Year of St Paul If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or Pope Benedict XVI has declared June 2008 the letter to the the Spirit that we have in common, or – June 2009 a Year of St Paul in celebra- any tenderness and sympathy, then tion of the 2000th anniversary of the apos- Philippians tle’s birth. It is reckoned that St Paul was be united in your convictions and born between 7 – 10 a.d. The Holy Father united in your love, with a common explained that: purpose and a common mind, That is the one thing which would make me ‘The Apostle of the Gentiles, who ded- If there is anything you need, icated himself to the spreading of the completely happy. There must be no good news to all peoples, spent him- competition among you, no conceit; pray for it, asking for it self for the unity and harmony of all but everybody is to be self-effacing. with prayer and thanksgiving, Christians. May he guide us and pro- Always consider the other person to and that peace of God, tect us in this bimillenary celebration, be better than yourself, so that nobody which is so much greater helping us to advance in the humble thinks of other people’s interests than we can understand, and sincere search for the full unity of instead. In your minds you must be the will guard your hearts all the members of the mystical body same as Christ Jesus. and your thoughts, of Christ.’ Philippians 2:1–5 in Christ Jesus. This series of leaflets offers a brief intro- Philippians 4:6–7 duction to the letters of St Paul as heard n Christ you have renewed all things at Sunday Mass. They are intended both • and you have given us all a share in his for readers and members of the litur- riches. gical assembly to help them appreciate IThough his nature was divine, the context of the second reading and he stripped himself of glory encourage a greater familiarity with St and by shedding his blood on the cross Paul’s writings. he brought his peace to the world, Therefore he was exalted above all creation and became the source of eternal life The letter to •the Philippians to all who serve him. in the Sunday Lectionary Preface of Weekdays I The letter is proclaimed over Sundays 25– 2008–2009 28 in Year A. It is also heard in Advent, Lent Excerpts from The Jerusalem Bible© 1966 Darton, Liturgy Longman and Todd. Prayer © International Commission on and on Good Friday. English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with O f f i c e permission. Year of The introduction to the text was written by Nicholas King E NGLAN D sj. This leaflet is one of series to mark theYear of St Paul & W ALES prepared by the Liturgy Office, 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1PL © 2008 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England St Paul and Wales. www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Scripture St Paul’s letter to the Philippians This letter is written to one of those cities Not that all was perfect in the community. of autobiographical information (see 3:4- at the top end of Greece that were Paul’s At the beginning of the second chapter, 6). More importantly, it drives Paul to give first European foundations. Like Thes- we overhear Paul exhorting them to ‘think powerful expression to his passionate love salonica, it sat on the all-important Via the same thoughts’. That leads him into for ‘Christ Jesus my Lord’ (read slowly Egnatia, linking East and West, and was the lovely ‘hymn to Christ’ (though not through 3:7-14). This leads quite naturally very much a Roman city. You can read everyone agrees that it is a hymn), singing on to an exhortation to the Philippians to in Acts 16 about the foundation of the of Christ’s refusal to regard ‘equality with keep going: ‘become co-imitators of me, church, and the importance, at its begin- God’ as ‘a snatching-matter’, and culmi- brothers and sisters, and look at those who nings, of Lydia, the influential business- nating in the powerful affirmation that behave just like you have us as a model’ woman. ‘therefore God super-exalted him, and (if that sounds awkward, you must blame The letter is written from prison, and, gave him the gift of the name above every Paul; but the point he is making is clear clearly, Paul was not sure that he would [other] name’, and that ‘every tongue enough). emerge alive from his captivity. Despite should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to And two ladies of Philippi are being asked, that, this is an astonishingly joyful letter, the glory of God the Father’. perhaps with the assistance, as we have possibly the most cheerful that Paul wrote. And Paul immediately follows this with an seen, of Mrs. Paul, to ‘think the same And as you read, you may develop a suspi- exhortation to ‘work out your own salva- thoughts in the Lord’, which was precisely cion that the Philippians were his favourite tion, with fear and trembling’, in order to how he had introduced the ‘hymn to Christ’, church. They were the only church from rejoice with him. We learn something, back in chapter 2. He is obviously very whom Paul accepted money (see 4:15- too, about Paul’s co-workers Timothy fond of these ladies, whom he describes 18), and it is just possible that Paul’s wife and Epaphroditus, how they function as as ‘fellow-athletes with me in the gospel’, lived there (see 4:3, where Syzygos might important intermediaries in Paul’s rela- and does not spend long on this exhorta- be a name, or might rather mean ‘yoke- tionship with this much-loved group of tion, preferring to move on to exhort the fellow’). Christians. Philippians to rejoice and to pray; and then Certainly joy flows through the letter, even Occasionally we hear a flash of anger he thanks them for their generosity. It is though Paul has had a good deal to put from Paul (this is not unknown, of course, a lovely letter, and you could well spend up with; and this joy is not only because in some of his other letters!). See, for time reading it aloud to yourself. of Paul’s affection for the Christians at example, his remark about ‘dogs’ at 3:2; the Philippi, but also because of his passionate tone here has led some scholars to suggest love of Christ. Death for him only means that in its present form, the letter is actu- ‘to depart and be with Christ’; and that ally a compilation of several documents, seems a desirable enough option to him; but no two scholars can agree where the but, on the other hand, he also wants to be divisions come. As so often in Paul, the able to serve the Philippians. anger brings him to offer us a good deal