Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 11, 2024 - Tuesday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[Acts 11:21b-26 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]
JUNE 11 ST. BARNABAS, apostle
Salt and light! Can we even live without either of those? Back in 2006, the bishops of the USA issued a reflection entitled COMMUNITIES OF SALT AND LIGHT - REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE PARISH. The basic premise of the document is that a church parish does not exist for itself alone but is meant to reach out to the world around it in compassion and service, love and truth. This would, of course, apply to the individual members as faithful Christians. We do not exist for ourselves alone. This runs against the grain of American cultural individualism, a trait noted already in our land back in the 1830's by a French nobleman traveling here, Alexis de Toqueville, in his classic work: DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.
Having served as a campus pastor as well as pastor of a neighborhood parish, I know the challenge of getting parishioners to think beyond personal spiritual needs to the needs of the neighborhood. A parish is not a fortress. Pope Francis' image of the Church as a "hospital for the sick and wounded" comes to mind. [cf. his THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL]. Even the cloistered monastery of Dominican nuns where I serve now as chaplain does not exist as a fortress against the world, but rather as a proclamation of a community at prayer for the world beyond its cloistered boundaries.
A bit further on in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will speak to motives for being "salt and light" when he speaks of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Stay tuned! AMEN