Enarration on the Epistle by Denis the Carthusian
Philippians 2:5-11
This Epistle is meritoriously read on this Sunday, because in it is narrated Christ's humiliation and obedience unto the death of the cross. For the Apostle says: "Let this mind be in you" (Phil 2:5). That is, let it dwell in your hearts, and let your soul feel within itself what was also in Christ Jesus. That is, let it feel what Christ as man felt and approved within himself: so that just as Christ was most humble and most patient within himself, and sought not his own things but those of others, so you also should be heartfeltly patient and humble, not hypocritically like hypocrites, and seek the advantages of others.
"Who, being in the form of God" (Phil 2:6). That is, eternally subsisting in the nature of divinity, truly having deity, and existing of one essence with the Father (for deity exists altogether indivisible: whence in John he says, "I and the Father are one"). "Thought it not robbery to be equal with God." That is, asserting and feeling himself to be truly equal to God the Father in nature, omnipotence, and perfection, he did not usurp nor ascribe to himself what was not his, because he truly was as he asserted. Therefore he committed no robbery by calling himself true God equal to the Father (since he attributed nothing to himself alien to him), just as Lucifer, saying "I will be like the Most High," attempted to commit robbery. Therefore, for Christ, to be consubstantial and equal to God the Father is not robbery, but nature. Wherefore he speaks: "All things whatsoever the Father has are mine" (John 16:15); and again, "That which the Father has given me is greater than all" (John 10:29), namely the divine essence, which the whole Father poured forth into the Son through active generation.
"But emptied himself" (Phil 2:7). That is, greatly humbled himself, "taking the form of a servant." That is, assuming human and servile nature in the unity of person, so that the assumed nature is immediately united to the Word and subsisted in it, just as flesh is joined to the soul. "Made in the likeness of men." That is, assimilated to other men, assuming non-detractable defects, such as passibility, not vices. For he was mortal and passible. Therefore the Apostle says to the Hebrews: "He ought in all things to be made like to his brethren" (Heb 2:17). "And in habit found as a man." That is, truly made known as a man, because he was truly a man. And so the word "as" (ut) here indicates truth, not only likeness. For he did and endured human things, since he ate, drank, slept, was weary just like others. Therefore it is written in the prophet Baruch: "Afterwards he was seen on earth, and conversed with men" (Bar 3:38); and in Isaiah also, "He shall eat butter and honey" (Isa 7:15). Or thus: "In habit," that is, in human nature assumed by way of habit or garment, he was "found as a man," not apparently, but really. For human nature in Christ relates to the eternal Word as a garment to a man. For just as a garment is put on and taken off without variation of the substantial being of the vested man (so that a man is a man substantially, whether he is vested or divested), so the Word assumed human nature without any mutation of his divinity, and could subsist without humanity.
"He humbled himself" (Phil 2:8), as has already been touched upon, and in his whole conversation in this world he was always most humble. Wherefore he said: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt 11:29). "Made obedient... to the Father, unto death." According to human nature he was obedient to the Father, unto death, not any death, but a most ignominious and most shameful one, as is subjoined: "even the death of the cross." For the death of the crucified is most grievous, because they are pierced in very sensitive and nervous places, and live long on the wood. Christ also was most violently stretched on the cross.
"For which cause... God... has exalted him" (Phil 2:9). That is, by merit of this passion and obedience, God the Father or the Trinity exalted him in the resurrection, giving him a glorified body, and in the ascension, establishing him at his right hand. Through the preaching also and miracles of the Apostles and other Saints he exalted him in the hearts of men converted to the faith, to whom he made known the majesty and glory of Christ: and regarding this also according to his divinity Christ was exalted, as to the manifestation made to men. Hence in the Acts Peter said when he had cured the lame man: "The God of our fathers has glorified his Son Jesus" (Acts 3:13). For which exaltation also Christ is read to have prayed: "Father, glorify your Son" (John 17:1). But all things which pertain to the glorification of Christ's body and his sensitive part, and his accidental reward, he merited by his humiliation, passion, and obedience, although these were owed to him from other causes, namely: because from the first instant of his incarnation, he was a comprehensor [one possessing the beatific vision] and happy in his soul as to its higher part, which beatitude would have overflowed into the body and made it impassible, unless it had been delayed by divine dispensation, as Augustine asserts in the letter to Dioscorus: and also, because his humanity was united to the Word by hypostatic union, by reason of which exaltation above every creature was owed to him, according to Damascene.
"And gave him a name which is above all names." So that Christ man be called God. For by the grace of union, it was given to Christ man to be and be called true God: which is a word of infinite dignity and more sublime than every created name. Which name indeed was given to the man Christ from the beginning of the incarnation: but after the resurrection it is said to be given, as to the manifestation, just as elsewhere Christ speaks, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth" (Matt 28:18): which power certainly was given to him really in the incarnation. "That in the name of Jesus... every knee should bow" (Phil 2:10). That is, every power should incline and obey, of heavenly, earthly, and infernal things, that is, of angels, men, demons. Indeed every creature is subject to Christ man, and the highest angelic spirits obey him.
"And every tongue... confess" (Phil 2:11). Every tongue corporal and spiritual of men, spiritual also tongue of angels and demons, confess spontaneously, or coerced (for the Apostle James protesting, "The demons believe and tremble" [James 2:19]), "that the Lord Jesus Christ is in glory," that is beatitude, "of God the Father." For Christ according as he is God, is of the same glory, that is felicity and essence, with God the Father. Moreover according to his humanity "he is in the glory of the Father," that is in his greater goods and in the perfect fruition of him, according to that of Mark: "The Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19). Although however in this life not every tongue of men confesses Christ's beatitude, nevertheless on the day of judgment, willing or unwilling, it will confess this same thing. Now also "every tongue" confesses this, that is, certain ones of every genus of men and tongues, so that there is a distribution for the genera of individuals, not for individuals of the genera. According to which sense we read in Daniel: "All peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him" (Dan 7:14).
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