Be the salt of the earth and the light of the world

V Sunday, Year “A”. England, Driffield,
Our Lady and St. Edward church
February 9, 2014

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ!

1. I cordially great all of you on the 5th Ordinary Sunday, when Christ in His Gospel calls us to be “the salt of the earth and the light of the world”. His calling was actual not only 2000 years ago, but it’s actual in our time of a growing secularisation and living as if God doesn’t exist.

2. We know very well the meaning of the words “salt and light”.

In Jesus’ time salt was a very valuable thing. It was used to preserve food from decay. In our time for this purpose we use a refrigerator. Salt was and still is served to improve the taste of food. It also has a purifying and medical function. For this reason before the liturgical reform of II Vatican Council the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism included the imposition of salt on the lips of the newborn child as the sign of purification and Covenant with God.

3. People who heard Jesus speak would have understood the meaning and tradition behind the idea of being “salt of the earth”. In the same way as salt prevents food from decaying, so the witness of Christians protects the world and society from moral destruction and enriches it spiritually.

Daily experience teaches us that too much salt in food makes us thirsty. Regarding this truth St. Augustine says, that our Heavenly Father puts salt in our mouths that we may thirst for Him. The Holy Spirit creates within us a thirst for the things of God, for union with God, for communion with Him and for the grace to live a life which is holy and pleasing to Him.

4. Jesus also calls Christians to be “the light of the world”. In this way we are to be like Jesus, Who describes himself as “the light of the world”.

We know very well what light means in our life. Can you imagine what would happen if the sun suddenly stopped shining?  Without the sun’s light, life on earth ceases to be exist. The same would be true without the Divine light - a human being would be morally dead. That is why we have to be “the light of the world”. It means that we have to resist to the secular culture of our time. We have to swim against the secular stream and not be afraid to be signs of contradiction and heralds of the Gospel of life in the modern world which, in so many respects, has lost its way.

Our duty is to bring to a secularised world the true light of the Gospel.

St. John Chrysostom said: “What does light give me compared to what Christ’s light and love gives? The light is useful to me in my present life, but Christ’s light and love lead me to eternal life”.

5. I have come to you from Belarus, where during the Soviet time religion was persecuted for three generations and the people did not know the meaning of evangelical salt and light. There were a lot of examples of civic salt and light, like well developed science or culture. But at the same time the souls of people were corrupted by sin because of a lack of spiritual salt. Because of this lack of spiritual light they were dominated by darkness.

Now we rejoice in the freedom of religion and its restoration in the life of the people. But at the same time we experience the influence of liberalisation and secularisation which negatively affects the spiritual life of people. Parliaments of many countries in democratic ways approve laws against Divine law. As a result we see a crisis within the family and the devaluation of the most precious gift of God which is the gift of life. In the modern world there are a lot of other kinds of profound crises in different fields of life, morality, economics, politics, the preservation of peace, health care and so on. Unfortunately, today’s human being forgets that all these problems are the result of not living in accordance with Divine law.

Very often we say we are Christians, but we would prefer to live according our own rules, not God’s. Is it enough to be a real Christian having only a certificate of the sacrament of Baptism, but not living a real Christian life? No, it’s not enough. Such Christianity is weak and deformed. Unfortunately, in the modern world there are many false interpretations of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching which leads to a moral disaster. In such situations the worst is the fact that we Christians are guilty of thinking of it as a virtue, rather than a vice.

During the time of persecution of the Church in the former Soviet Union when atheism dominated and religion was considered as opium for the people, our ancestors were able to resist such policies. They not only preserved the faith, but also transmitted it to the new generations. Being the salt and the light of the earth they didn’t succumb to the influence of militant atheism and remained faithful to the Gospel and Church’s teaching.

6. There is a very interesting and useful story which I want to share with you.

There was a mother mouse who decided to teach her children about the world. So she gathered all of her little mice and set out for a walk. They walked down the hall and turned to the right. Then they went down the hall and took another right turn. And suddenly they found themselves in front of the family cat dozing in the sunlight. The mother mouse was scared. But she didn’t want to give in to her fright. So she signalled to the children to be very quiet and to follow as she began to tip toe quietly and slowly past the sleeping cat. Just as she was about to go past the cat, the cat’s eyes popped open and raised its paw. The little mice were petrified.

What would their mother do? Well, just as the cat’s paw started to come down, that mother mouse looked the cat right in the eye and started barking like a dog. And the cat was so startled and frightened that it jumped up and ran away. The mother mouse, wiped her brow, shook a little and then turned to her little mice and said: “Children, I hope you learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes it’s good to know a second language!”

6. It’s the same with us. It’s good to know a second language. Salt and light are the language of God, the language of grace, the language of hope and love. And when this language is translated into action it becomes the most beautiful language ever spoken. We’re called to be the salt and the light of the world and to speak the language of God as we live our faith.

Modern world is in great need of the salt of morality and the light of the Gospel.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ! Be the salt of Christianity and give to the modern world its taste! Be the light of the Gospel and enrich the world by the freshness of the Good News and the light of faith, as Pope Francis invites us. In such a way you will change the world for better. Amen.