This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

BRADLEY MANNING ACCUSED OF “AIDING THE ENEMY” 

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

“Forced to boast, although it’s not a good thing, I’ll come to visions and revelations of the Lord:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (in or out of his body I don’t know, but God knows!) was snatched up to the third heaven. And I know that this man (in or out of the body, I don’t know, but God knows!) was snatched up to Paradise and heard inexpressible things, of which it’s unlawful for a human being to speak. About a man like that I’ll boast, but about myself, I’ll boast of nothing except my weaknesses.

If I decided to boast, I wouldn’t be a clown, because I’d be speaking the truth. But I won’t, in case anyone gets a higher opinion of me than my actions and words warrant.

To prevent me from becoming arrogant because of these very great revelations, God gave me a splinter in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to remove it, but he said to me, “My kindness is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

So I’m glad to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. That’s why I delight in weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and narrow escapes, for Messiah’s sake. For when I’m weak, that’s when I’m strong.

This is my own translation of the passage, in which Paul manages to “boast without boasting” or rather to record spiritual experience with exasperation at being pushed to do so in self-defence. I’ve tried not to use traditional language in two instances: “splinter” rather than “thorn” is used because as  workman with his hands Paul would be used to getting splinters from the wooden stretchers used in the leather trade; and “kindness” rather than “grace” because the latter has become a technical term of theology. I have also opted to supply the pronoun in “my power” as the phrase “power is made perfect in weakness” is simply untrue. Messiah’s power is made perfect in weakness, as Paul has been insisting throughout this letter. The exasperation Paul feels leads him to speak personally and to reveal the root of his faith as companionship in the suffering of Jesus. When he abandons all ordinary notions of honour, dignity and safety, he experiences the power of Jesus working through him. This spiritual experience is deeper and more decisive than his visions of the third heaven.

Matthew 7:1-12

7 ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

6 ‘Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

7 ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

Jesus gives a terrible warning: we will be judged by the standards we use to judge others. How can this be? How can the eternal God limit himself to our standards? The truth of God’s love is that he cannot give us what we don’t want; he cannot force us to accept mercy. So although God may want to give mercy to a merciless person that person will be unable t accept it or even perceive it. This is the sad truth that structures Dante’s “Divina Commedia”-his souls are where they want to be.

Our folly in thinking we can spot our neighbour’s fault is devastatingly exposed in the image of the log and the speck. The US State is able to accuse Bradley Manning of aiding the enemy but cannot see how its own actions in Iraq and Afghanistan have aided the cause of terrorism.

The saying about pigs and pearls shows a disturbing shrewdness in Jesus’ perception of casually unclean people: they will undervalue and misuse anything holy because they are unaware of its value.

Clearly Jesus’ words about asking don’t mean that we’ll all have BMW’s at command, nor that we’ll avoid suffering. Jesus had little of this world’s goods and he wasn’t spared suffering. Nevertheless, if we ask for wisdom, compassion, courage, if we seek goodness, we will receive and we will find. God is always a better parent than we are. Bearing this in mind would have prevented some of the worst mistakes in Christian doctrine and practice.

Jesus use of the well-known “golden rule” in its positive form shows his readiness to affirm the best of his own tradition. His wisdom is built on the insights of his people.