Emptied….Exalted

Focus on one word from the second reading: Emptied- St. Paul said that the Lord Jesus emptied Himself – have you ever experienced this in your life – we want to be filled, grow up, be stronger, acquire skills, knowledge, relationships, gain influence, contacts, good reputation, acquire money, possessions, grow in virtue, become wiser and happy – life on the contrary seems to empty us – maybe our health not what we wish, haven’t found success or financial security we want – marriage or relationships not what we hoped for – maybe a loved one has passed, and left a painful hole in our life – sometimes after a stage of filling up, it seems like we are being emptied – sometimes, some of that is the work of the devil – just like the way the devil attacked Jesus, he tries to humiliate us, destroy us, sometimes through the attacks of others, sometimes by tempting us – sometimes it is even more mysterious – seems like in my spiritual life I should be getting better and better – seems when we are really trying to follow the Lord, we are making rapid progress, and growing quickly – but later on  when staying on the path of following Jesus, it seems to be getting harder and harder – sometimes instead of feeling like were getting stronger, we begin to feel weaker – instead of feeling holier and more spiritual, we feel more sinful and miserable – we expect to understand things better and better, but it becomes more mysterious, or obscure – St. John of the Cross spoke of the Dark  Night – when someone begins to follow Jesus and continue on that path, they begin to enter a dryness, and a time of obscurity that he calls the Dark Night – instead of feeling richer and fuller they feel poorer and empty – soul feels like its’ been stripped – it consists of the living death of the cross, both in our senses and in our spirit – in our exterior and interior life – the big danger in our spiritual life is our spiritual pride – it presents itself as holiness – in the gospel, the persons Jesus struggled with were not the ones who realized they were very sinful, it was those who felt they were very just, very holy – so Jesus has to let us experience our weakness to protect us from spiritual pride – when we ask Him why He doesn’t take something from us, He lets us experience it over and over, not because He doesn’t hear us, but because He is purifying us – so we have the impression that we’re getting farther and farther away, but we feel less, because God is humbling us – He is emptying us so He can fill us with Himself – He has to empty us in order to purify us – a very mysterious path –it doesn’t make sense humanly –  it’s a divine path – to understand we have to look at the life of Jesus – St. Paul summarized the whole life of Jesus – “have in you the same attitude as Christ Jesus” – ”Jesus although He was in the form of God, did not regard equality something to be grasped” – our ego is always wanting to grasp dignity – Jesus didn’t grab onto that, rather emptied Himself – taking the form of a slave – coming to human likeness – truly became human – He humbled Himself – becoming obedient – if anyone shouldn’t have to obey, it’s Jesus – we don’t like to obey, we like to be independent – Jesus became obedient unto death – and death on a cross – but that’s not the end – because He did this, God greatly exalted Him – He humbled Himself and then God exalted Him – “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in Heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” – so this extraordinary path is what St. Paul said should be our path – so a question, is it wrong for you to want to be exalted? – yes and no – it all depends on God’s will – it’s wrong when we want to exalt ourselves, by our ego and pride – Jesus didn’t use His power to exalt Himself – but God did exalt Him, and God wants to exalt you – God wants to reveal the truth of who He has destined you to be – St. Paul says in letter to the Ephesians,  “He has created you for the praise of the glory of His grace” – He wants to glorify you, exalt you as His child – as a divine child above the angels – the angels are not children of God – He wants us to become His children to share His glory forever – this is different from Our Blessed Mother, who was raised up to Heaven by God and was exalted – this gives us hope, if we live the emptiness with Jesus, it becomes the path of exaltation – emptiness so He can fill us – He is calling us on this path – so we ask our Blessed Mother to help us – it depends on us to have the humility to trust the obedience to let ourselves be emptied so God can greatly exalt you, too.