On emptying

"Christ Jesus ... though He was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself..."--Philippians 2:5-7 (NAB)

Merry Christmas! This passage, which is used in Evening Prayer I for Christmas, so perfectly expresses the reality at the heart of this mystery.

John Paul the Great, borrowing and elaborating on a term in Gaudium et Spes para. 24, wrote, "Love causes man to find fulfillment through the sincere gift of self. To love means to give and to receive something which can be neither bought nor sold, but only given freely and mutually." (Familiaris Consortio [Letter to Families], para. 11).

God, who is love (I John 4:8), demonstrates this principle for us in the Three Divine Persons continually and eternally giving themselves wholly and completely to each other. The Second Person, in turn, out of the Triune God's love for all humanity, made a "sincere gift of self" to us, emptying Himself for our sake of His glory and becoming a man, a baby, Jesus. What an utterly mind-boggling reality! That the Creator of the Universe should love us so much as to make a sincere gift of His Divine Self to us.

But John Paul wrote that "To love means to give and to receive..." Are we going to receive the incredible gift and make a sincere gift of ourselves back to Him in return? Are we going to respond to such love with love? The answer that each one of us makes to that question is the difference between Christmas being just a "winter holiday" and Christmas being a celebration of an indescribable exchange of love between you and God.

These days this passage on emptying has another meaning for me as I'm continuing the slow process of weeding and purging mentioned in my previous post. Even though I'm weeding in a physical way, I sense that God wants this to also involve an internal emptying, a clearing out of space inside my soul, so that there might be more room to receive Him. I don't want my heart and soul to be like the inn that had no room for His coming as a baby. I want it to be open wide to receive His gift of love.

Fr. Thomas Dubay cites a quote from Blessed Angela of Foligno in his book Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer that expresses this principle of giving and receiving so well. It's actually a statement that the Lord made to Angela: "Make yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent." (p. 74)

I don't know how to accomplish this internal emptying, this making of myself a capacity, other than to say to the Lord, "Yes, I want what You want. Please help me to cooperate with Your action in my heart, my soul, my life."

Dear Blessed Mother, you who were so completely given over to the Lord that you were able to receive Him in a way far more profound than any human being ever has, please pray for me, that I, too, may empty myself completely into Him and receive Him in whatever way He chooses to give Himself to me.