TO BE SALT AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD

V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 5:13-16

Jesus is saying to us what he said to his disciples:

You are the salt of the earth!

You are the light of the world!

With these words, Jesus entrusts us with a special task, but much more than that he calls us to a way of life, in which we become a source of inspiration to others who look to us as their role models. This is not a reason for us to become proud and much less to separate ourselves from the others, but in the middle of the others we guide ourselves by the values of the Gospel, thus becoming witnesses to Jesus and to his Gospel. We cannot be like everybody else, but we are called to be different and to make a difference. The first Christians were well aware of that. That is why in the Letter to Diognetus we find these words:

“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

    And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labour under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.”

If we call ourselves Christians, but behave like many people do, with our hearts full of jealousy and envy, self-centred, and always ready to oppress and exploit the others, then we are not Christians at all. If we do not care for the poor and the oppressed, how can we consider ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ? If like the people of this age, we are ready to behave as the owners of life and as the rulers of our own destiny, ignoring God and turning our backs on him, how can we walk on footsteps of Jesus who cared only to do his Father’s will?

To be the salt of the earth and the light of the world is to be different, ignoring the common trend and putting aside the political correct, so that our hearts are filled only with the love of Christ. 

Christianity became a civilisational and cultural phenomenon and as such it is being rejected by this post-modern society that does not need God. But we should not care much about such Christianity; what we need is to be Christians who live their lives in a relationship of love with Christ; and if we do, then we will become salt and light, being a challenge for this corrupt world.

The first reading from Isaiah 58:7-10 points out the conditions to be light of the world, presenting a programme for us to put in practice. It is like a manifesto setting out the main guidelines for a way of life and for the building of a society according to God’s values, in which there is freedom, the sharing of wealth and the concern for the poor.

“Share your bread with the hungry,

and shelter the homeless poor,

clothe the man you see to be naked

and do not turn from your own kin.

Then will your light shine like the dawn

and your wound be quickly healed over.”

“If you do away with the yoke,

the clenched fist, the wicked word,

if you give your bread to the hungry,

and relief to the oppressed,

your light will rise in the darkness”. (Is 58:7-10)

In the second reading taken from the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul puts forward the Gospel of Jesus, as being the Gospel of “the crucified Christ” (1 Co 2:2). Coming closer and closer to him, he gives us the strength to make ourselves the neighbour of those who suffer.