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Homily:
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Many of you, perhaps, noticed my absence last weekend. I took some time away to visit my family in
Illinois and to rest a little. I then
spent the majority of this past week on retreat at a conference center in
Valparaiso. It was a great time to spend
some time renewing my relationship with the Lord. It was also nice to have a break from
worrying about preparing my own meals and all that goes along with that
(grocery shopping, washing dishes, etc.).
I was especially (and pleasantly) surprised by just how flavorful the
food was at the conference center. When
I cook for myself I don’t often add any salt to my dishes (it’s well
established, right?, that too much salt in one’s diet is bad for a person). And so when I eat somewhere where the food is
professionally prepared, using fresh ingredients, and just the right balance of
salt, I am usually blown away by the flavor of the food because of how the salt
makes the flavor of the food so much bolder.
This is why we use salt, right? It’s not the taste of salt itself that we
crave (just take a drink of salt water… I mean, we can barely swallow it,
right?), but rather it is what salt does to the food it interacts with that
makes it a valuable ingredient. Salt,
used proportionately, takes on the flavor of the food it interacts with and
makes it bolder, so that you get “more of” (so to speak) the flavor of the dish
that you’ve prepared. We all kind of
know this instinctively as we became accustomed to using salt as we each grew
up. Jesus, of course, knows this, too,
and, being the consummate preacher, he uses it in this passage from the Sermon
on the Mount to make his point.
Before I get too far into that, however, I think we need to
pause for a second to reflect on how Jesus directed this instruction. In instructing his disciples, he speaks to
them about their “new state of being.”
The Scripture reads: “Jesus said to his
disciples: ‘You are the salt of
the earth … You are the light of the
world.’” Notice that Jesus didn’t say,
“You will be the salt of the earth”
or “You should be the salt of the
earth”; rather he says “You are…” In other words, he is making it very clear
that if someone considers him or her self to be his disciple, who that person
is changes. A disciple of Jesus is salt and light. What he or she does from that, then, will
determine his or her worth as a disciple.
Thus, the metaphors of salt and light.
We’ve already talked about salt and what it does. A disciple who acts from this state of being
goes out and mixes in with others. If
his or her deeds are positive (that is, if he or she does good deeds), then the
“flavor” of those with whom he or she mixes is enhanced and there is a positive
effect on the community. If his or her
deeds are negative, however, (that is, if they are bad deeds)—or, if he or she
decides not to mix in at all—then the flavor is turned sour (or, at least, left
bland) and the community spirit is diminished.
Notice that there is no neutral ground here. Either one is salt with taste, which adds
something positive to the community, or one is salt without taste (or with bad
taste), which thus hurts the community that it mixes into. Thus, Jesus says that salt without taste is
worthless, good for nothing except to be thrown out on the path to be trampled
on; and, thus, he implicitly instructs his disciples to be salt with taste so
that the good flavor of the earth can be brought forth.
The metaphor of light is equally as simple. As Jesus’ disciple, one is light: he or she has no choice in the matter. The choice for the disciple, rather, is
whether or not he or she is going to let this light shine, so as to give light
to all those around him or her, or if he or she will conceal the light, as if
he or she had placed it under a bushel basket.
Jesus’ instruction is clear: his disciples must let their light shine
before others, so that their good deeds may be seen and God the Father may be
glorified as a result.
My brothers and sisters, this is the work of our common
priesthood that we share through baptism.
We have been made to be Christ’s light in the world, a world in which
darkness constantly threatens to overcome all; and we have been made to be salt
for the earth—the seasoning that pulls out all that is good in the world and
enhances it— on an earth in which insipidity and decay threatens to spoil it
rotten. No, there’s no free ride
here. If we have received Christ’s light
and been made salt by God’s gracious gift, then these must be shared with all
around us; otherwise we will be judged as worth nothing but “to be thrown out
and trampled underfoot.”
So, how do we do this?
Well, Isaiah’s prophesy seems to be a good place to start. Speaking on behalf of the Lord he said,
“Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the
dawn…” Ok, so if I take care of the physical needs of those around me, my
light will shine forth, as if it was the sun rising at the dawn. Exactly.
Isaiah goes on to reaffirm this by saying that “if you remove from your
midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech” that light will also
rise. In other words, by removing our
negativity—that is, our criticisms and our judgments—we enhance our flavor as
salt, thus making us more effective in drawing forth the goodness of the world.
My brothers and sisters, Jesus is not asking anything
extraordinary of us. Rather, he is
instructing us—his disciples—to strive for holiness in our everyday, ordinary
lives. Thus, when we prepare a meal,
wash the laundry, do our homework, shovel snow, stamp out parts, file
paperwork… in short, when we do whatever it is that we do at home, school, or
work—with prayerfulness and striving for excellence—we are salt and light in the world.
And when this everyday holiness spills over into help that we give to our
neighbor, our salt and light spreads even further into the community.
“But Father, I’m afraid to go out and share my faith with
others…” Well, so was Saint Paul. What did he say to the Church in
Corinth? He said “I came to you in
weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were
not with persuasive words of wisdom…”
Paul was a tentmaker, not a classically trained orator. He did not rely on persuasive arguments to be
salt and light in the world; but rather he relied on the power of the Holy
Spirit working through him. As disciples
of Jesus Christ, baptized into his grace, we too have the power of the Holy
Spirit within us to use our ordinary everyday words and actions to be salt and
light to all those around us.
Remember, my brothers and sisters, God always take the
ordinary and makes it extraordinary.
Just look at what we do here at the Mass. We take ordinary bread and wine and we offer
it to God here on this altar. Then, by
his extraordinary power working through the ordinary words that I speak, they
become something extraordinary: the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. God wishes to do the same with each of our
lives. He wants to take the ordinary
events of our days, offered to him as if on this altar, and make them
extraordinary instruments of his grace. Thus,
by making our daily work the opus dei—that
is, the work of God—God’s light and
grace will conquer the darkness and bitterness of the world; and all his
children with glorify him with the same glory that we offer him here today. My brothers and sisters, as baptized
Christians it is already in us to do this good work. Therefore, let us not be afraid to let our
light shine for all to see.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – February, 8th & 9th, 2014
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