Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Today Paul writes to his beloved Philippians: “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss.”
Paul did have reason to boast as the world sees things. His many talents were cause for admiration: fortitude, intellect, perseverance, determination, persistence, and passion. He was a recognized and respected pharisee — a rabbi in his own right. But now that Paul knows Christ, all else is rubbish.
Most English translations for “loss” or even “rubbish” are far more elegant than the word intended by Paul. The term the apostle employs is derived from the Greek skubalon, found only once in the New Testament. The word refers to excrement. Nonbiblical texts of the time apply the word feces. There wasn’t a stronger image describing his great and noble achievements, compared to now knowing Christ Jesus. Paul uses the worst possible image of the day. Christ alone is his all — nothing else.
Towns of the first century CE had constantly burning piles of waste at the city limits where filth, trash, and garbage were thrown (no one-time-use plastic to fill up the oceans by the billions in those days). Jesus uses the term Gehenna, the valley used to discard and burn trash outside Jerusalem. Philippi also had such a “dump”.
How might the apostle’s dear Church at Philippi have received such a startling and jarring example? How might we? What does it mean in our day and age “to know Christ”? Can Christ matter as much for us?
Inelegance aside, Paul certainly wants to get their (and indirectly our) attention.
-Timothy J. Cronin