Sunday 5 Year A (2)

Salt and Light

Important to remember Jesus really present and talking to us.

The You here is quite emphatic and personal. He is not talking about anyone else. He is talking to us and it is now, not in the future or the past.

You are the salt of the earth, Your are the light of the world.

Last week we heard the beatitudes. the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

In them, taken as a whole, Jesus taught us the attitudes that a person who was His disciple should have.

Now he tells us what we are in the world and in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount He tells us how we are to live this.

Salt preserves food against corruption and make food flavoursome and attractive to our taste.

In Baptism we were made holy. We were given the life of the God man Jesus, we were given the gift of His Spirit, we were made members of His body, the church and we became the sons and daughters of God the Father.

We have to grow in this holiness, but it is already real and makes us the salt of the earth.

We are not normally called on to become religious or priests but we are called on the live in our ordinary daily lives, in our families, in our places of work, in all that we do, as the sons and daughters of God.

In everything we do or say we should seek to do the Father’s will out of love for God. We should do this in our families, in our places of work, in our social dealings, in everything.

We can only do this if we are practicing our faith and are persons of prayer.

If we live this way then we will preserve the world from corruption and make it appealing to God.

If we lose this holiness then we are good for nothing....... But we always have the Sacrament of Penance which restores our Baptismal innocence........

Jesus goes on then to point out that we are like lights that He has lit.......... We have to give light.

We have to be apostolic. The light we give are our good works, those words and deeds that flow from a real love and care for those around us, for our neighbour.

That was noticed by one of the commentators on the Fox news at Cardinal Pell’s funeral. He pointed out that outside the cathedral, with the small group of protestors, you encountered hatred and vitriol, inside was humanity.

We are also to be light by what we say. We should be prepared to explain our faith and defend it to those who will listen.

Again the example is Cardinal Pell. He was prepared to proclaim the Gospel as St Paul instructs us to, in season and out of season......

Jesus expects us to do the same in our own little world.

In the rest of the sermon Jesus develops the law of Moses to show us how we are to live and exercise this love of our neighbour.

There is a profound mystery here though, just under the surface.

Jesus says bluntly in the Gospel of John that the Devil is the Lord of this world, He is referring to the world created by human persons under the influence of Original Sin. This is not a comment about His time but all times.

In the parable of the tares He makes it clear that this situation will last till the end of time.

So how does this salt and light work? How do we do this, especially in our world with our new Woke overlords.

It’s simple, Jesus expects us to stand against the tide, even when that seems so strong. He has already overcome Satan and is establishing His kingdom.

This Kingdom will be revealed in its glory at the end of time and us with it, but not before.

Till then, as St John of the Cross tells us we have to walk in the darkness of faith. We’re used to the idea of faith as light, but all too often, things seem to make no sense and there appears so little hope, then we must maintain our faith in Jesus, trust Him and walk in faith in the darkness of our world.

As Jesus says so often in the Gospels, “Do not be afraid, I am with you”.

Let us turn to Mary, she had to look upon the body of her crucified son, and yet she knew by faith that He was, at moment, in the devil’s realm of the dead shattering His power once and for all. Let us ask her to teach us to be salt and light.