5th
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth…
and the light of the world…”
Today, Christ makes use of two down-to-earth figures: salt and light. We say down to earth because both seem to be inseparable partners in human life and experience. Everybody is familiar with salt and light. By their mere utilities, man immediately understands what they are in themselves and in relation to man's existence. Because of their relevance, Christ now tries to use these metaphors in order to illustrate the nobility and depth of Christian life and responsibility.
1. "You are the salt of the earth.” The first significance of salt is biological. Our bodies need certain amount of salt. Without it, we die. Salt, no matter small or few, makes our small biological world go round. This is true to Christian life. We are like grains of salt, sometimes scattered to reach out to many, and at times consentrated to make one big body with one big voice.
Another utility of the salt is its capacity to preserve. This is why we must not wonder why mountain people are willing to barter even half of their hunted pig with barely a glass of salt. Or else, the same mountain people come to the plains with rice, corn, vegetables, fruits, chicken, etc., only to go back to the mountains with just two things: salt and salted fish (and kerosene too!)
If we take “preservability” as the salt's applicability to Christian life, perhaps the concept most related to human experience is consistency. As the salt keeps a thing nearly as it is for quite a considerable time, so too a believer becomes the salt of the earth by being faithful to the promises of his Christian calling from the moment he accepts it in baptism to the end o his life as a pilgrim. Saints become great not necessarily because of the big things they somehow do sometime and somewhere, but because of the small ones they do all the times of their lives.
Consistency is not easy. There are those who surrender even before the game begins. Some others would back out at the middle of the race. And perhaps a few others still fall just a meter before the finish line. Consistency is like testing gold by fire. But as gold shines amidst and even because of this painful process, so too must the life of a Christian if he is to be a salt of the earth.
A third quality of the salt is that of giving taste. This must have been what is in Jesus' mind as he speaks of this metaphor. To give taste has more meaning than to be a mere preservative. While the latter is prone to monotony, the former is open to variation. While the latter would mean singing the same song or dancing at the same music, the former would mean doing different strokes which exactly correspond to the different rhythm. .In other words, this quality refers to that of condiment. Meaning, it has not only the ability to season for seasoning’s sake as a preservative does, but also the ability to season (i.e., to give taste) at different seasons. And here lies the difference. It acknowledges and accepts that everything has its proper season. Thus, the salt gives its fitting taste to each thing at each season.
Christian life is just like this. It is not only consistency. It is also relevance. And we have to be cautious and extra careful on this. The distance between consistency and relevance is very thin and the only way of measuring it is by success. Many people do thing consistently but wonder why they still falter. This is perhaps because they may be doing the right thing at the wrong time. Relevance is just doing the right thing at the right time and at the right place. This is what it means to he the salt of the earth. It gives taste to life in all its varying situations.
Because of the richness of its signification, in the same way, the salt has its corresponding price when it goes flat. Since it loses its savor and becomes useless, "it can only be thrown away and people will trample on it,” What a sad fate to a Christian who turns irrelevant!
2. “You are the light of the world…” This is the second metaphor in the gospel. The figure of light is more commonly used in the Bible than the figure of salt. But following the sense of the first metaphor, Jesus seems to emphasize its utility in relating its signification to Christian responsibility. "No one lights a lamp and covers it; instead he puts it on a lamp stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before others..."
As the salt calls to consistency and relevance, Christian life shines as light precisely by the good works Christians do. "If you share your food with the hungry and give relief to the oppressed, then your light will rise in the dark, your night will be like noon"(Is 58:10). This is the way how light, by shining, gives concrete expression to the giving of taste which the salt signifies.
Christian responsibility, therefore, does not operate
on presumption. It is not enough to be baptized and presume that one already
becomes a shining light. It must be uncovered
and put on a lamp stand. Good news
is no good at all when it is not said. It is not even news. So too,
Christian life must be shown. And a Christian
must show it not because he is showy, but “…so
that they may see the
good you do and praise your Father in Heaven.”
Christian life is and must be an open book since it is a life of grace. Only those who are in sin are afraid of the light, and thus choose to be in the dark. But they who experience and know what grace is all about will surely come out and even shout at the roof top. They their own stories to tell and some good news to preach. And mind you, this is something contagious.
The monks of
“You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world…”