Today’s readings challenge us to live as authentic Christians in a world increasingly enveloped by the darkness of sin. They invite us to serve with genuine love and tangible action, not mere ritual or empty words.
The First Reading (Is 58: 7-10) says: “Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.” We are reminded of Mt 25: 40: “as long as you did it to one of these to the least of My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Isaiah reminds us that pouring out our soul to the afflicted helps open the floodgates of grace. “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.”
The Gospel text (Mt 5: 13-16) based on the Sermon on the Mount exhorts us to be the light and the salt of the world! “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The good works are not for our own sake or for our consolation; they are to glorify our Heavenly Father.
Jesus also challenges us to be like a city seated on a mountain; it cannot be hidden. This means that we should not only readily come under God’s scanner but also be a useful model to those around us, like the candlestick that provides light to all that are in the house. Not easy, but not impossible either with God’s grace.
The good thing about God’s commands is that they are not business-like targets that weigh us down. God does not measure us by the world’s standards of ‘success’, but by the efforts we put in to be and do good. As Psalm 112: 4 says, “The just man is a light in darkness to the upright.” A little word of encouragement, a tap on the back, a gentle smile can work wonders.
Humanly speaking, we may hesitate, waver, and even shudder. However, we could take a leaf from the Second Reading (1 Cor 2: 1-5) where St Paul reminds his people that he came to them “not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ…. My speech and preaching were not in the persuasive words of human wisdom but in showing the Spirit and power.”
The Apostle to the Gentiles went to Corinth “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” The secret of his mission lay in that he left everything to God: he claimed to know and speak nothing except of the incomparable news of Jesus Christ crucified.
To sum up, being the light and salt of the world means exerting a transformative influence on the world around us. We are called to illumine the world with the Gospel values and reflect the light of Jesus. Like salt that acts as a preservative and flavours food, we are called to add meaning to life and be a moral preservative in a decadent world.