February 5th 2023. Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 5, 13-16

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Matthew 5, 13-16

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

1. The disciples are not told that they have to become light and salt, but that they ARE light and salt.

Last week we listened to the proclamation of the Beatitudes, which are in the third person plural – “Blessed are those . . .”. In the continuation of Jesus’ discourse that we read this week, the tense switches to second person plural – “You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.” Light is associated with joy and happiness, whilst darkness is associated with pain and suffering. To be light is not so much a question of human qualities or attributes. Rather it is a question of identity – to be light. Salt is associated with flavour and also with wisdom. Things without flavour are not worth doing because they lack substance or content. The Christian therefore is someone who carries joy and flavour to the world. The disciples are not told that they have to become salt, they are already salt. Joes does not use the imperative but the indicative – “You are the light of the world”. If they follow Christ, people will see the light emanating from them.

 

2. We all emit “light” but is our light true light or is it darkness? When we reflect Jesus’ light, it is the light of one hanging in his lampstand, which is the cross.

Every person emanates “light” in a sense. But what light do they emit? Is it something negative or is it something joyful that communicates wisdom? If the disciples of Christ are not light then the world is in darkness. Jesus is the source of light because he is the echo of the light of the Father. In John’s Gospel we are told that we see the Father when we look upon Jesus. In fact, when Jesus is placed in his lampstand, namely, when he is hung upon the cross, there is an eclipse of the sun. The world is cast into darkness because he is the true source of light. At that moment, the centurion, who is the one officially responsible for his execution, recognizes in Jesus the eternal light. Jesus lives to his last breath as Son, pointing continually to someone else, the One who created the world saying, “Let there be light!”

 

3. The light of a Christian is not simply the light of their own honesty or integrity. Rather, it is the light of someone who has entrusted himself to the Father with childlike abandonment.

We are light, but what kind of light are we? We irradiate around us that which is in the depths of our hearts. As the great Fr Oreste Benzi said, “Who we are shouts louder that what we say”. Is the light emanated by Christians a matter of their integrity, their honesty, their moral coherence? Not exactly. Such a light would be of little interest because it would be dependent on our poor human qualities. Jesus says, rather, that when people see the good works of Christians, they end up giving glory to the Father in heaven. It might seem a bit curious that someone sees my good works and ends of glorifying someone else! The problem is that we have tried to construct a Christianity that is composed of our works, and we have failed because we have concentrated on things that give glory to us, not to God. This is a vainglory, a self-referential glory, something that is focussed on building up ourselves. What is really needed are works done with an attitude of trust in the Lord, so that people who observe will realize that only the Lord could sustain such works. This is the character of Christian works, the character of one who behaves as a child of God, pointing not to one’s own ego but to the Father. This text is telling us to exploit the occasions we have for abandoning ourselves to God and then our mission will be accomplished.

 

4. When we start behaving like children of God, we emanate light.

We don’t have to try to be sons, we are sons! And when we start behaving like sons, we emanate light. There is no more honest person than one who entrusts himself to the Lord. At that moment, the best in him comes out and he becomes truly himself. By contrast, when one is self-referential, he is deceiving himself. None of us can truly stand without abandoning himself to the Father. None of us can affront the cross without placing himself in the hands of the Lord. When that moment comes when we have the opportunity to manifest our faith, when we are placed in the candelabra of Christ, hung upon the cross. Our candelabras are our tribulations, small and great, those daily things in which we make an act of self-abandonment, that act of children of God, that act of openness to the Lord that makes shine through the light of the Father and his glory.

 

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

In the Gospel, Jesus asks us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Without this light, the world be in darkness. Without this salt, life will have no flavour. But what are we to do so that we can become salt and light for others? We must look to Jesus! He became the light of the world during an eclipse of the sun on Good Friday. He is the light of the world because he allow his relationship with his Father to sine forth and reveal that God is love: he loves each one of us. People are very critical of the Church nowadays. Maybe it is because they expect us to be the light of the world but they see that we are not! If I live a life of egoism, then I am living in darkness. I might think that my life of fun, entertainment, security, good company and success is very illuminated, but it is a life of darkness if it is not lived with reference to Christ. A father who lives this sort of self-referential life leaves emptiness in the hearts of his children. A priest who lives an existence of this sort does not bring life to his parishioners. We can be salt and light for our families and the world only if we do the kind of works that Jesus asks us to do. He says, “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father”. It is very important that these words of Jesus be understood properly! What kinds of works do we need to do? Works that show my great talents and heroism? No, these works do not bring glory to the Father! The works that light up the world are works that shed light on God, that show my relationship to God, that cause people to praise God, not me! By trusting in God, by abandoning myself to God, I show the world the love and power of the Father. When people see works of this sort, they say: I see the power of the Father in you: what you are doing cannot originate in you but must originate in the goodness and glory of God.