 Good morning. It is such an honor to be with you all. This is a highlight of the year for me, one of the highlights of the year. This is such an exciting conference and it's so great to see so many first-time attendees. So I wanna welcome all of you, but I also wanna welcome all of those people who I've seen over the years. I've been coming to this conference for a very long time now and it's always great to see familiar faces. So thank you so much for being here and thank you so much for having me. Before we get underway, I think I'd like to start with a prayer because if we're talking about Jesus and we're not talking to Jesus, we've missed the entire point of an Applied Biblical Studies conference, amen? So why don't we begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen? Heavenly Father, we come together as your family and we ask you to pour out your grace upon us this morning, this afternoon, and throughout this conference. We ask you to help us come to a deeper love for you by studying your word in sacred scripture. We ask you to set our hearts on fire with the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who inspired the book of Philippians. Through the hand of Paul, we ask you, Lord, to help us become more like Christ in imitating Paul who laid down his life as Christ gave himself for the church. And we ask you in particular to help us find ways to do that in the concrete, not only in the abstract. Help us, Lord, to be empowered, to be energized, to be enabled by what we study here to love you more deeply and by the gift of that same Spirit who inspired this book to lay down our lives and offer it as a fragrant offering as St. Paul describes in Philippians. And we ask all of this in Jesus's name, St. Paul, pray for us in the name of the Father, end of the Son, end of the Holy Spirit, amen. Well, I'd like to begin by looking at a section of Philippians chapter one. I've been assigned to Philippians chapter one and I'd like to look at a section in this chapter that really describes a key dilemma for St. Paul. Although when you read the section of Philippians one, it doesn't appear that Paul is all that vexed, all that anxious in the verses leading up to this section, Philippians one, 19 through 25, and you all should have a handout. Did everyone get a copy of the handout? And before I forget, I should tell you that if you go by the Verbum table over in the JC Williams Center, they've taken this handout and they've inserted it into Logos Bible Software, Verbum Software, and now all of the Bible verses and the Catechism and the Greek texts, all of these things are linked to various resources and it makes it very easy to use on that software. So I do wanna encourage you to check that out. But in the verses preceding this section, Paul talks about his imprisonment and his suffering. And so he says, yes, I shall rejoice. And you read that and you almost feel like someone needs to let Paul in on the fact that he's supposed to be suffering. He's supposed to be in prison, facing hardship. And yet that's not the tone of this letter at all. Now I gotta tell you, this is surprising for me. It's difficult for me because I don't handle adversity well. I really don't. Life is full of all kinds of trials and challenges. Now oftentimes they are blessings in the last couple of weeks on June 8th. I guess not just a couple of weeks ago, but on June 8th, my wife and I welcomed a new baby into the world and it is a time to rejoice, amen. It's baby number five. Now everybody's not so excited for me, right? Thank you. And so I've gotta tell you, this letter that where Paul is talking about rejoicing in suffering is particularly applicable in this time of my life. Childbirth is hard. It's painful. Let me tell you, this is our fifth one and this is my wife's fifth C-section. And it's excruciating. I mean, I gotta get up early in the morning, drive her to the hospital, right? I got a wheel or bags in for her and then we gotta sit and fill out all this paperwork. She does all the paperwork. I just kinda stand by, but it is so boring. There's no internet connection. I can't do anything on my phone. I can't check my Facebook. I just gotta stand there and watch it all. And then we finally go into the room and then that's where things really start to progress and they give my wife an IV and all sorts of medical procedures are performed on her and it's really difficult to watch. It goes on and on and on, you know? And they don't really have a place for me to sit, you know? So I just have to stand there. And then there's the operation itself. It's so uncomfortable. I have to wear all of this gear when I go in there and then the baby comes and that's great. It's exciting to hold the baby, but then it's really hard after that. I mean, I get very little sleep. And worst of all, in the hospital that we go to, they don't have any Diet Coke. It's only Diet Pepsi. I mean, what are they thinking about? I don't handle adversity well. St. Paul is in prison and he's rejoicing. And as I was excited and preparing for the birth of our child, I was reading through Philippians one in preparation for this weekend and I was really struck by Paul's joy in the midst of all of these trials. He says, yes, and I shall rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. In the Greek word there is sotaria. Now that's the word we often translate salvation. In fact, just a few verses later, in the next paragraph, we have that word and it's translated salvation. So what is Paul talking about? Is he talking about his desire to be delivered from prison? Yes, I'm confident that I will be delivered out of prison. Or is it something more? Is Paul confident in his friend's prayers in that they will lead to not just his deliverance from prison, but from a greater kind of deliverance? I think we could read it at both levels with profit. He says, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I should not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. So note, Paul isn't necessarily saying that in order for Christ to be glorified, in order for him to rejoice, he has to be delivered from prison. No, there's another sort of salvation that he's also equally, if not more, actually more concerned about. In verse 21 he says, and this is one of my favorite lines in the whole epistle, for to me live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor in Greek, it's karpos ergu for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, and just a sideline, by the way, non-Catholic Christians and Jehovah Witnesses will sometimes tell you that there is no life after death, but after death we go into a kind of soul sleep. Anybody ever hear that before? Well, some people actually think that that's what Paul teaches in the New Testament, but those people clearly haven't read Philippians, because Paul believes that if he dies, he will go and be with Christ. And he says for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Now this is a very rich passage. There's so much we could say about it. The first thing I'd like to highlight though is the way Paul's teaching certainly reflects that of his Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's language of rejoicing and suffering is recognized by many scholars as an allusion to Jesus' teaching in the gospels, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5, 11, Jesus says, "'Blessed are you when men revile you "'and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil "'against you falsely on my account.'" Rejoice, Cairo, it's the same word that Paul uses. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. Here St. Paul is in prison and he is mindful of the teaching of Jesus that when we are persecuted, we should rejoice because it is in that persecution that we are being conformed to the image of our Lord. Now it's easy to know that, it's another thing to put it in practice. I remember when I first really caught fire for my faith, I was in junior high and I went to a Catholic school and in this Catholic school, there was in the back of our classroom a kind of coat closet and students could hang up different posters, things that they liked on the inside of the closet so when you closed the doors, you wouldn't see them. Well, one of the students brought in a poster from this rock band that had an image of Jesus Christ on the cross being devoured by a satanic dragon and the teacher permitted him to hang it on the closet in the back of the classroom. Now, I was just a little kid and I was getting excited about my faith and so filled with righteous indignation, all right? I decided to use my opportunity for a class presentation to call out the students for posting this thing in the back of the classroom and I spoke with all kinds of zealous fervor. After I was done, I understood that he was not very happy with me and so I was about to go home and one of our mutual friends came over to me and said, okay, this guy, he's really upset with you and he and a bunch of his other friends are gonna jump you on your way home and so I thought to myself, well, this is horrible, why? And so I decided to take the long way home around the backside of the school to get home and when I got home, I was so sad because I thought to myself, well, there I go, I'm giving this great talk on how we need to be firming the gospel and how we need to embrace Jesus but when the rubber hits the road, what do I do? I take the back way home and I was devastated and my uncle who was a priest called me up and told me that it was probably a good idea for me to avoid getting beat up but oftentimes we realize that when things heat up we oftentimes flee yet Jesus teaches us that it is in those times that we're being persecuted that we're suffering for our faith that we should rejoice. I thought it might be appropriate to talk about this topic given the way our country is going all right because it seems like persecution is on the horizon in many places, right? And we need to follow the example of St. Paul here in rejoicing and suffering but I'd like to even hone in a little bit more on Paul's language and try to unpack what it is he's saying because there's a deeper element of Paul's teaching that relates to Jesus' teaching that we might often miss in fact I've missed for most of my life. Let me hone in on this phrase in verse 21 for to me live is Christ and die is gain. Now the Greek word there is fascinating. The Greek word there is kerdos and it actually is the word that means profit like you make a financial profit. In fact it's a term that Paul uses in another place in Philippians. This term is really on his mind. He says I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse, scuba law in the Greek. It's a term that doesn't just mean trash but it can mean like excrement. It's the stuff you put in the sewer, the stuff you would flush down the toilet. For Paul he says everything that he's gained and in context he's talking about his righteousness according to the law and his status as a Pharisee. All of this he says he counts as refuse. Why? In order that I might gain, there's that word again, kardano it's the verbal form, that I might gain Christ. Paul speaks of salvation here in economic terms. That, the BDAG, a very well known lexicon, dictionary of the Greek language explains that kardos means quote, that which is gained or earned a gain profit. Something like that. Now a lot of non-Catholic Christians will accuse Catholics of talking about earning their salvation. Anybody ever hear that kind of criticism before? Well we shouldn't talk about how we earn our salvation. That would be contrary to Paul. Well actually no, Paul actually uses that language. He uses the language of earning, of profit to describe salvation in Philippians. The term is used in Titus 111 where Paul is talking about the false teachers. He explains that they're upsetting whole families by doing what? By teaching for base gain. They're making a profit on their false teaching. Now it's fascinating. This is the same kind of language Jesus uses when he talks about rejoicing in suffering in Matthew 5. I already read the passage but look right above on the handout one more time. Verse 12, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. Now the Greek word there is mistos. And the English translation which most English translations kind of reached their stable form a long time ago sort of obscures that economic imagery, that language of earning. Because when you hear reward you don't think of like your wage, your payment. When we hear the word reward today we think of something that someone might give us if we find their lost dog. If we do something above and beyond the call of duty. But if you go back and look at the way that term reward has been used in the English language at the time when the revised standard version and other additions of the Bible were finalized that term was synonymous with wage. It's very interesting. I'm gonna draw here from the work of a friend of mine named Nathan Eubank who is also drawing on work done by a professor at Notre Dame named Gary Anderson. Nathan Eubank has also written up some of his work. This is in his dissertation but he also summarized it in a fantastic article in the letter in spirit journal that's published by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. If you wanna look it up, volume nine has a great little summary of his work. It's a fantastic article. And one of the things he points out is that that word that Jesus uses here reward your reward will be great in heaven, mistos. It's actually the term that elsewhere is used in Matthew in terms of a wage. For example, in Matthew 20 the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man who owns a field and he pays workers at the end of a long day of working in the field. Now we read in Matthew 28 and when evening came the owner of the vineyard, who's the image of God said to his steward, call the laborers and pay apoditomy their wages, pay them their wages. In the Greek word there is mistos, that same word Jesus uses in Matthew five. Apoditomy, it's a term that's often used for paying someone for renumeration of labor and also mistos, it's the term that's used for wages. This is the language Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount when he's talking about salvation and when he's talking about what believers can expect as a result of their fidelity. Now this economic language is certainly not the central image of the Christian faith. Certainly the central image of the Christian faith is the Trinity and at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount I would submit is the imagery of God's fatherhood which appears 17 times there in Matthew's gospel. So certainly this is not the overarching concern. Our father is the way the Lord's prayer begins but this economic language is not inconsequential to understanding Jesus' teaching because the our father goes on to include the petition, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. Here Jesus is describing sin as a debt. So if you get payment for good deeds then what do you get as a result of sin? You accrue debt, you incur debt I should say. This is the language of Second Temple Judaism it's the language of the Old Testament. For example in Proverbs 1917, we read he who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and the Lord will repay him for his deed. So if you do a good deed in particular almsgiving, it's prominent in this sort of complex in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism when you give to others what happens, well then you earn sort of credit from God. When you do a good deed that counts towards if you will your heavenly bank account. In fact you can see this in the book of Sirach whoever honors his father atones for sins and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who lays up treasure and the language there of laying up treasure it's the language of storing up, of saving away. For kindness to a father will not be forgotten and against your sins it will be credited to you. It will be remembered in your favor as frost and fair weather. Your sins will melt away. So do good, do good, give to the poor and what will happen? You will lay up treasure. You will shore up your credit account. It's not your earthly bank account but the imagery implies that there's some sort of heavenly accounting. And this is the language that Jesus uses in the gospels in Matthew 6. Jesus says, do not store up theysoridzo for yourself, treasures in heaven. That Greek word there store up. It's like in the English it's lay up in the RSV. I've changed translation here a little bit to help it reflect the meaning a bit better. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, riches on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. Here's that idea of that heavenly account. Jesus also uses similar language in Matthew 6 and he particularly in particular he ties it to almsgiving. Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward, no misthos, no payment, no wage from your father who is in heaven. Thus when you give alms sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by men. Truly I say to you they have received their misthos, their payment. But when you give alms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will apoditomy you. He will pay you, he will give you renumeration for your work. In fact the language is also found in Matthew 16. Jesus talks about the second coming and he says the son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his father and then he will repay apoditomy every man for what he has done. At least there the RSV uses the language of repayment. Now turn the page on your handout. I've been talking a lot about Jesus' teaching and you might be thinking to yourself, wait a minute isn't this a conference on Paul? Well yes it is in particular Philippians but I just want to highlight the fact that Paul uses this language as well. The same kind of language Jesus is using the Sermon on the Mount is found in Paul's writing. Romans 2, you are storing up the Saridsace wrath for yourself. You're not storing up treasure, you're storing up wrath for yourself. On the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed for he will render apoditomy to every man according to his works. The same term that's used in Matthew 16 that's translated in the RSV, he will repay each man according to his works. Likewise Paul describes Christ's work of redemption in economic terms and by the way that shouldn't be surprising. The term redeem is an economic term. Oftentimes the term is used to buy someone out of their debt, out of for example debt prison. In the ancient world people didn't go to prison for 10 years or more. They went to prison if they owed a debt and they were forced to find some way to repay it. Oftentimes someone would have to pay the fee and get them out of prison. Well St. Paul explains that we are in debt, that we owe a debt that we cannot pay. He says, and you were dead in your trespasses in Colossians 2. He goes on to say, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. That's the English standard version. What does Christ's death do? God has canceled the record of our debt. And perhaps everybody here is familiar with Roman 623 for their wages of sin is death. So St. Paul uses this language as well. Now, before I go any further, I've gotta be really clear. Some people are gonna hear this talk and say, this is what I've always suspected. Catholics are Pelagians. They do believe that they earn their salvation. They don't believe in grace after all. Now it was a lot of fun for me, Dr. Hahn mentioned this, but I got to contribute to this book, The Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Four views on The Role of Works at the Final Judgment. And the other contributors included Tom Schreiner, who's a well-known Protestant reformed exegete, and James D.G. Dunn, another very well-known New Testament scholar, American New Testament scholar. And one of the things I got to do in the book was sort of lay out a Catholic understanding of salvation, but I wanted to do it in a way that would maybe reveal the fact that the Catholic Church can shed a lot of light on passages that really are uncomfortable for non-Catholic positions. So for those who believe that we're, say, by faith alone and that our works play no role in our salvation, that our works themselves do not have an instrumental role in our salvation, that they are not meritorious in any way. For those people, I wanted to highlight passages that are sort of problematic, right? Now, last year, Grant Petrie talked about, I think it was last year, maybe it was the year before, he gave an overview of Catholic soteriology, and I don't wanna rehash that whole issue. But let me just be really clear that in Matthew's Gospel, it's very clear that, yes, disciples will do good works that will count towards their salvation, that will be rewarded, but that's only because of the work of Christ. The first thing Jesus says in the whole Gospel of Matthew, that would be a big deal, right? What are his first words? What is the first thing Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew? John the Baptist sees him in the river Jordan, he says, this is not right, I shouldn't baptize you. Jesus says to him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, in his work, Nathan Eubank shows that the imagery here likely relates to that idea of a sort of heavenly bank account. And what Jesus is doing is showing us that his work, especially in being baptized, which is a symbol of his death, his work is fulfilling all righteousness. And throughout the Gospel, we recognize that believers are in union with Christ. So in Matthew 2540, Jesus says, truly I say to you, as you did it for one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Believers are brothers of Christ. And whatever you do for a believer, you do for Christ because Christ is united to believers. Jesus says, he who hears you, I'm sorry, he who receives you receives me. So it's very clear in the Gospel of Matthew, if you read it carefully, that there isn't a competitive account between what Jesus does and what believers do because Christ is present in the believer. The only reason that we can do works that are meritorious, that earn a reward is because in Matthew's Gospel, Christ has fulfilled all righteousness. He's fulfilled that heavenly bank account. And now we can be united with him and participate in his mission. And this was made especially clear to St. Paul. So now we're going to transition and show how this same imagery is now found in St. Paul. So when St. Paul is on the road to Damascus, he is struck, he encounters Christ, and he hears a voice, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he says, who is it, Lord? Who are you, Lord, that I'm persecuting you? And he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And Saul could say, now, wait a minute, I'm not persecuting you, I'm just persecuting those lazy prists. Wait a minute. You mean by persecuting them? And here is, as Sion Kim and other New Testament scholars show, here is really the origin of St. Paul's mystical body, ecclesiology, of his view of the church as the body of Christ. Christ is now living in the church and living in believers, and so St. Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And likewise, in Philippians, now returning to the book we're looking at here, in Philippians chapter two, St. Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in her ghetto. He's energizing. He's at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So what is salvation for St. Paul? Salvation is not a spectator sport. Salvation is not something that Christ does, and he says, all right, now you guys go sit in the bleachers and root me on. No, Christ invites us out onto the field. Christ is now working in us. Is Paul a Pelagian? Does he believe that we work out our salvation and we earn our salvation apart from grace? Of course not. Why is it possible that we can be saved? It is only because of the grace of Christ, right? Now, to be clear, this informs St. Paul's vision of his persecution. And now I'd like to return to Philippians 1. St. Paul says in Philippians 1-3, I thank my God, in the Greek word there is eukaristeo, in all my remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership, for your quinoa, and the gospel, that word partnership could be translated communion, and the gospel from the first day until now. Notice for Paul's salvation is not just about him and Jesus. Christ is united to all believers. All believers are in this together. There's a quinoa communion here, a participation together in the work of Christ. And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Why is St. Paul so sure of this? St. Paul says, I'm sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. What gives St. Paul this kind of confidence? Well, St. Paul believes once you're saved, you're always saved. No, I don't think so. Eternal security is a doctrine that many non-Catholics believe in, that once you're saved, you can't lose your salvation. But that is not what St. Paul says. For example, in 1 Corinthians 9, St. Paul talks about how he pummels his body lest he himself be disqualified from the race. St. Paul knows that he himself is not necessarily assured of his own salvation. That it is possible to lose one's salvation. So why is Paul so confident that the good work that has begun in believers will be brought to completion? Well, let's look at that. He says, it is right for me to feel thus about you, because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers, soon Koinonus, with me, Koinonia, that same word, communion, with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense, Apologia, that's where we get the word apologetics, and confirmation of the gospel. He explains that the Philippians are partakers with him of grace in his imprisonment. Now, how is Paul's imprisonment an opportunity of grace for the Philippians? That's a good question, right? How is Paul being in prison an opportunity of grace? Well, you might say it's because it gives the Philippians greater confidence to proclaim the message of the gospel, but there's more to it, I think, than just that. There's so many things I'd like to say about this section, but I'm going to have to move quickly here. In this section, we have many illusions to the Eucharist, I think. My God, there's that word Eucharist there, and then Paul talks about communion in Christ. It sounds a lot like what Paul says about the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 10. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not a participation, coinonia in the blood of Christ. The bread which we break is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake coinonia of the one bread. In fact, you can see Paul's emphasis on unity, on the partnership in the gospel, and communion in the gospel right from the outset of the epistle, where Paul talks about his co-workers, something that's very unusual in Greco-Roman epistles. One scholar looked at 645 examples of papyrus letters, and only six of all those letters do we have examples of a letter writer mentioning his co-workers, other people who are writing with him. St. Paul has a uniquely ecclesial outlook here. At least in the ancient world. St. Paul has a unique approach to writing letters, where he emphasizes those with him. Why I think Anthony Thysselton says it best, he says, Paul does not perceive himself as commissioned to lead, or to minister as an isolated individual. Why? Well, we are all united in Christ, and that union in Christ is especially for St. Paul related to, or affected we could say, by our Eucharistic participation. St. Paul goes on to say, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that I may hear of you, that you stand firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Engaged in the same conflict, which you saw and now hear to be mine. St. Paul talks about how the Philippians are sharing in his suffering. Now, of course, we could talk about redemptive suffering here, and Matt Leonard is going to relate that in the talk in a workshop later on. St. Paul believes that all of us, as one body, are united in Christ, and so our sufferings redound when they're united to Christ to the benefit of the whole body. We see that in Colossians 1.24. If you look on page 3, in the last page of the handout, the second Bible verse, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church. In a very concrete way, Paul sees the Philippians participating in his suffering. There's a very clear way St. Paul tells the Philippians they can share in his ministry, and they can express their union with Christ. Earlier, I mentioned the economic language that Paul uses. To die is gain, what he talks about is fruitful labor. Now that language of fruitful labor, carposs in Greek, it can be understood in terms of a crop, but it also can have the meaning of a yield, an advantage, a gain or profit. I've laid that out there on the handout. Paul describes his ministry in terms of fruitful labor, of fruitful harvest, Philippians 1.9, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness, which come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. That's Philippians 1. Paul's ministry is a ministry that involves a harvest of righteousness, as he says later on in 2 Corinthians. In a very concrete way, Paul talks about that ministry, that fruitful labor. He goes on to talk at the end of Philippians about, guess what, almsgiving. Remember, if on the one side salvation is understood in terms of gaining a profit, the flip side of that is recognizing that in order to enter into that heavenly profit, in order to receive that heavenly profit, we have to renounce earthly profit. We have to renounce earthly goods. And so St. Paul describes how it is that the Philippians share in his ministry. Now, I've got to tell you, it's only been recently how much I've been noticing almsgiving in the New Testament. It's in the Gospel of Matthew, it's all over Paul. Perhaps it's Pope Francis' pontificate that's shedding a greater light on this theme for me. But it's everywhere you look. And I'll be honest, in the past I haven't really wanted to think very much about almsgiving. It's just not all that exciting. It's just not all that theologically complex. And yet the New Testament comes back to it time and time again. I also don't like to think about it because it has implications. That I am not necessarily all that comfortable with. St. Paul tells the Philippians, yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. St. Paul has talked about how they share in the grace of his imprisonment and how they share in his ministry. And certainly they do that by union with Christ, that is affected in the Eucharist. But Paul recognizes that they do share in his ministry in a very concrete way. He says he's confident that the good work that God began in them would be brought to completion. Why? What evidence is there for Paul's hope? I would submit to you the answers found in Philippians 4. And John Bergsman is going to talk about Philippians 4, but I cleared this with him. He's not going to talk about this part of the chapter. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you, Philippians, yourselves, know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into Coinonia, partnership, Cornineo, no church entered into partnership with me in the accounting of giving and receiving, except you only. So only you entered into this accounting. It's a financial term. The RSV obscures it, but the Greek makes it clear. For even in Thessalonica you've heard of Paul's letters to the Thessalonians. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help once again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit. Notice, Paul is saying it's not the financial contribution so much that I appreciate. What I really appreciate, what I'm really happy to see, what I rejoice in, is that you have given me this money, and now what has happened? It accrues to your credit. You have accrued credit. You have gained credit. It is credited to your account. He says, I have received full payment and more. I am filled having received from aprophoditus the gifts you sent. A fragment offering. A sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And then get this. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. So yes, you were once rich, but now you gave of your wealth. And that giving was a clear expression of your sacrificial offering to Christ. Have you ever heard the phrase, put your money where your mouth is? I think that's what Paul is saying. Because it's really easy for us to talk about faith and trust. But the reality hits us when we start applying that to our lives financially. Do we really trust in God or do we trust in our own work, the finances, the money that we have been able to gain through the work of our hands? Do we trust in our work? Do we worship the work of our hands? That's what you call idolatry. Or do we really trust in God? St. Paul is inviting the Philippians to give themselves to Christ in emptying their wallets. Now you might say, well, yeah, but St. Paul is clear, you know, we have to be careful about doing that, but you know, we don't want to go overboard, you know? That's the way I've always read those books. I think that's good, you know, we should give something, you know, a dollar bill. That's good. But that's not St. Paul's philosophy. Look at 2 Corinthians 8. St. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 8. We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God which has been shown in the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and liberty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part. For they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means. Now you can understand this in 2 ways as Thomas Aquinas says. They gave according to their means, to their ability, you know, to their human ability to give, but God gave them even greater ability by grace. That's certainly, I think, the proper reading of this. But you can also read this as Thomas Aquinas says, as pointing out the quantity of their gift. They gave according to what they had and then even more than what they had of their own free will. Why? They gave more than they actually had the capacity to give. Why? Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. Mother Teresa used to talk about the importance of giving till it hurts. Famously Mother Teresa came to America and was astonished at how poor our country is. Why? Can't you see the skyscrapers? Can't you see all of the wealth in America? No, Mother Teresa had a spiritual perspective. She recognized that true wealth is not what is stored up on earth, where the moth and the rust consume. She recognized true wealth is found in heaven. And it's especially linked to almsgiving. And so how did Mother Teresa live her life? Think of the great saints of the church and the great piety and holiness. We think of, in our own day, Mother Teresa. Or we think of St. Francis where we are today. Franciscan University. Francis wanted to become a knight and instead he divested himself of his wealth. Why? So he could gain treasure in heaven. And why does he do this? Because what St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8 is the rationale for all almsgiving, according to St. Paul. He says, Why do we give alms? It's an expression of our belief in Christ's work of redemption. We owed a debt that we could not pay. And so Christ became poor for our sakes. And so what do we do? Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we do what ancient Jews did at Passover. We celebrate our redemption. When Jews celebrated Passover, read the Gospel of John, you'll find what did they do at Passover time? They gave money to the poor. Why? Why did they give money to the poor at Passover? What did God do at the time of Passover? He redeemed them. That's an economic term. He bought them out of slavery. He delivered them out of the debt of their captivity, which ultimately is an image of sin. And so at Passover time to celebrate this, the Jews would give alms. Remember, Judas leaves to last supper early. Why does he leave? The disciples think he's going out to give something to the poor. What do we do in the new Paschal celebration of the Mass? We have the offertory. I think a lot of times we as Catholics look at the offertory as like the intermission. Right? Okay, we got through the homily. Let me take a minute here to decompress before we get into the next part of the liturgy. But the offertory is not just arbitrarily you know, inserted into the mass by the church. The offertory is an integral part of the liturgy. Why? All the way back to the time of St. Paul. The church has been taking up a collection for the poor. But there's no better place to do that than in the Eucharistic celebration. We're after uniting ourselves to Christ and to one another. We demonstrate our affection and we demonstrate our recognition of our unity by looking out at the needs of others. If necessary becoming poor even for others. Right? Giving to the point where it hurts. I talked about my hospital experience rejoicing in suffering and obviously I'm joking, my wife is the one who endured all the suffering. What I experienced was what we call first world problems. Right? First world problems. I can't find my favorite candy bar at the gas station. First world problems. I've got a hole in one of my favorite pairs of jeans. Right? The air conditioning has gone out. When we look at the world and we look at the suffering in the world and we look at the injustice in the world these problems are really relatively minor, huh? They're really angry. They're really minor, huh? They're really insignificant at all. They're insignificant in the grand scheme of things I should say. We are called to enter into the suffering of Christ. You know, I hear the Gospel and the account of Peter denying Christ and when Christ is suffering and he's being beaten and tried where's Peter? He's standing next to a charcoal file warming himself. I know he's suffering, but it's cold out here. Right? We need to learn to divest ourselves of the creature comforts that we become so familiar with to detach ourselves from worldly goods and there's no better way to do that than in almsgiving. So, yes, this talk has a theological component but it also has a practical component as well and I'll end with this. St. Paul says, the point is this he who sews sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sews bountifully will also reap bountifully. In other words, the more we give the more God will reward us. We can never be more generous with God than he will be with us. And so I want to challenge all of us to think of ways that we can support the church's ministry and in particular this weekend this week we'll have a great opportunity for almsgiving. They'll be taking up a collection for the mission of Franciscan University. Allow yourselves to really be challenged as they do that and support this great work as well as your parishes and the poor in your own places as well. Why don't we end here with a prayer asking the Lord for his grace his gift to empower us to be like Christ and lay down our lives in tangible ways. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Heavenly Father in Paul's first letter to Timothy, we read that the love of money is the root of all evils. Help us Lord to recognize the seriousness of that temptation. Help us to learn to imitate Christ who was rich for our sake and being poor. Help us to empty ourselves as he emptied himself embracing our cross allowing ourselves to be fragrant offering sacrifices as the Philippians were. Help us Lord to give tangible concrete expression to our faith in the work of redemption so that as Paul says we will be more up for ourselves a good foundation for the future so that we may take hold of the life which is life indeed. And we ask this in Jesus's name and we say glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end, amen. Thank you so very much in the name of the Father and the Son Amen.