Homily: 2.9.14. Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. "Salt and Light"

Is 58:7-10:3; Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5: 13-16

Salt and Light. Salt preserves and purifies. Light leads us forward. The message today is a simple one: Our good works preserve us in goodness. They lead to good for others.

Our baptismal light sheds light on others. Jesus says, "Let your light shine before others." It is thrown out in front of us. The focus is not on us (Margaret Ralph, Breaking Open the Lectionary: Cycle A, 59). Our good deeds throw Christ’s light on situations. This week we hear Christ announce the corporal works of mercy, good deeds: caring for the hungry, the naked, the homeless in the first reading. Today we also call these acts of justice. These acts reveal a loving God and they help others to believe in a loving God. We can do these acts out of duty, obligation, guilt and even for income tax deductions! (It’s okay to have mixed motivations. God can work all these together for the good,” as St. Paul tells us.) 

In the second reading St. Paul says, “I came to you in weakness.” Like Paul, our weakness can bear light. That is, it can lead us to identify with the weakness of others: the hungry, homeless, naked as the first reading tells. We have all known weakness and suffering. Our suffering can lead us to identify with those who suffer.  That’s how the salt comes in. It can purify us; that is, cleanse us from sin. Isaiah tells us today “Your wound will be healed and your light will shine.”

When I was a boy, I was prone to getting skin rashes when I played with the neighborhood kids in the woods near my house.  Because we lived near the ocean, my father would take us to the beach on Sunday.  He believed that the salt water was a cure-all; that it would clear up my skin rash.  It often did.  Our good deeds clear up our souls.  Through the grace of Christ working in us, our good deeds are like salt, cleansing us of sin, of all this is petty in us. Our wound is healed. The salt preserves us in virtue as it purifies us.  Our acts of justice purify us; we hear this in both the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures.  They grant us time off purgatory.  I think of this often when I am making a hospital call—especially the ones in the middle of the night. I am making up for my sins! These good deeds, in other words, “merit us salvation,” as the Eucharistic Prayers states.

Our good deeds bring light to others and they give glory to God. Men and women can believe in a loving God. This weekend in the bulletin you will find again information on BUILD.  It is one way to let your light shine. Go, throw your light!