Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (2026) - Fr Mannes Tellis, OP

I love you! A phrase no doubt that fills its recipient initially with joy, if indeed the same affections are felt. But, is ‘I love you enough’ in any relationship? Of course not.

The old adage love is shown in deeds not words, or more familiarly “actions speak louder than words” fosters the idea that when we say something significant we should follow up on it concretely. In a relationship words need a concrete expression, maybe the ‘I love you’ is followed up by flowers, a nice dinner, perhaps even a ring! Even within a marriage it is the concrete acts of love that ring true, not the empty words.

So too in our relationship with God. Saying ‘Lord, Lord’ but never praying, or never coming to Mass on Sunday is akin to saying ‘I love you Mum’ but never visiting her or calling her or taking her out for her shopping. A lot of people claim they love God but never darken God’s house to see him, or commune with him in the way he demands. Much like the young man who says he will go to the vineyard but never follows through, that sort are liars.

Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians highlights the Son who does the Father’s will perfectly. This text is one of the oldest hymns to Jesus and was probably composed twenty or so years after the ascension of the Lord into heaven. It illustrates the entire Christian story:

His state was divine,

Meaning that Jesus was always God

yet he did not cling

to his equality with God

Meaning that Jesus the Eternal Son of God equal to the Father was ready to give up for a time the glory of divinity

but emptied himself

to assume the condition of a slave,

and became as men are;

and being as all men are,

Meaning that he put aside the glory of divinity and became human taking to himself a true human body and soul capable of suffering, embracing the totality of human existence except sin.

he was humbler yet,

even to accepting death,

death on a cross.

Meaning that through taking on the totality of human nature he was able to suffer, showing the fullness of divine love on the Cross, entering death, man’s ultimate foe. God dying through the human nature he had assumed.

But God raised him high

and gave him the name

which is above all other names

Meaning that through the irony of the Cross of suffering Christ’s glory could be manifest, and that through death new life arises. Thus the name of Jesus would be forever blessed because it is through Jesus’ saving death that the sins of all humanity can be forgiven. Death and sin have been swallowed up in Christ’s Easter victory.

so that all beings in the heavens,

on earth and in the underworld,

should bend the knee at the name of Jesus

Meaning that even Satan and his angels must acknowledge first of all the power of the Holy Name, but that the kingdom of Satan has been vanquished too; even Satan must eventually kneel before the God-Man Jesus Christ.

and that every tongue should acclaim

Jesus Christ as Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Meaning that all creatures fully consent, fully acknowledge, and agree without reservation concerning the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This sacred hymn from the Letter to the Philippians then proposes that there is no other person in world history that surpasses Jesus Christ and that this acknowledgement is not just an awareness of Christ’s historical import, but must be concretised in worship (literally bending the knee).

Jesus demonstrates that love is shown most fully in action. Jesus manifests God’s love concretely, realised in his saving death for our sins and in his resurrection the victory which he indeed shares with the baptised, and who, by the concreteness of their faith, acknowledge him as Lord by an active Christian life, not merely one that is pure lip service or ticking a box.

Fr Mannes Tellis, OP is the Parish Priest of Prospect-North Adelaide, South Australia.