Sunday, February 5, 2023
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
First Reading: Isaiah 58: 7-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
Gospel: Matthew 5: 13 – 16
You are the salt and the light of the world!
Today Jesus continues his sermon on the mountain. He uses two metaphors to tell us who we are and therefore how we are to live (agere sequito esse (action follows from being). Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth,” You are the light of the world.” With these two metaphors, Jesus describes the mission of his disciples. A disciple has to be salt of the earth and light of the world. By using these metaphors, Jesus invites his audience to use their personal experience of salt and light to understand the essence of Christian discipleship. A quick look at these items; salt and light, and how they are used will help us understand properly, our vocation as Christians.
So, what does Jesus mean by calling his disciples, the salt of the earth? Salt was connected with at least three qualities – flavor, permanence, preservation and purity. The first use of salt is to give flavor to food. Salt is essential because, without it, food will be tasteless. In this sense, a disciple is called to have a positive compelling and profound influence on those around him. He has to so radiate joy and love that he gives flavor to those around him. His life and actions must add meaning to the lives of others and engender in them, the desire for virtue and holiness. That seems to be the primary meaning in our text today because Jesus says “if salt has loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” A disciple who fails in this regard loses his meaning. This is, however, an unexpected twist because salt never loses its taste.
In fact, salt is a symbol of permanence. For this, salt was also essential for Jewish rituals. Leviticus 2: 13 commanded, “you shall season all your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Salt of the covenant means that the covenant is unbreakable. Leviticus 2:11 says, “No cereal offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven: for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord.” This is because leaven and honey symbolize fermentation and decay, but salt conveys the idea of imperishability and permanence. Jesus was certainly not only referring to the everyday use of salt as seasoning, but to the salt of the covenant sacrifice that is offered to God in the temple. The life of a true disciple is a permanent sacrifice. This makes sense when we look at the entire New Testament in which for example St Paul in Romans 12 calls Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. The vocation of a disciple is not just to offer sacrifice to the Lord, but to become a sacrifice offered to the Lord for the salvation of the world in union with Christ who offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.
Before the invention of the refrigerator in modern times, salt was also used to prevent food from spoiling. It was also used to preserve dead bodies. It holds off decomposition and corruption. This is connected with the call to give good examples and not bring about scandals.
Salt also has cleansing power. In 2 Kings 2: 20-22, Elisha asked for a bowl of salt, he threw it into a bad spring of water and the water became wholesome. Today it is still the formula for the blessing of holy water. A disciple has to be an agent of purity wherever he finds himself.
Jesus also said, “You are the light of the world. a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.” The everyday relevance of light is obvious. Without the light and warmth from the sun, human life will be impossible on earth, plants will not grow and no life will survive. The world will be in gloom and darkness. Jesus is himself the light of the world. In John 8: 12 we read, “I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.” When Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” he is saying, his light must radiate in and through us. Just like the moon that has no light of its own but radiates the light from the sun, we reflect the light of Christ. We are light only to the extent we are close to Jesus and connected to Him. In John 15: 5 Jesus, says, “cut off from me, you can do nothing.” Without Jesus, we are nothing, we are in darkness and we are not the light.
The first reading from Isaiah tells us how to be the light of the world – giving bread to the hungry, giving cloth to the naked and bringing in the homeless. This is how to be the light of the world. These works of justice and charity recommended here will be echoed in Jesus’s discourse on the last judgement in Matthew 25: 35 – “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me….”
The images of salt and light have enormous implications for us as Christians. Our vocation is not a private affair. Neither the salt nor the light exists for itself. A church that exists for herself alone, meticulous to preserve her good name and the good of only her members have abdicated her responsibility for God’s creation and misses the mark as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
We fail to be the salt of the earth and light of the world when we enter into ourselves, when we encounter various people and fail to truly enhance their lives. When our presence in the lives of others has little or no effect upon them for their good, then we are like salt that is tasteless that is only good to be thrown away and trampled underfoot. We have a duty to have an effect on the lives of others. We have a duty to enhance the goodness and faith of those whom we encounter on a regular basis. If we fail to impact positively on others, we fail in our vocation as salt and light of the world.
Let us commit ourselves to becoming who we are – salt of the earth and light of the world so we can impact positively on the world and in the lives of others; and this world of ours will be a better place filled with the flavor of the kingdom of God.
Happy Sunday
Fr Chidi Onwuka m.ss.cc.