11 Apr Thursday

A rapidly moving spring snow yesterday evening and last night. Yet it is not even noon and the side streets are dry. It’s like four seasons in one morning. Holy week, just like that, rapidly moves us through all the emotions of joy, horror, grief, loss, rejoicing!

Palm Sunday’s reading from the great Christological Hymn of Philippians moves from one extreme to another, But this sharp range of emotions, in the life of Christ and in the life of the disciple is not merely an emotion, but rather expresses the workings of the will, an unparalleled decisiveness in the dialogue and dynamic of the Father and the Son.

At the heart of what seems the Greek rhetorical chiastic structure, is the cross, bookend by a descent into this world and at the other end by an ascent to the Father. As Christ ascends at the end as Lord, the human descends to the knee in adoration and worship. Christ’s descent into this world, lifts us up to the world above, heaven. In some sense, the main actor in the entire hymn is perhaps the Father God, in and through him which all this happens.