Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introduction   

This Sunday’s Gos­pel read­ing is a con­tinu­ation of Jesus’ Ser­mon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). After declar­ing blessed or for­tu­nate those who are poor in spir­it; humble or gentle; mourn­ing; hun­ger­ing and thirst­ing for what is right; mer­ci­ful; pure in heart; those who make peace; and those who are per­se­cuted for doing right, Jesus went on to remind the dis­ciples that they are, or should be, salt of the earth and light of and in the world. As salt and light, they should give good taste and light the lives of the people. The capa­city to be salt and light are the pre­requis­ites for being coun­ted as blessed. It is a gross chal­lenge. On no account should the dis­ciples lose their salt­i­ness and light­ness. Wheth­er they are mater­i­ally poor, humi­li­ated, starved, thirsty, or per­se­cuted, they should remain salt and light to and for the people. The mis­sion of the church, and thus of God’s people, is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. CCC, n. 782). 

The Salt of the Earth

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its salt­i­ness be restored? It is no longer good for any­thing, but is thrown out and trampled under­foot” (Matt 5:13). The Dic­tion­ary explains salt as a chlor­ide of sodi­um; a sub­stance used for season­ing food, and for pre­ser­va­tion. Gen­er­ally, salt is found nat­ive in the earth and this is why Jesus says ‘you are the salt of the earth.’ Besides being extrac­ted from the earth, salt is also pro­duced through evap­or­a­tion and crys­tal­liz­a­tion. Again, it is also got­ten from sea water and through oth­er means. In the first cen­tury of the Middle East, salt served two pur­poses. Firstly, it was used to pre­serve food and oth­er edibles since there were no freez­ers. Secondly.…

The Light of the World

Jesus went fur­ther to remind the dis­ciples that they are or rather, that they should be light of and in the world. In John 8:12, Jesus said to the people “I am the light of the world. Who­ever fol­lows me will nev­er walk in dark­ness but will have the light of life.” Accord­ing to the Gen­es­is account of cre­ation, on the first day of cre­ation God said: “Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from dark­ness. God called the light day and the dark­ness night (Gen 1:3–5). God’s decision to cre­ate light on the first day and before every oth­er thing is not without reas­on. This light was to shine over every cre­ated being includ­ing humans. With time, this light assumed anoth­er dimen­sion. It took flesh and dwelt amongst man­kind. This light became the lamb of God who took away and who keeps tak­ing away the sin of the world and the sins of man­kind. Rightly did Jesus acclaim him­self the light of the world.

Conclusion

Jesus him­self was and still is, a per­fect salt of the earth and light of the world. Greedy reli­gious and civil lead­ers did everything to make him lose his salt­i­ness and integ­rity, but he did not suc­cumb to their tricks and threats. In like man­ner, he wants Chris­ti­ans to imit­ate the same stead­fast­ness. He wants the churches to be light to the world. But how can a Church where people are more inter­ested in power, money, riches and par­tis­an polit­ics be light of the world, to and for the people? Such of course is impossible! And what about you? Has your salt­i­ness been leached out? Does your light shine in your con­domin­i­um? In your place of work? In your school? In your shop? In your group? Among your friends and well-wish­ers? In your fam­ily? In your Church? And espe­cially in your own life? In a taste­less and dark world, let us be salt and light. Our light should shine before oth­ers in such a way that they may see our good deeds and glor­i­fy God (cf. Matt 5:14–16). Just as salt is used as a pre­ser­vat­ive and for season­ing, so should believ­ers ought to influ­ence the world pos­it­ively. To those who do not yet have the light in them, the dis­ciples should be their light.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 5^th Sunday of the year is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 91–97. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

 Email This Post