Salt & Light

Catholic Liturgy for the 5^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 9, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:13-16.  Theme: Salt & Light

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses two very basic things from everyday life to drive home a central point of his teaching: that inviting others to encounter him and thus experience transformation of their hearts and lives is best accomplished by the example of our lives as Christians.  He calls us to reflect upon such basic things as salt and light and to see in them an inspiration to be, as St. Catherine of Siena put it, who we were created to be, in order to set the world on fire with love for God and neighbor. He reminds us that our lives, lived as he taught us, are the single most powerful and convincing way to give witness to him and awaken in others the desire to enter into a personal relationship with God.

Let’s first take a look at salt. We all know what salt does: it brings out the best in food and makes it more appealing. That’s what we are all supposed to do by our lives. Our Catholic Christian faith is meant to bring out the best in us.  It is meant to show those with whom we live and work and socialize that God is good and that a relationship with him can make us the best version of ourselves that we can be.  Our lifestyle and choices should show people that Christianity is an appealing religion and one that serves the needs of the human family as history itself attests and confirms.

Now what does Jesus mean when he says that we have to be careful to not lose our saltiness? I think this means that if we are just like everyone else in how we treat others and how we live, if the values of our materialistic consumer-mentality society are as much in us as in everyone else, then we have lost the spice of Christianity. Our witness will be no different than anyone else.  And so, we become useless for carrying out the mission of witnessing to Jesus. We will not be able to introduce Christ to others if our very lives will cause some to wonder if we even know him ourselves!

Moving on to the example of light, we all know how vital is to our everyday living!  Among other things, it keeps us safe and helps us to avoid dangerous situations. If you are over 40, then you probably know that the ridiculously small print on our prescription meds suddenly becomes clearer and much easier to read when placed directly under a bright light!  We are able to take them properly and avoid a potentially dangerous situation. In the same way, the more people examine our behavior enlightened by Christ, the clearer it can become for them to see the Gospel as a pathway to real love and respect for others as well as a positive influence in life.  They can sense our inner peace and strength even in the midst of difficulties. Then this might encourage them to investigate a relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves.

But the salt and light of Christianity can do even more than change the individual person. It can - and indeed has - changed entire cultures and societies! Western culture as we know it, along with the many human rights and freedoms it affords us, would not be ours to enjoy today had it not been for the Catholic Church sprinkling the salt of the Gospel and diffusing the light of Christ throughout the known world for the past 2,000 years. This is not just Catholic self-promotion or Christian chauvinism but solid verifiable historical fact.  And it is something we must not forget nor be reticent to talk about.  

I do not have enough time to go into the many details about the various ways that this salt and light of the Gospel have shaped our culture and influenced our history. But there is a great short easy-read book by Mike Aquilina titled, Yours Is The Church, that does the job marvelously and accurately.  I strongly recommend this book especially today when Christians have become open targets in the social and political realms and when Christianity’s influence is being ignored or falsely denied.  In a nut-shell this book reminds us that:

·       Christianity’s salt and light fueled so many scientists to make vital discoveries in their fields such as Copernicus, the priest who discovered that the sun is the center of the universe; the Jesuit priest George Lemaitre who came up with the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origin; Gregor Mendel, a monk who gave birth to modern genetics; and Louis Pasteur, the inventor of pasteurization and pioneer of infectious disease control.

·       Christianity’s salt and light gave inspiration and encouragement to the classic works of the fine arts such as Michelangelo & Leonardo DaVinci in painting, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Johann Sebastian Bach in music, Dante Allighieri & J.R. Tolkien in literature.

·        Christianity’s salt and light moved heroic figures to stand up on behalf of women, children, the dying and the disabled. They are way too numerous to mention by name but before Christianity arrived in so many countries throughout history, women were given with the same status and rights as a man’s life-stock; children were regarded not much better than slaves; the dying were abandoned in the wilderness; and the disabled were killed for being thought of as cursed. But Christianity brought to these cultures the sanctity of marriage and protection of the family, respectful care of the sick in hospitals, and defense of the human dignity and rights of all people, no matter what their mental or physical condition.

·       Christianity’s salt and light gave impetus and determination to the political struggles of great human rights activists in America such as the slavery abolitionists Frederick Douglass (a Methodist minister) and Harriet Tubman, mother of the famous Underground Railroad to freedom; St. Katherine Drexel who gave her whole life as well as her 1/3 share of her family’s billion-dollar fortune to the education and social promotion of Black and Native Americans; and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and champion of the Civil rights movement.

So, inspired by devout Christians such as these, let’s ask Jesus for the grace to never lose our saltiness; for the grace to never cease to be light in the darkness of this world. These heroes and heroines of our faith were human beings like us in every way, but they show us what the Gospel can do when it is truly lived out in flesh and blood reality. Their witness gives us absolutely amazing stories about how both people and places can be transformed by coming in contact with the salt and light of Christ flowing out of our own lives.