05 February 2023 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

What we have in today’s Gospel is the image of salt and light. And very often we identify ourselves by being salt of the earth and light of the world.

But as we take a look deeper into the symbolisms of salt and light, it becomes a deeper reality of how we need to live our lives as a disciple of Jesus. And as we say that we are salt and light of the world, we must remember that it is not only words that we say but the life that we need to live. Because in our concrete situations of life, dear friends, if we are saying that we are the salt of the earth and light of the world, it must be expressed concretely in our human life.

In the world today, we see there are so many situations of brokenness, situations that are gloomy, situations that are dark. But how we as individuals, as baptised people confront these issues, these gloomy situations that we are placed in? And if we look at, even in our families, even in our community, there can be so many areas of darkness, of gloom that surrounds us. But these situations and these experiences of lives that we encounter ourselves in is not far different from what the people have experienced in the time of Prophet Isaiah.

And the Gospel says,

You are salt of the earth. You are light of the world.

And as we remember our invitation by the calling of our baptismal mission, we are reminded to make that difference in the life of the world, to make that difference in the life of one another and to make a difference in every where we are, to become agents of change, to become agents of hope.

As we look at the First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah, it says concretely how we should express this invitation that has been given to us to be salt and light. It says:-

Share your bread to the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the man you see naked and turn not from your own kin.

And if we are able to do this, dear friends, when we are able to put all these negativities aside, we know that in that process of coming to know Jesus, in the process of understanding who Jesus is in our lives, then we are able, it says:

To shine like the dawn and your wound will quickly be healed over.

And as the people approach this, during the time of Prophet Isaiah, the people were just coming back from Babylon, after their exile and as they were going, trying to build a whole kingdom or a nation back together, there were so much of things that were not right. There were so much of things that did not follow the ways of God. And that is why the Prophet Isaiah proclaims this prophecy to them because he found:-

If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word, if you give your bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness and your shadows become like noon.

And this gives us so much of hope, dear friends, of what we are called to do as disciples because each one of us, if you take a deeper look at our own selves, at our own community, in our own nation, there are so much of brokenness, so much of struggles, so much of things, of untruth that had been shared around, but how do we, as disciples of Jesus, bring that light, add that salt to building humanity?

And salt usually, dear friends, is what gives taste towards what we eat. And it is also used to preserve things. If we allow that the salt to remain on the table without putting it into our meal, then the salt has no way to add flavour to that dish. In that same way, dear friends, you and I must allow ourselves to insert ourselves into the human conditions and concrete human realities so that we can add flavour and harmony in the world.

And on the other hand, as we conserve, as salt is used to preserve, we too must be agents that is able to preserve the unity in our community, in our families, in our world. Obstacles, challenges will come but we must remember that when obstacles and challenges come, if we continue to perpetuate those sinful things, then we are not making a difference in the world.

You and I, even though we are challenged with disunity by our own community, by our own friends, by our own people, we need to be reminded that as salt of the earth, we must become agents that unites people together and not division.

As you look at the last week’s Gospel Reading, the aspect of the Beatitudes, where Jesus went up to the Mount of Beatitudes and the disciples followed. Followers of Jesus followed Him to listen to him. In that mountain, today’s reading is the continuation, and in that context, He says to each and every one of them:-

You are salt of the earth, you are light of the world.

In the same way, dear friends, you and I by the virtue of our baptism, by the virtue that we are called to mission, to spread the Gospel, you and I are called to become salt of the earth and light of the world. And are we, as disciples of Jesus, willing to enter concretely into human situations and human realities so that we can make a difference?

And I am sure, as a community, there are so many ways we can make a difference in the lives of one another. When people are hurting, we stand beside them, sit beside them in order to go through those challenges and obstacles of life. When people are grieving, we do what we can to comfort that moment of sorrow. When people are lonely and depressed, we call to assure them of your presence among them. When people are financially burdened, we try to do what we can to lift that burden. And there are so many different ways, dear friends, that we can reach out and make a difference in the lives of one another. And even for those in political situations or those who are perceived negatively, when we stand up and when we say the truth in love, then we are able to be that salt and light to the world.

And as we approach this table of the Lord, dear friends, the Responsorial Psalm invites us and tells us:-

The good man is a light in the darkness for the upright.

And let us allow ourselves to grow in the awareness of how God has brought us out of that darkness and led us into that light. And even if we are confronted with situations where we feel inadequate to become that salt and that light, Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians invites us and tells us that even when he was confronting the church in Corinth, with so many philosophies of the world, he was not perturbed. He may be afraid but he was not perturbed to proclaim who God is in his life.

And he says:-

I claimed to have about Jesus and only about Him as the crucified Christ.

not the philosophies of the world but the experience of encountering Him and He brought about and preached about the person of Jesus who was crucified on the cross.

And let us ask, dear friends, in our own journey of life, how can we become salt and light of the world. Because each and every one of us, dear friends, God has given us the grace to make a difference in the world. And every one of us as well have different capacity, have different ability, have different purpose and mission in our lives and we need to rediscover how we can add flavour and how we can become the agent of unity in building God’s kingdom here on earth.

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