The beauty of self-emptying

SOME years ago, a young man approached me and very happily told me he just had his newborn baby baptized. I immediately asked him what the name of the neonate was. And he cheerily responded, “Kenosis, Maria Kenosis, Fr.”

            I, of course, was dumbstruck. It was not so much that the name sounded very strange and so out-of-this-world. It was more because I happened to know the word and it never occurred to me that it could be a name of a baby girl.

            The word is Greek and it appears in the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. It means “emptying,” referring to Christ who being God emptied himself to become man, making himself like a servant, obedient to this Father unto death on the cross. (cfr 2,6-8)

            I asked the fellow who suggested the name to him and whether he knew the meaning. He said, it was a priest who suggested it and who explained the meaning. He said that since he liked how the word sounded, he accepted the suggestion.

            I was actually happy to learn about this turn of events, since it was a good departure from the usual practice of parents naming their children according to some combination of their names.

            Thus, you hear about a child named Celpon because the parents are Celine and Ponciano, or Charger because Charlene and Gerry are his parents. I wonder what other funny combinations we will have next time.

            But the word Kenosis is actually a good word and concept for all of us to be familiar with. It is actually an ideal to be made reality in us, since the attitude of self-emptying is actually a necessity for us if we want to imitate Christ and to be able to be all things to men.

            It’s the formula for adapting ourselves to everyone and every situation, especially the more difficult ones. This business of self-emptying is no impractical or profitless venture. It’s the secret for success in any effort to build up unity and harmony in a world that is often wracked in differences, conflicts, and relativistic mentalities.

            These differences, conflicts and relativistic ways are not only in the area of politics, philosophies and ideologies. They can be in the more important aspects of life like faith and religion, morality and the like.

            Looking closely at the kenosis or the self-emptying of Christ, we can learn that the God who created us truly humbled himself to become man and went all the way to assume even the sinfulness of man without committing sin himself.

            That is how he removed the sting of sin and death, as can be gleaned in this passage from St. Paul: “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’

            “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” (1 Cor 15,54-56)

            It’s important that we learn the skills of self-emptying as we go through the unavoidable differences and conflicts in our life. We have to convince ourselves that that is the proper way to behave, overcoming the all too human reactions of defending ourselves too readily, of wanting to score and win in a debate, etc., all manifestations of pride, vanity and self-righteousness.

            We have to be ready to be humiliated, to be misunderstood, etc. What should come foremost to our mind is that we are closely united with Christ all the way to his culminating act of offering his very own life. That’s because Christ himself said: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Lk 11,23)

            To be strongly convinced of the wisdom of this attitude, we need to remember always words of Christ: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10,39)

            And as St. Paul also said: “The foolish things of the world has God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world has God chosen, that he may confound the strong.” (1 Cor 1,27)

            We need to revise our concept of what is truly good for us, what would comprise real success and victory. It’s in the self-emptying ways of Christ. In fact, he commands it of us: “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” (Mt 16,24)