From prison, Paul pleaded with his Christian brothers and
sisters to "live a life worthy" of their calling.
Paul then describes the type of conduct he is urging:
humility, gentleness, patience.
Jesus himself exalts humility in the Gospel. Paul now urges the same humility that Jesus
taught and showed us on the cross.
Humility was an attitude that the pagan world despised, yet it is first
among virtues for Christians. The Greek word used by both Paul and Jesus uses
for humility,
tapeinophrosyne ,
literally means, thinking myself insignificant and lowly, to regard others as
more important than ourselves. To
imitate Jesus’ humility, early Christians would wash each other’s feet, as
Jesus did at the last supper…have you washed anyone’s feet recently? Have you
stooped low to serve?
Paul next urges gentleness or meekness. Meekness doesn’t mean shy or merely
introverted. Meekness doesn’t mean being
a pushover, nor does it mean being overly pushy and overbearing. Scripture
describes the truly wise as also truly meek. The meek consider things from God’s
perspective before acting and speaking. How can we grow in meekness? By growing
in wisdom, studying faithfully the Word of God.
Thirdly, Paul says, be patient. We aren’t to have
short-fuses. The scriptural word here literally means, to be “long-tempered” as
opposed to short-tempered. The Psalms even describe God as “slow to anger”. We
should patiently put up with the faults and idiosyncrasies of others, and
practice self-restraint—keeping our impulses and reactions at bay. Likely, the
person that you have the hardest time remaining patient with, is the person God
is calling you to pray for and to love all the more.
Paul explains the reason for these virtues: humility, gentleness,
and patience help us to strive after the unity which should be a hallmark of
our relationships and of our Church.
Think of how many relationship are broken because humility,
gentleness, and patience are not practiced among Christians. Since a profound
unity exists between Christians through our baptism, we need to live a life
worthy of our calling. We have been
invited to witness to the world through our love for one another. May we live humbly, gently, and with
self-restraint today in imitation of our Lord for the glory of God and
salvation of souls.
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