Highly exalt

"Being obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8).

Paradoxically, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, accomplished the most on the cross precisely when His divine hands were nailed with spikes. Why? Because He was obedient to the will of His Father in heaven.

Yet we constantly think that so much depends on us – that without us our families, communities, or the Church could not function. We sometimes overwork ourselves because we are expected to show how needed and important we are in this world.

Jesus on the cross teaches us humility and obedience. Sometimes more good can be achieved by saying nothing and doing nothing. The Son of God on the cross, like a sick person bound to a bed, only prays: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).

This prayer of Jesus rises from earth to heaven throughout all ages and is still most relevant today. Children die because of wars and perish from hunger, while some state leaders and the wealthy continuously produce ever-new military systems.

The question may arise in our minds: does the Lord God not see this, and does He allow all of this? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

This is not about physical death, which sooner or later will be the lot of each of us. Jesus assures His disciples that they will not perish spiritually. His disciples are not overwhelmed by the madness of war and hatred, wealth and workaholism – the madness of the rat race and the pursuit of prosperity. His disciples will be delivered from all of this under one condition: that they allow their selfishness to be nailed to the cross.

If they understand that sometimes in life one must stop and pray for our brothers and sisters who understand nothing – to whom it seems that life on earth is so precious that they cannot even kneel beneath the cross of Jesus Christ. Who no longer carry this cross with them or hang it on the walls of their homes, because they consider it all old-fashioned, inadequate for contemporary conditions.

This spiritual desert, which can be seen with the naked eye around us, needs living water flowing from the Heart of Jesus – from this Heart that was pierced on the cross 2000 years ago, but which also today experiences pain and rejection.

Despite this, God continues to "highly exalt him and bestow on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:9-11).