Dear Parish Family,

From the Gospel narratives we gather that Jesus was quite an effective Teacher. So much so, after two thousand years we still enthusiastically reflect on his teachings. One of the special characteristic of his teaching was to use very mundane images that connected with our everyday life. He compared his disciples to light, salt and leaven. In the Gospel Reading for this week-end, Jesus says that Christians are supposed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

And he has harsh things to say about Christians who are dark and insipid. They’re fit for nothing except being trampled underfoot, they become sordid trash. So it is pertinent for us to understand why these images are very dear to a Christian. Salt and light share a funny characteristic. Each of them is discernible by sense perception—we taste salt, and we see light—but neither of them is usually meant to be a direct or main object of perception. We put salt in our preparation of pasta, chicken or vegetables. The salt totally disappears, but it acts on our taste buds and so we enjoy the food.  Light is like this, too. We turn on a light not in order to look at the light, but in order to look at other things by means of the light. In fact looking into the light we are blinded by brightness, but the light cast on objects make them visible to us.

So if a Christian is the light of the world, he is enabling the world to see something other than himself. Our lives must be the lights that shine on the presence of God and our words and actions make the kingdom of God a beautiful experience for people around us. A Christian is to let his light shine in such a way that the world glorifies God. The worldly people couldn’t glorify God if God were in darkness for them. So a Christian’s life is to shine in such a way that what people see is the Lord.

Have there been moments when someone turned to you and said, “You are truly god-sent” or “without you life would have been unbearable.” These are the ways you have become salt and light and the Spirit of God is truly using you to spread the good news. So to be light and salt is to live our lives in such a way that the earthly and the worldly are drawn to “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:9). Something to think about and challenge ourselves!

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.