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

CHOMSKY ASKS, “IS THE WORLD TOO BIG TOO FAIL?”

climate change predictions

1 Corinthians 9:16-27

16If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel! 17For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. 18What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. 26So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

discipline

Our interpretation of passages like this will determine our view of St. Paul. Is he an odious interfering busybody with a compulsion to force his beliefs on half the world or is he a passionate discoverer of truth who wants to share his beneficial discovery with as many people as possible?

Here he professes his sense of obligation: he must communicate what he has received because it has been entrusted to him for this purpose and not merely for his own possession. This is the germ of his doctrine of the “shared life of Christ”: Christ can never be the possession of any individual. The “blessings” of the gospel are found when the gospel is shared. God has made himself available in Christ; and his apostle must extend this availability by placing himself where his different audiences are, whether Jews or Gentiles, weak or strong. This placing of the self requires discipline. His own “body” (his relational self) must become an instrument of the gospel and not subject to its own desires.

This is a coherent description of passionate faith in a truth that unites human beings in a common, divine life. We should compare it with the passionate commitment of a scientist to a discovery that he/she believes holds for human beings everywhere. The scientist is not acting out of arrogance when he/she refuses to leave others to their inadequate version of the truth: the determination to publish the truth everywhere issues from faithfulness to the truth itself and concern for humanity.

I think of St. Paul as acting from similar motives.

Matthew 8:1-17

8When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; 2and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ 3He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4Then Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 13And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And the servant was healed in that hour.

14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; 15he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. 16That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. 17This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’

Chiron the Centaur: wonded healer of Greek myth

In this passage, Matthew depicts Jesus, the giver of God’s Rule, descending from the mountain of authority to exercise God’s Rule amongst needy people.

A leper, outcast because of his disease is touched (a breach of cleanliness law) and healed; a Centurion, outcast as a gentile, is rewarded for his great faith by the healing of his slave; a widow, (only widowed mother-in-laws stayed in their son-in-laws’ houses), taboo to Jesus because female and ill, is touched and healed

The stories are clear and consistent: just as Jesus’ teaching of God’s Rule fulfils and perfects the Torah, so his ministry perfects the practice of the Torah by restoring rather than separating. In both cases he crosses boundaries set by the Torah for the sake of implementing God’s Rule.

Matthew sees two deeper truths in Jesus’ healing: one is articulated by the centurion when he declares his understanding that Jesus power to command comes from being commanded; his authority comes from above. The second is revealed in the quotation from Isaiah chapter 53: Jesus is burdened with the infirmities and diseases he heals; he is already the wounded healer. It is difficult to put this profound recognition into words. Jesus makes people whole but their brokenness somehow stays with him. We know this to be true. There is a personal cost to all who provide genuine therapy.