“You have to look out for number one.”  “Take care of yourself.”  “Don’t let others take advantage of you.”  “It is a jungle out there and you have to look out for your own interests…survival of the fittest you know.”  “Everyone for themselves.”  “Take a backseat to no one.”  We have all heard these little pieces of advice whispered at one time or another by some well meaning amateur life coach trying to help us get ahead in life.  These little “words to live by” are the world’s wisdom based upon a worldview that emphasizes competition and limited resources.  I heard these words myself more than once as I was growing up.  The world wants to sell to our children its vision of rugged individualism, self-made persons, and success driven competitors, to help them survive out there in a tough and lonely world.

     In contrast to the wisdom the world whispers in the ears of persons growing up on the streets today we hear St. Paul exhorting his newly formed community of Christians at Philippi, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.” (Phil 2,3)  Wow, now that’s counter-cultural.  When we have grown up being fed on a steady diet of worldly wisdom emphasizing self-care, the words of St. Paul seem like craziness to us.  “Regard others as more important than yourselves…”  Hmmm.  Does that mean that we allow others to take advantage of us, that we don’t stand up for ourselves, that we are trampled upon in the world?  At first glance that is what it looks like to us.  It doesn’t sound like very wise or sound advice.  But St. Paul is asking us, in the unity of the Body of Christ, to see others’ interests as our own interests.  I am my brother’s keeper.  I am called to love others as I love myself and to look out for their interests as if they were my own.  It is not only about me but there is something greater than my interests in play here. As a Christian, my interests should be the same interests of Christ:  “Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus…”

     Jesus had one interest in his earthly life and that was to do the will of the Father.  “Not as I will, but as you will,” Jesus whispered to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane as he was considering the cup of suffering that he would have to drink.  He chose the will of the Father out of love for the Father who had so often expressed his love for his “Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Freedom allowed for him to allow the cup of suffering to pass him by, to say “no” to the Father, but love called him to drink from it, to say “yes”, in obedience to the Father’s will.  In reading the commentary on this week’s Gospel, I was struck by the comment of Erasmus Leiva-Merikakis, “Our greatest enemies are our illusions about ourselves.”  We too often think that we are doing the will of God when in fact we are pursuing our own interests.  At other times we fail to see how our own suffering and sacrifice can serve the interests of love.  We must surrender our own understanding and place our trust in the Father’s will for our lives.  The interest of God the Father is the salvation of all of his children, the new and everlasting life in the Spirit that his creation could share in when cleansed from the taint of original sin, the final victory to be won over death and suffering.  The Father asked the Son to make this his interest and place the interest of others before his own interest.  Jesus realized that he had been sent into the world to be faithful, not successful.  Love required that he subordinate his selfish interests to the interests of others.  Love required his “yes” to the Father in faith and love.

     Why would we ever want to follow the advice of St. Paul and consider others as more important than ourselves?  Only one reason – love.  Without love we are nothing.  I could gain the whole world but without love it would mean nothing.  Love asks that I lay down my life for others.  Love asks that I live my life in service to others.  Love asks that I not “compete” with others, as the world challenges me, but rather to “complete” others and the work of Christ Jesus by giving of myself in obedience to the will of the Father in love.  Jesus did it.  Now he will give us the grace to do it also.