5th Sunday OT, A February 5, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“You are the light of the world.” Think about a room full of candles. It’s pretty easy to read with ten candles lit, but not so easy with only one. And an unlit candle or a hidden lamp is almost worse than useless, casting shadows where it should be adding light.
“If salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Do you know what happens when you trample salt underfoot? You sterilize the ground you tread on. The book of Judges in the Old Testament tells us of one king who sowed the fields with salt to sterilize it and render the land infertile. “Salt the earth” is still an idiom you can find in contemporary literature. The fact that it is still a part of our imagination and language indicates just how viscerally destructive this was in the ancient world.
Neutrality is a myth. Merely maintaining is an illusion. Either we season the world and fill it with light or we sterilize it and cast shadows. To exist is to cause change. Salt preserves food by disrupting the process of decay and light changes what we can see. Jesus wants us to disrupt the normal process of decay, to change the world by casting light on dark things that many would rather leave in the shadows.
It’s important, however, to realize what this does not mean. It isn’t constantly interfering with others and trying to control their thoughts and behaviors. It isn’t constantly complaining about how evil everything is or flinging condemnation. It isn’t grandstanding and stubbornly disregarding the complications and nuances of other people’s way of life. It isn’t about maintaining appearances. It isn’t about looking good enough to get worldly people to praise you. It definitely isn’t constantly posting your charity work to social media.
So, what does it mean to be salt and light? It means being faithful to Christ regardless of how it affects the world around you. The way we glorify God, change the world, and win converts to the Catholic faith is by steadfastly being faithful, regardless of how it looks and what it costs.
Being salt and light means making the question “does this glorify God” infinitely more important than “is this fun, profitable, or popular?” There are many ways this could show up in today’s world. For example, by refusing to participate in falsehoods about human beings and sexuality – don’t play the pronoun game, but also don’t be a jerk to people who do and don’t completely discount their suffering.
Being salt and light should definitely affect your finances. It means consciously choosing to live a simpler life, even when you can afford the luxury and excess of your peers – most of us are too comfortable. It means refusing to work employees too long or pay them too little even when they agree to it. It means rejecting the false security of blind stock investments because even the so-called Christian ones often all too often benefit from adult films, slave labor, and extortion. It means spending time with the poor and unfortunate even though being around them makes you uncomfortable because it makes you realize that you can’t fix them, only that you can love them and trust in God.
Being salt and light means watching the way you talk because you know that your mouth is privileged to receive God in the Eucharist. It means consciously choosing to dress appropriately and respectfully – even when you’re at the beach! – regardless of what others are doing.
All of these and more will get you at least some negative attention, but to those looking for the light, it will be the reason they glorify God. And if we don’t? If we prefer to turn a blind eye to the logical implications of our own faith, to disregard the legitimate expectations of a being a disciple of Jesus… then we not only fail to bring glory to God, but actually blind others to it. We salt the earth and cast shadows, leaving baren souls and darkened lives.
Ending up that way starts with accepting the lie of being neutral and simply maintaining. You either grow or shrink. Now, what that growth looks like is no obvious. The person who perpetually struggles against sin and addiction, but never looks any better is nonetheless growing in perseverance, in hope, and in witness to the persistence of grace even in sin. The one who makes prayer and service look easy, if their heart is actually closed off to intimacy with Christ, they are destined to fall apart eventually.
The point of this parable is not to judge faith by how well-liked you or someone else it. The point is to call you to have enough integrity not to hide the ways your faith makes you live differently. Love God: Stay close to him and be honest with him and yourself. Love your neighbor, even when it costs you money or makes you or the world around you uncomfortable. Salt doesn’t think about who can taste it. Light doesn’t ask who it shines on. They simply are what they are and that’s what changes the world around them. You are meant to be a reflection of God’s glory. So be it.
Brilliant! Inspiring as well as instructive.