Isaiah 58:7-10; 1Cor 2:1-5; Matt 5:13-16
In Canada there is a Catholic radio station named Salt and Light. It seems a strange title, but today’s Gospel shows why it was chosen. Christians are called to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. What does that mean?
Salt has had a bad press in recent years, as studies have shown that it is harmful if used in quantities too great. Yet it is, in the correct amount, essential to life. If you have undergone an operation, you will probably have been connected subsequently to a saline drip, infusing a salt solution into your vein. Without a sufficient amount of salt in your system, you die.
It is also seen as a savour, adding flavour to food which would otherwise be bland and tasteless. Again, there is an argument now about how much salt should be used, but that wouldn’t have been an issue in Our Lord’s time. He is making the point that we should be giving both life and flavour to our world.
When He calls us the light of the world, Jesus is applying to us a title which He claimed for Himself. To be the light of the world, we must somehow be a presence of Jesus.
So the usual question arises: am I being salt and light for the world? It strikes me that the two things operate in different, though complementary, ways. Salt works from within: light from outside. Salt is inserted into food, exerting its influence within the dish, whilst light guides the way for someone carrying or following it.
Do I work within the situations in which I find myself, improving their condition from the inside? I grew up behind, above, and in a shop, my father being a “retail confectioner and tobacconist” meaning that he sold sweets and cigarettes. In fact, he did much more. Simply by being himself, he made our shop what would now be called a community hub for people in our part of Scotforth. People would naturally gravitate there. One of the local hooligans, on being released from his latest spell of detention, commented to his mates “I’m going to Mr. Keefe’s tonight for a chat”. On a bus, I overheard a small boy, who had forgotten the name of the stop, ask the conductress for a ticket to Mr. Keefe’s.
That, I think, was being salt to the earth, giving life and flavour from within. I would claim that he was also a light to that little corner of the world. Everyone knew that we were Catholics—“big RCs” as one customer expressed it—and without ever uttering a word of preaching, Dad exhibited Catholicism at its best. Interestingly, when he was rushed into RLI with a burst ulcer one Saturday night in the pre-ecumenical 1950s, his first visitors next day were first the Baptist minister, second his Congregational counterpart, both customers in the shop.
We can be salt and light by being ourselves at our best. Sadly, we know that the institutional Church hasn’t always been either; and that has been obvious to the world. As Our Lord comments, a city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden, and the sins of the Church have been blatantly clear. Most fair minded people have been favourably impressed by outstanding representatives of the Church, such as Pope St. John XXIII and St. Teresa of Kalkota. The more knowledgeable admire also St. Oscar Romero, and the world hangs on the words of Pope Francis, but there is no doubt that the image of the Church, and its ability to be salt and light for the earth, have been grievously damaged by recent revelations of monstrosities.
The Church has lost all credibility and all moral authority in matters of sexuality. There was a deafening silence from Church leaders over the recent legal decision endorsing the abortion of children with Downs Syndrome right up to birth. This is clearly infanticide, with more than a hint of genocide, but our leaders are effectively silenced because the Church is regarded as a force for harm, not good.
Perhaps there was never a greater need for you and me to be salt and light. We have to be a presence within the Church, imparting, by our own lives, both life and flavour. Similarly, we need, by those same lives, to demonstrate that Christ is the way, truth, and life; and that the Church, despite its failings, remains His body, to belong to which is well worthwhile.
