Homily for the
5th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Feb. 5, 2023
Matt 5: 13-16
St. Francis Xavier,
Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption,
Bronx
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You are the salt of the earth’” (Matt 5: 13).
https://www.phrases.org.uk/images/the-salt-of-the-earth.jpg?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb54
The gospel reading this week picks up where
we left off last week. We continue
listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which—you recall—began with the
beatitudes, the blessings pronounced upon those who practice the virtues that
Jesus preached and practiced.
Jesus follows by calling his followers “the
salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (5:14).
He indicates immediately that we use salt as
seasoning, something to improve the taste of our food (5:13). That’s a universal. Think of how you use it at your dinner table
for eggs or vegetables. How addictive is
a bag of potato chips or a can of nuts!
Until modern refrigeration became available,
salt was also used universally as a preservative. Meat and fish had to be salted before they
could be kept more than a day or 2, e.g., to provide food for a family, for an
army on the march, for sailors on a long voyage. Thus salt was a precious commodity for daily
life, even an essential one.
Salt also bears symbolic value, representing
wisdom, purity, fidelity, and friendship.
One website informs us: “Salt became a symbol of purity
because it was used by an ancient civilization to ward off evil spirits,
mummify bodies, and treat wounds. Salt gained its fidelity symbolism from
religious folklore whereby it was used to create binding covenants usually
together with other sacrifices.”[1] If we refer to someone as “the salt of the
earth,” we’re paying a high compliment, saying he or she is a person of
integrity, a contributor to the welfare of society.
Jesus is advising us to bring a healthy flavor
to society by virtue of our being his disciples. He’s advising us to preserve our families and
friends in goodness. He’s advising us to
demonstrate faithfulness and purity in our words and behavior. Those who associate with us—relatives, neighbors,
co-workers, even complete strangers—ought to benefit from the association, even
without our preaching to them explicitly.
With our immediate family, we do need to express our closeness to Jesus,
e.g., by praying together, by teaching the truths of our faith to our children,
by training them in virtue.
esus continues with a warning: “If salt loses its taste … it’s no longer
good for anything but to be thrown out” (5:13).
Of what use for the kingdom of heaven is a disciple who doesn’t actually
heed what Jesus teaches. If a disciple
is a learner—that’s what the word means—but hasn’t learned Jesus, doesn’t talk
like Jesus, doesn’t act like Jesus, doesn’t think like Jesus, that so-called
disciple has lost his taste. Flavorless
salt is to be thrown out. Jesus speaks
in various places about people being expelled from the kingdom, cast into the
outer darkness (Matt 25:30) or into eternal fire (Matt 7:19; 18:8; 25:41).
A self-described Christian who doesn’t pray is
in danger. A self-described Christian
who maintains a wicked style of life or teaches evil—think about various forms
of corrupt behavior or the public policies promoted by some people who say
they’re Catholic—such a person is in danger.
Jesus expects us to add a good flavor to the
world, show good deeds. It’s not that
our good deeds will merit salvation for us, but that our good deeds will give
the world evidence of God’s goodness:
“they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (5:16). As Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount,
we’ll hear what some of our good deeds must be, like patience, forgiveness,
chastity, and honesty. Stay tuned next
week. Better yet, take up your New
Testament, read it, and absorb it into your heart.
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