As you all know, we are experiencing here in America and Western Europe a serious religious vocation crisis, with a significant decline in priests and religious sisters and brothers. Some religious communities, however, are flourishing. The Missionaries of Charity, founded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, is one of those communities. It continues to grow throughout the world. Mother Teresa was interviewed shortly before her death in 1997 and was asked what her secret was in attracting so many women to her religious community. Her response was very simple. She said, “We show them Jesus.” “Is it the religious habit?” the interviewer asked. “We show them Jesus,” Mother Teresa responded again. “Are they attracted to your special mission to serve the poor?” the interviewer persisted. One more time, Mother Teresa responded: “We show them Jesus.”
We hear St. Paul deliver the same message in today’s second reading. As he encourages the growing Christian community in the ancient city of Corinth, St. Paul makes it very clear that he has preached to them nothing “except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He admits that he came “in weakness and fear and much trembling.” It is understandable that he would come with fear and trembling. After all, he had come to a prosperous port city filled with many wealthy, powerful merchants and taught the revolutionary message that we heard last week: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, …blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” Neither our Lord nor St. Paul nor Mother Teresa are condemning those who are blessed with prosperity but all three of them call for what we hear in today’s first reading: “Share you bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked.”
In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus use two powerful metaphors to make his point as he continues his teaching in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. “You are the salt of the earth,” we just heard Jesus declare. In his time, salt was as good as gold. It was so valuable that Roman soldiers were paid in salt. The Latin word for salt is “sal,” from which we derive the word salary, drawing from this ancient Roman form of payment for services rendered. The soldiers did not complain when they were paid in this way. Salt was extremely valuable not just as a seasoning but as medicine and as a preservative, so important in a time before refrigeration. Jesus warned us against the salt that loses its flavor and ends up in the trash – thrown out and trampled underfoot. This is what happens when our life is contaminated by sin and worldly attachments, or when we focus only on our needs and neglect those of others around us. Jesus goes on to use another very easy to understand image when he says “you are the light of the world.” We all know how important light is to us. Just stub your toe in the darkness of an unfamiliar room and you are painfully reminded how much you rely on light.
The prophet Isaiah tells us how we can be salt and light for others: feed them, clothe them, house them, never turning our back on them. Those willing to help others will receive help from on high, he assures us. Conversely, those who will not give help should not expect to receive it from God.
Much like the process that purifies salt, our everyday trials can purify us from all that is not of God so that what remains is of him, from him, and for his glory. The apostle Paul and Mother Teresa experienced this process of purification in their ministry on behalf of the Church. They experienced a lifelong process of conversion that brought them from darkness to light, and from death to new life. And, they eagerly shared that same light with everyone they met on their missionary endeavors.
God desires that same transformation of faith for all of us, that we, too, may come out of the shadows and live in the light and the love of God in Christ Jesus. The prophet Isaiah and Jesus make crystal clear in today’s readings that, as God’s chosen people, sharing his light, we are to be a people of light. In a world where we enjoy comfort and ease the likes of which most of the world can’t even imagine, so many live in the darkness of self-centeredness and isolation. So much so that many have come to embrace darkness – the darkness of self-indulgence, of pornography, of drugs, of violence, of lies, of abortion.
Our ever-loving God wants us to live in his light and this happens when we rejoice in the great gifts God has given us in abundance and then let our “light shine before others,” as we hear our Lord, Jesus, admonish us in today’s gospel. Jesus challenges us to embrace the ultimate antidote to all of the darkness in the world. He calls us to develop lives of gratitude, selflessness and generosity; a life of following the Beatitudes. He shines a beacon of hope in the midst of this darkness that surrounds us, and tells us, “your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” And so, as we have experienced so well over the Christmas holidays, we generously get involved in our Adopt-a-Family and Christmas Food Basket and Giving Tree initiatives. Throughout the year, we shine our light before others in a variety of other ways. Shortly, you will be asked to respond to the annual Catholic Charities Appeal and I’m confident that, as in the past, you will respond generously.
When you were baptized, you or your godfather were given a candle lit from the Easter candle. This candle represents Christ, the light of the world. And the priest prayed over you, saying: “This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. …May you walk always as a child of the light.” God has passed the light of the heavens on to you and to me. Let each of us hold our lives “in the light” and illumine the world we live in by flavoring it with the taste of God.