Ezekiel 18:25-28; Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32

Today’s second reading contains one of the great pieces of early Christian verse. Often called the Christ Hymn, it (or most of it) is probably older than the Letter to the Philippians, something whith which the readers and hearers of that letter would have been familiar. A homily – still less an unpreached homilette – usually isn’t the place to go into the literary structure of a Scriptural passage, but here it’s quite important. They hymn is chiastic: that is, it resembles the Greek letter chi, which is shaped like an X. This is a technique one encounters in ancient documents in which the high cost of writing materials available at the time inspired the use of structural elements that highlighted what was important in a way that didn’t use many words. The parts of the text corresponding to the wide upper and lower parts of the X share similar themes, as do the parts corresponding to the narrowing portions of the X moving toward the center. And, at the center, is the heart of the text’s message.

Here, the beginning and end of the hymn (“…though he was in the form of God,” and “Jesus Christ is Lord…”) are both about the glory of Jesus as Son of God. At the heart of the chaism is the cycle of death-on-a-cross followed by or bound up with exaltation.

The Christ hymn is about the cycle of Jesus’ life on earth, and its cosmic implications, as well as, and most importantly for us, the way in which our own lives and persons baptized into Christ will share, and already do share, in that cycle, all of which is sometimes called the Paschal Mystery. Jesus chose to share a human life, undertaking both its joys and is sufferings and, ultimately, death, so that we can see the pattern by which God draws the universe toward its consummation in himself. This does not make anyone’s suffering any less real, but it immerses it, along with all our joys, into the life of Christ, and carries us forward on the current of that life into the reality of resurrection. Sometimes we experience this here and now, as painful things give rise to unexpectedly good things; mostly we we must await the fulfillment of all things in Christ to see this dimension of the Paschal Mystery in action. But this rhythm should draw forth from us both compassionate service to those most in need, and deep hope for us all.