Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 5, 2023)
Jesus proclaims to all who wish to follow him that they are to be light to the world, and salt of the earth. These are powerful images, as powerful today as they were when Christ first proclaimed them. For disciples of every time and place, these images are not mere ego boosters. No, they are a constant challenge to dare to become for God and others that which Jesus was, himself, so clearly willing to be.
To be a light to the world is to illumine others with God’s truth and mercy. Likewise, that same light must expose the sins of pride, envy, meanness, indifference, injustice and anything else that blinds us from the divine truth and mercy that Christ has gained for us. Insofar as sin is anything that makes it more difficult to see in ourselves and one another the light and love of Jesus Christ, exposing such sin not only frees us from darkness but also better enables us to do all that is good and life-giving.
In Jesus’ light, we see the source of all light. We see the Father’s creative love; we receive Jesus’ redeeming love; we experience the Spirit’s inspiring love. Still, it is not enough to let this light shine out upon others: we must also allow that light to penetrate and permeate every fiber of our very being. The greatest encouragement that our God-given light can give to others is to show to others how that light is, in fact and at first, transforming us.
To be salt is to accept that fact that our efforts – or lack thereof – to follow Christ do have an impact upon others, regardless of whether we are always aware of that impact or not. There are times in our lives when we lose our taste for God and/or the things of God: more frequently than not this is displayed by our own feelings of inadequacy and/or indifference when it comes to practicing virtue. We all have our moments when we are tempted to believe that our day- to-day efforts at following Christ simply don’t make a positive difference in the lives of others, let alone in God’s overall plan for salvation. Unlike salt, however, we can regain that taste for doing what is righteous and good through prayer, the sacraments and, perhaps most practically, by doubling – even tripling – our efforts at practicing those very virtues that we are tempted to cease pursuing.
When we are tempted to wonder about our own efficacy in witnessing to the power and promise of God’s creative, redeeming, inspiring, healing and challenging love in our everyday, imperfect lives we should take consolation and encouragement about something which is true about both light and salt: even the smallest amounts of each go a very, very long way.
