‘I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 1:8)
In Sunday’s second reading, St Paul expresses his love for the Philippians in an extraordinary way: he says that he loves them not with his own affection, but with the affection of Christ. St Paul let his heart be penetrated by the love of Christ to the point that Christ loved others through him, not with a cool, theoretical love, but with passion. The verb St Paul uses for this love is ‘yearn’ and the literal translation of ‘affection’ is ‘intestines’: it is a visceral, emotional love that Paul has received from Jesus and passes on to others.
