Homily for 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 8, 2026
Matt 5: 13-16
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

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“Jesus said to his disciples:  ‘You are the light of the world.  Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Matt 5: 14, 16)

Last week we began 3 weeks of gospel readings from the Sermon on the Mount, a fundamental core of Christ’s teachings.  Right after laying out the Beatitudes, the dangers of discipleship, and discipleship’s rewards, Jesus compares his followers to salt, a lofty city, and light.

Light is a constant theme in the sacred Scriptures, right from the 3d verse of the book of Genesis:  “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (1:3).  That divinely created light, according to Genesis, overcame the initial darkness of the universe (1:2).

St. John’s Gospel, modeling its opening on that 1st chapter of Genesis, tells us, “All things came to be thru” the divine Word, and “what came to be thru him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:1-5).  Further on, St. John quotes Jesus’ announcement to crowds of people in Jerusalem, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (8:12).  Jesus overcomes the darkness in our lives:  sin and death.

That’s why the Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, refer to Baptism as “enlightenment.”  Baptism joins us to Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us:  “This bath is called enlightenment….  Having received in Baptism the Word, ‘the true light that enlightens every man,’ the person baptized has been ‘enlightened,’ he becomes a ‘child of light,’ indeed, he becomes ‘light’ himself” (CCC 1216, adapted).

So Jesus tells his disciples that they are light in themselves and light for the world.  Those who practice the virtues he teaches in the Beatitudes (last Sunday’s teaching) possess his divine light.  But the light isn’t for ourselves; it’s for the world.  “A lamp … is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house” (Matt 5:15).  “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (5:16).

That is, whatever virtues we have must be put into practice, must be exercised in action.  Our faith, our charity, our patience, our gentleness, our kindness, our humility, our honesty must be seen by others—not so that people will exclaim, “Oh, how wonderful you are!  How holy!” but so that people will see Christ acting in us and thru us.

Isaiah today commands us, in God’s name, to “remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech” (Is 58:7-10), which is sound advice in this age of political division and mud-slinging and bias against a whole lot of people.  He commands, “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked.”  He doesn’t tell us to restrict our concern only to our friends or our fellow citizens.  It’s an open-ended command.  Our country ought to be ashamed of the disgraceful abuse of immigrants—our bishops and the Holy Father have said that.  We ought to be ashamed of having canceled almost all our foreign aid programs—feeding the hungry and combating disease and providing education—while cutting the taxes of our wealthiest and most powerful citizens.[1]

Christ the light of the world wants to shine on others thru us.  We show others the power and goodness of Christ so that they may come to him, learn from him, grow in him to be closer to God our Father.  In and thru Christ, we glorify God.

Just by coming to church at an early hour on Sunday, you’re glorifying God our Father and giving good example to your fellow parishioners and your neighbors.  If you’re a parent or a grandparent, you reveal the light of Christ to youngsters by teaching them to pray, by catechizing them, by giving them the good example of virtue.  We’re citizens of our blessed country, and we can be light by bringing Christ’s teachings to our civil life, our culture, and our politics.

I’ll end by quoting something our new archbishop said yesterday:  “We exist to follow Jesus, who fed the hungry, healed those ill in body and spirit, rejected hatred, and proclaimed love.”[2]

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[1] After I drafted this, I found in the NYT of Saturday, 2/7/26, on p. A8 a full-page, amply illustrated article, “After U.S. Aid Cuts, ‘Biblical Diseases’ Could Return in Africa” (‘Biblical Diseases’ Could Resurge in Africa, Health Officials Fear - The New York Times).

[2] Dave Collins, Associated Press, “New Catholic archbishop of New York wants a church that ‘shows respect for all’ and builds unity,” at CRUX online, 2/7/26.