HOMILY SUNDAY 05 – YEAR A
Be Salt and Light to the World
(Isaiah 58:7-10; Ps 111; 1 Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16)
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“Let your light shine” is one of the teachings of the Christopher Leadership course on effective speaking. It could also well be the message of the Gospel for today’s celebration of the 5th week in Ordinary time.
A quote mistakenly attributed to the late Nelson Mandela captures the spirit of today’s Gospel encouraging us to be both salt of the earth and light of the world:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us – it’s in everyone, and, as we let our light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles, Harper Collins: 1992, 190-191].
The key line in that quote has to be “we are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.” How true that is. On January 8th, 2016, Pope Francis began a series of catechesis based on the sacraments, starting with baptism. Here are some of the things he had to say about baptism:
By being immersed in the living waters of Christ’s salvation, we can live a new life, no longer at the mercy of evil, sin and death, but in communion with God and our brothers and sisters. Baptism makes us bearers of a new hope that nothing and nobody can destroy. Thanks to baptism, we are able to forgive, to love – even those who offend us and hurt us; we are able to recognize the face of Christ in the least and the poor.
Certainly, with these words Pope Francis is speaking about being salt and light to the world as we live out our baptismal call.
When Jesus speaks of us being salt and light, he is touching on the reality of our being transformed little by little into the likeness of Christ. St Paul is clear on this in his letters to the Corinthians where he states that all of us are being transformed into the image that we reflect (2 Cor 3:17-18); that as our outer human nature decays, our inner human nature is renewed daily (2 Cor 4:16) and that in Christ there is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).
These sayings of Jesus were instrumental in the beginnings of the Salt and Light Catholic Television Network started after World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002, an initiative of Fr. Thomas Rosica in Canada, and Word on Fire ministry, an initiative of Bishop Robert Barron in the States. Both of them took seriously the words of Pope JP II to young people to dare to evangelize the world by precisely being salt and light to the world.
The Prophet Isaiah, in the first reading, outlines numerous and practical ways we can be salt and light for the world. First, we are to be charitable by giving bread to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, clothing the naked, accepting our own family members as they are, with all their eccentricities, and above all, relieving the oppressed. For Isaiah, all these are ways we can be salt and light to the world.
He then goes on to share a different way we can be salt and light, and that is to work at reconciliation. Basically, he is inviting us to learn to forgive anyone who has hurt us, and to apologize to anyone we have hurt, and make amends to them – in other words, to be reconciled with all those in our lives. That essentially is what he means by letting go of what could be the yoke of guilt and the fist of anger.
There are great consequences to these daring and faith-filled actions. Our light will shine like the dawn, our own wounds, our negative attitudes and painful emotions will heal quickly, and our shadows become like the noonday sun. We will have peace and joy in our lives, we will enjoy God’s love, and learn to love ourselves, even befriending our shadow side, and we will walk with the Lord in the kingdom of God.
The responsorial psalm echoes the refrain found in both the Gospel and the first reading today, that we are to let our light shine in the darkness.
In the second reading St Paul adds that when we live the promises of Christ; when our most important focus and knowledge is Jesus crucified, we will be demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit empowering us to be salt and light to the world.
The Eucharist is a sharing in the unconditional love of God made manifest in the death and resurrection of Jesus, who in that way let his light shine.
May our celebration deepen within us the presence of the Spirit of this Risen Lord so that we may let our light shine, and truly be salt and light to the world.
