Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 8, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:13-16. Theme: Salt + Light
In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues his famous Sermon on the Mount. He tells us that we are to give public witness to him and that by doing so his Gospel will make the world a better place. He compares us to salt and light in order to graphically illustrate what he’s talking about.
Like salt that enhances food, our lived Christianity is meant to bring out the best in us and inspire others to become curious about the Faith. The social teachings of Christianity can bring goodness to a culture and help preserve it from moral corruption. But Jesus warns us that if we lose our saltiness, that is, if we lose touch with our Christianity and begin to think and speak and act just like everyone else then we become useless for carrying out the mission of drawing others to Him.
Moving on to the example of light, we all know how vital it’s to our daily living! Among other things, it brings us clarity of vision in otherwise dark places. In the same way, the more people see our Christian behavior, the clearer it can be for them to find the pathway to happiness in this world and the next. The inner peace and strength we possess through the ups and downs of life might enlighten them to investigate a relationship with Jesus Christ for themselves.
But in addition to changing individual persons, the salt and light of Christianity can - and indeed has - changed the world! Western culture as we know it would not be ours to enjoy today had it not been for Christianity sprinkling the salt of the Gospel and diffusing the light of Christ throughout the world for the past 2,000 years. We should be humbly and properly proud of how our faith has helped to make the world a better place, especially today when Christianity’s moral and social influence is being ignored or even openly attacked. We need to remind others of this indisputable fact.
Christianity’s salt and light has fueled many scientists to make vital discoveries in their fields. Notable examples are 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, a committed lay Catholic and pioneer of infectious disease control. Christianity’s salt and light also gave inspiration and encouragement to classic works of the fine arts such as Michelangelo & Leonardo DaVinci in sculpting and painting; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Johann Sebastian Bach in music; Dante Alighieri & J.R. Tolkien in literature.
Christianity’s mission to be salt and light motivated heroic figures who stood up on behalf of women, children, the dying and the disabled. Before Christianity arrived in various parts of the world, women were considered property along with a man’s life-stock; children were regarded as not much better than slaves; the dying were abandoned in the wilderness; and the disabled were killed for being thought of as cursed.
In response to such things, Christianity spoke up loudly for the sanctity of marriage and the equal dignity of women. Christianity threw its collective arms around the vulnerable and the disadvantaged protecting their right to enjoy a truly human life. Missionaries established hospitals, schools and medical clinics in countries that were too poor and underdeveloped to provide these social services. And the Catholic Church remains today the single largest sponsor of educational, social and charitable aid in the world.
Christians who took up Jesus’ call to be salt and light became leaders in the civil rights, human rights and right-to-life movements. The slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a Christian minister and Harriet Tubman, mother of the famous Underground Railroad to Freedom was also a devout Christian. St. Katherine Drexel, a Philadelphia socialite, gave her whole life as well as her multi-billion dollar inheritance for the education and social promotion of Black and Native Americans. And of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a minister who, together with the mostly Christian communities of the Southern USA pressed forward through bloody violence until racial equality became the law. And today pro-life activists carry on this civil rights crusade for the equality and dignity of millions of unborn children.
So, with all this in mind and knowing what a Christian is called to be, let’s ask Jesus for the grace to never lose our saltiness; for the grace to never cease to be light in the darkness. The Christians who have gone before us, and who made such an impact on the world, show us what the Gospel can do when it is truly lived out in flesh and blood reality. Their witness gives us absolutely amazing testimony that both people and places can be transformed by coming into contact with the salt and light of Christ that flows out of ordinary Christians like you and me.
