“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” “Mind” suggests thinking, but the term St. Paul uses is the origin of our English word diaphragm. It’s not up here [head] but down here [middle]. In the creation of man, it was God’s breath that made Adam a living being. Skilled singers emphasize letting the voice come up from the diaphragm. The Greeks used this as a way to describe not just our thinking but our emotions, our consciousness, our understanding, our person.

So when St. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” it is more than thinking right thoughts about Jesus. He’s calling us to adopt the mindset of Jesus, the outlook, the emotions; we are called to bring the person of Jesus into ourselves.

This exhortation quickly reveals how very unlike Jesus we are. We are rather like Lucifer, who is obliquely referenced in today’s Epistle. …