Incarnation the Eternal Word emptied himself to be with us
in a human nature in order to offer his life for us. This tells us something
profound about the "new humanity" that is present in Jesus--a "new humanity" we
are all called to participate in. For us, the path to this "new humanity"
entails a process of being emptied of "self"--hence, self-love, self-absorption,
and selfishness. For, love requires a constant self-renunciation if it is to
grow.
Jesus
emptied himself for the Father's will to be fulfilled through the offering
of his life for the salvation of souls. This is New Covenant Love:
"Jesus emptied himself to take upon himself the sin of
mankind. He emptied himself so that he could atone before the Father for all
that needed redemption" (Poustinia, by
Catherine Doherty, p. 120).
Now, Jesus desires to live the mystery of his Incarnation
through each of us. He wants to live his "desire" to do the Father's will, his
desire to please the Father in everything, and his desire to finish the
Father's work given to him (but now, through our humanity). In order to receive
the gift of the mystery of Jesus' Incarnation-- this mystery of Jesus to be
fulfilled now through my life--I must let go of "myself": "He must increase; I
must decrease" (John 3:30). Jesus' whole earthly life was a mystery of
redemption, culminating in the supreme offering of his life on the "altar" of
the cross as he took "our death upon himself" (CCC 713). His entire human life was a "yes" to God.
Now, intercessors must allow Jesus to continue to live his perpetual "yes" to
the Father through our human lives, and to allow Jesus to pray to the Father
for others from within our humanity.
Questions:
1) Am I allowing Jesus to live his self-emptying lifestyle
through my humanity?
2) Is there an area of my life that I am afraid of letting go
of?
Scriptures:
John 3:30; Gal. 2:19B-20; Phil. 2: 7A)
