Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Are you salt or light? Jesus uses these metaphors to describe the disciples. “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” Which word best describes the way you engage the world around you: salt or light?
Let’s start with light. Light illuminates and reveals the truth. If you are light, you are a truth-teller. Light dispels darkness. Darkness could be those dark thoughts and actions of others. It is hard to gossip or speak unkindly of others when a ‘light’ is present, one who doesn’t lurk in these shadows. Light can be blinding, especially to someone coming out of a dark place. Do you sometimes startle others with the brightness of your faith and your convictions? Light also shows the way, and marks out a path for all to follow. Like a lighthouse, light gives lost travelers some direction. If you are light, others look to you for guidance. With this in mind, do you engage the world around you like light?
Or maybe you engage the world around you like salt? Salt brings food to life. If you’re salt, you bring zest to wherever you go. Salt kills impurities and is used as a preservative. In a like manner, if you’re salt you provide a hostile environment to the impurities of our culture: hatred, division, greed, and corruption. Salt cleanses wounds and promotes healing. Are you a healer? Salt melts ice and eliminates a potential hazard. Are you looking out for the welfare of others? Salt does all of this not by being separate and distinct, but by dissolving into its surroundings, working behind the scenes as this invisible presence.
So, are you salt or are you light? Before you answer, let’s take a closer look at what scripture says about being salt or light. Isaiah has a much more challenging image of light. He says:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless…
remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech…
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn
and your wound shall quickly be healed. (Is 58:7-10)
If we are to be the light of the world, a light that “shall break forth like the dawn”, how are we shining a light on these pressing problems of Isaiah? Not too well. Here are a couple of examples:
- “Share your bread with the hungry”. Food insecurity in the county I live in (Catawba, NC) is 19.6% for children under the age of eighteen. That’s a shocking number.
- “Shelter the homeless”. The shelters are full, and it is hard not to see homeless people in Newton and Hickory, with hundreds sleeping in the woods or in abandoned storefronts.
Isaiah continues by saying those whose light shines remove “oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech;” What kind of light do we direct toward the unemployed, undocumented immigrants, and systemic racism? Is it a light of judgment and accusation, or a light of compassion and understanding?
Shining a light would mean increasing awareness, donating money, getting involved as an advocation or volunteer, or simply bring the light, life, and love of God where you may be.
After being light to those who dwell in darkness, Isaiah continues with this profound statement: “Then your wound shall quickly be healed.” In other words, when there is woundedness around us, we are wounded too. Being light to others is the pathway to our own healing.
If you’ve decided you’d rather be salt, take a look at the image Jesus calls to mind when he says, “salt of the earth”. This phrase might be better translated as “salt of the earthen oven”. For fuel, people would use dung from camels, oxen, and donkeys. The dried-out patties would not burn on their own. They needed a catalyst: Salt. In the bottom of each oven was a slab of salt. The dung was placed on top. When the slab of salt was used up, they would throw it into the street to be “trampled underfoot”. (see Mt. 5:13-16)
When Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth”, he means you are in the lowliest place in this earthen over with a pile of dung on top. Your job is to set the patty on fire. In this most humble position, Jesus wants you to be that catalyst that sets the world ablaze!
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” The light that we shine does not come from us, but from Jesus, who is the light. When facing these daunting problems, we need to allow the light of Christ to shine through us. As salt, we are the catalyst through which the Holy Spirit will transform the world with the fire of God’s love.
The world desperately needs you to be both salt and light. Don’t put your light under a bushel basket, and don’t let your salt lose its flavor to be trampled underfoot.