Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 8, 2021 - Tuesday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 1:18-22 and Matt 5:13-16]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." [Matthew]
Along with St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, the lectionary begins this week with passages from the Gospel According to Matthew. (Even though this is the "year of Mark," that gospel is too short to make it through the whole liturgical year, so it is supplemented with the Gospel According to Matthew). The passages this week and for some time to come will be taken from the Sermon on the Mount. If someone needs to know what Jesus expects of his followers, the Sermon on the Mount is the place to look. (Matt. 5-7)
The two images in today's passage are salt and light. Salt is such an essential ingredient in human and other animal life that wars have been fought over it. We can die without enough of it and we can die with too much of it inside us! On a relational level, we have the expression "salt of the earth" to characterize individuals who are good examples of compassion and straightforwardness - good, solid folks! Jesus challenges us to be like them.
The image of light speaks to what is revealed in the way we live as Christians. Can others see Christ in us? Our emotional and psychological wellbeing is very much linked to the cycles of light and darkness in the natural world. Again, we have another expression for someone who "brightens" our life by their friendship. We say such a person is " the light of my life." The challenge is not only to have Jesus as our light but to reflect that light to others.
Chapters 5 through 7 in the Gospel According to Matthew are called The Sermon on the Mount, but they could also be called "chapters of challenge." If we want to know how we are living Christian life, the standard is there. AMEN