Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

 Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time [Mt 5:38-48]

19.02.2023

The Law of Non-retaliation and Love for Enemies

Readings: (1) Lev 19:1-2.17-18 (2) 1 Cor 3:16-23

1.  Theme in brief

Overcoming evil with good

2.   Focus Statement

Since we are God’s children, we must imitate God’s perfection by doing good to, praying for and greeting those who hate and persecute us or those who are evil and unrighteous.

3.   Explanation of the text

In  today’s gospel, just like last Sunday’s, Jesus once again “fulfills” or radicalizes two more old laws with his new understanding and interpretation of them, namely (1) the law of retaliation or the law of tit-for-tat (5:38) and (2) the law of hating one’s enemies (5:43) which is not directly mentioned in the OT. In plain language, the OT law of retaliation (also found in the ancient Code of Hammurabi) that commands “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Lev 24:20) means this: If your enemy destroys one of your eyes or breaks one of your teeth, you are legally permitted to destroy your enemy’s one eye or break a tooth, but not both the eyes or all the teeth. Your revenge has to be proportionate to the loss or injury caused to you by your enemy.

Though in modern view this law sounds barbaric, in ancient days it was meant to restrict or limit the enormity of vengeance and violence that was prevalent before this Code came into existence, like killing several people even when one was killed or wiping out the whole village for a wrong. This law was meant to enact fair justice among the people of ancient Israel. Jesus radicalizes even this limited retaliation permitted by the law by ruling it out altogether. He teaches his disciples to refrain from resisting an evildoer violently, or from the common practice of returning evil for evil (5:39); instead he teaches them to overcome evil with positive good.

Though there is no direct command in the OT to hate one’s enemies, Jesus here projects the prevailing mentality among Israelites in his days and states it in the form of a command: “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy” (5:43). It was understood that Israelites “hate” non-Israelites. Actually, the word used for “hate” in the original lanuage does not mean the strongest aversion or disgust for someone as we commonly understand. Plainly it means to love somebody less than others. In this text Jesus takes the command “to love your neighbour” beyond the narrow boundary of loving only fellow Israelites – as the Jews understood – to include loving one’s enemies also.

Who are our enemies?  When we analyse mn/ today’s gospel text, we come to know that our enemies are those who injure us (5:38), strike us (5:39), sue us and take away our belongings (5:40), compel us to work for them against our will (5:41), do not return what is borrowed from us (5:42), do evil (5:39), hate and persecute us (5:43-44), and are unrighteous (5:45). Jesus gives four examples to explain how to love this kind of people positively and conquer evil with good, which should be understood not in their literal but symbolic sense:

(1) Showing the other cheek to them (5:39) implies a refusal to return insult for insult from them. [In order to hit on the other cheek one has to use either the left hand or the back of one’s palm; both symbolize a great insult in Palestinian culture.] (2) Giving our cloak also if they forcibly take away our coat (5:40) means giving others more than what they ask. (3) Walking an extra mile if they force us to walk one mile (5:41) means going beyond what is asked of us, or doing much more than the minimum of what is expected of us. (4) Giving whatever the beggars and borrowers ask of us (5:42) means doing charity without expecting anything in return or willingness to give more than what is asked by those in need (5:42). (5) Praying for them (5:44) and greeting them (5:47).

Why should the disciples love their enemies? The reason given by Jesus for loving their enemies is to show their nature as God’s children (5:45).  If his disciples’ conduct does not reflect anything of God’s nature or character, how can they claim to be his children, or a reward from him (5:46)? God’s nature is so impartial and generous. He makes his sun rise and rain fall on the hideouts of terrorists and compounds of cloistered nuns equally (5:45). What greatness is there in calling oneself his disciple if one’s love is purely reciprocal, that is limited only to returning love for love? Even the sinful tax-collectors and hated Gentiles do that much (5:46-47). Instead, he tells his disciples to imitate the perfection of God himself, that is, his own nature of being holy, pure, faithful, generous, forgiving and single-minded.

4.   Application to life

In today’s gospel Jesus invites us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is. Here “perfection” does not mean totally flawless or faultless. What it means is that we, being God’s children, have to imitate God’s own nature or character such as his holiness, generosity, forgiveness and single-mindedness. It also implies acquiring God’s way of thinking, loving and forgiving. In other words, our conduct should correspond to our status or dignity as God’s children. In the OT, to be perfect means to be holy, “for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev 19:2). Holiness does not mean only regular prayer and church attendance. We become holy and imitate God’s own perfection by loving, praying for, and resisting the temptation to retaliate against those who injure us, strike us, take away our belongings, hate and persecute us or those who are evildoers and unrighteous. Again, since God provides necessary things such as sunshine and rain to the evil and the good or the righteous and the unrighteous, in order to be perfect like the heavenly Father we (his children) are to imitate his own qualities. Instead of retaliating evil with evil, we are called to return evil with good or with a loving deed. The word “perfect” can also mean complete or thorough.  When we love only our family members and friends, our love is incomplete. To do that one need not be a follower of Christ. All do it naturally. It is only when we love those who hate and persecute us, our love becomes complete.

It is clear, according to Jesus the reason why we are to love our enmies is because we are called to exhibit God’s own nature or qulaities as his children. To be children of the heavenly Father means striving day after day for the goal of treating our enemies as God treats them. It also means going beyond justice, beyond what others deserve or ask of us. It further implies imitating God’s own generosity and forgiveness by responding to hatred with love, refraining from all revenge and retaliation. Showing the other cheek does not mean allowing our enemies to attack us. It means not to return a slap for a slap, an insult for an insult or a hurt for a hurt, but instead do good to those who do such evil. Since our heavenly Father treats the good and the evil ones impartially, since we are his children, we too have to do the same as explained in the above-mentioned text.

Though Jesus identifies a number of enemies in today’s gospel (cf. explanation above), his list is not to be taken as exhaustive. We can extend it to include the following kind of enemies: our personal, national (e.g. India and Pakistan), political, religious and business enemies; those who hate, oppose, criticize, harm, challenge and speak ill of us, etc.  To find this kind of people, we need not go to a foreign or hostile land. Sometimes we can find some of them within the four walls of our own house and in our own neighbourhood. Even those whom we love genuinely can turn out to be our enemies. The law of retaliation – “an eye for eye and tooth for tooth” – is alive and active even today in other forms, such as revengeful aerial strikes to smash one’s national enemies totally, genocide, ethnic cleansing, communal riots, blacklisting of troublemakers by managements and governments. In our ordinary sense, love means a good feeling, a natural attraction or affection towards somebody. But the type of love (“agape” in Greek) advocated by Jesus goes beyond a good feeling, attraction or affection. What good feeling can we have for our enemies? Jesus does not command us to be affectionate towards our enemies, but he commands to do good also to those people towards whom we have no affection or attraction. To do this we need to make a decision of the mind almost everyday to do good to those whom we don’t feel like doing good.

Retaliation against the injury, harm and insult caused by our enemies is a natural instinct in us. Jesus calls us to go against our natural instinct that prompts us to return blow for blow. Given the human instinct for revenge, if all the citizens of the world were allowed to apply the law of retaliation mentioned above liberally, today most people would have been blind and toothless. Faith gives us what nature cannot give. With a deep faith we can rise above our human nature that cries for vengeance to regain our lost honour. Only God’s grace can sanctify and elevate our human nature and enable us to do good even to evildoers.

Jesus wants that we should avoid not only any sort of revenge but also actively and positively do good to above-mentioned enemies. St. Paul rightly projects the mind of Jesus when he tells the early Christians, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). The motive behind this is to win over our haters, persecutors and insulters with benevolence and generosity after God’s own heart. St. Paul further says that this kind of benevolence towards our enemies “will heap burning coals on their heads” (Rom 12:20) leading to a purification of their evil intentions. Modern St. Paul would have given the example of heaping ice cubes on their heads to melt their anger or resentment and eventually heart itself. A few years ago, in India we were touched by the example shown by Franciscan Clarist Sister Selmi, the younger sister of Sr. Rani Maria. She visited a prisoner named Mr Samundar Singh, who had brutally murdered Sr. Rani Maria by stabbing her about 54 times, to offer him a ‘rakhi’. [‘Rakhi’ is a band of string tied around the hand by a sister to her brother on a feast day (also called ‘RAKHI’) as a sign of sisterly love.] This benevolent gesture of public pardon by calling the murderer “my brother” melted his heart in such a way that he began to weep bitterly. Later on it led to his conversion from a murderer to a follower of Christ.

Jesus’ instruction on non-resistance of evildoers should be understood to mean avoidance of violent resistance that may breed further violence. That does not include the passive resistance which we sometimes need to offer to unjust oppressors and tormenters as exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King (Jr.). When we are wronged by those who hate and persecute us, our first reaction is to teach them a lesson. Jesus tells us not to return violence for violence. Instead of planning revenge and retaliation in our minds, he wants that we plan how to do good.

In Jesus’ time people prayed against their enemies so that God may punish them. Instead, he asks his disciples to pray for the reform of enemies. Since we cannot love easily those who hate and persecute us, he advocates the practice of praying for such people constantly so that with the power of prayer we may be able to overcome bitterness against them. Loving one’s enemies and praying for them is not natural but supernatural. Humanly speaking, what seems to be impossible can become possible with supernatural grace, as Jesus says in another occasion: “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). Whenever we run to God with the impossibility of forgiving an enemy who has hurt us so deeply, God tell us as he told St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9).

It’s prayer that gives us the power to move from our natural response of vengeance in the face of injury done to us by our enemies to the supernatural response of forgiveness and goodness towards them. It is immaterial whether our prayer will change or convert our enemies. Even if it does not change them, it will change our plan of retaliation against them. We cannot pray for our offenders while keeping hatred and revenge in our hearts. By our constant prayer, they get converted in our hearts first – though we do not know whether they will be converted in reality or not! We should leave it to God. Our prayer is a sure sign that we do not want to nurse hatred for our enemies and are interested in overcoming the harm done by them with the good we wish for them in prayer.

Jesus’ teaching urges us to make our love pro-active and not re-active or reciprocal. Re-active love means we return love for love, help for help, kindness for kindness, and do it only for those who love, help and are kind to us. What is so special about this type of reciprocal love? Jesus asks to go beyond this to make our love complete or perfect. Pro-active love involves doing good to people who do not do any good to us or harm us, or from whom we do not expect any good in return.

5.   Response to God's Word

As God’s children, instead of showing God’s magnanimity, do we go for personal vendetta and even justify it later? What is our response to the culture of hatred, revenge, violence and retaliation around us? Are we a part of it? Were there instances in our life when we won over our enemy’s good will through our kindness to him/her? If not, shall we try it?

6.  A prayer

Lord, I pray for those who are different from me, do not like me, whom I do not like, who get on my nerves, who have hurt me deeply, who insult me, who strike me, take away my belongings, force me to work for them and do not return what is borrowed from me. Holy Lord, purify my negative and bitter feelings towards such people and bless them. Amen.

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

 Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 5:17-37]

12.02.2023

Jesus’ New Law about Anger, Adultery, Divorce and Oaths

Readings: (1) Sir 15:15-20 (2) 1 Cor 2:6-10

1.  Theme in brief

Striking at the root of immoral acts.

2.  Focus Statement

Jesus calls us to live a life of greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees in areas of human relationships, sexual behaviour, marital fidelity and truthfulness, by striking at the root of all evil acts.

3.  Explanation of the text

In today’s gospel, Jesus says that he has not come to “abolish” the Old Testament Law but to “fulfil” it (5:17). The word “fulfil” means “to bring to its intended meaning” or to fill up what is lacking in it or to complete it. He neither contradicts nor replaces nor erases the Law. On the contrary, he gives it a new interpretation or meaning; or he intensifies, internalizes and radicalizes it. He focuses not only on external evil acts like murder, adultery, etc., but also on the wrong attitudes and evil motives that originate in human mind and eventually lead to those acts. Thus he asks his listeners to undertake an internal and reverse journey in their minds from the act of murder to harbouring of anger or resentment, and from the act of adultery to harbouring of lustful thoughts and desires in their hearts.

Today’s gospel text shows how Jesus fulfils the Law that forbids murder, adultery, divorce and false swearing by going beyond the traditinal understanding of these immoral acts in Judaism, or by deepening and radicalizing the commandments that forbid them. In other words, he fulfils the Law by extending/enlarging it beyond its letter to its spirit that touches upon the inner attitudes of humans. He does it by repeatedly contrasting the narrow understanding of the OT (“You have heard it was said….,” 5:21,27,31,33) with his new and broader interpretation (“but I say to you….,”5:22,28,32,34). Biblical scholars call these statements that radicalize the OT teachings ‘antitheses’ (opposite) to OT ‘theses’ (teachings). In today’s gospel we find the following of his antitheses: An extension of the OT law that forbids (1) murder to include all sorts of anger, resentment and revenge (5:21-22); (2) adultery to include all lustful desires (5:27-28); (3) divorce to include life-long fidelity of the spouses to each other (5:31-32); and (4) false swearing to exclude all oaths altogether (5:33-36). Thus he teaches his disciples to address human tendency to nurse anger or resentment in the heart, honour one’s matrimonial promises to be faithful to each other unto death and follow a path of absolute honesty and integrity.

By following this new meaning given to the Law, Jesus wants his disciples to live a life of righteousness or holiness higher than the scribes and Pharisees in above-mentioned four areas. For him, anger already carries murder in the form of a germ. He wants his disciples to strike at the very root of murder - their tendency to nurse anger, hatred, resentment, aggressiveness, insult, revenge and all sorts of violent behaviour against others. According to him, a sort of killing is done by heart-piercing words, abusive language and name-calling. Calling our brothers and sisters ‘You fool’ (5:22) may not sound highly abusive in our modern culture; but in the Bible it means invoking a divine curse on our brothers/sisters. Jesus advocates a remedy to hatred, resentment and vengeance – cultivating a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation (5:24). He says that any genuine worship or “offering our gifts at the altar” must be sustained by reconciliation of broken relationships with your brothers and sisters, if it has to be acceptable to the Lord (5:23-24). He says that the need of coming to terms with one’s opponent and taking concrete steps towards reconciliation are urgent before the matter further deteriorates and finally leads to a disaster like murder. He compares it to coming to terms with your accuser while still on the way to the court so that the judge may not throw you into prison (5:25).

Similarly, Jesus asks his disciples to strike at the root of committing adultery which can be traced to entertaining lustful desires in one’s heart; of divorce which is in marital infidelity. Further, he teaches that oaths and swearing are totally unnecessary and unwarranted if there is a general atmosphere of trust and honesty. They come into the picture because of human tendencies of lying, untruthfulness and dishonesty.

4.  Application to life

In today’s gospel, which is a part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we get a glimpse of the attitudes, intentions and motives a disciple needs to imbibe. He teaches us that we cannot be counted as citizens of a new society he has come to establish (called the Kingdom of Heaven or God) if we are content with only external observance of the Law like the Pharisees and fail to change or purify their inner (sinful) attitudes which are the roots of all evil actions. Whereas the Pharisees and scribes speak about sour fruits (evil actions), Jesus wants his disciples to strike at the roots of all sins or wrongdoings, found in their hearts from which evil actions proceed.

Here Jesus proposes a new way of life that goes beyond the teachings of the OT, and a new righteousness that exceeds the one practiced by the scribes and Pharisees in the OT. He neither abolishes the Law, nor keeps it as it is. Thus he upholds the principle of a continuity of the old with a change, that is, with a new meaning added to it. He seeks to radicalize it by broadening and deepening its meaning. Thus he fulfils or fills up the missing meaning in it or completes it. For Jesus, LOVE is the supreme law and all other laws should be subordinated to it. According to him salvation is not guaranteed by mere external observance of law but by making love as our guiding principle in human relationships and keeping the spirit of the law instead of only the letter. The greater righteousness advocated by him under God’s Kingdom goes beyond external observation to include a change of attitudes and heart, and a purification of inner motives.

Among the four OT laws radicalized by Jesus in today’s gospel – namely, murder, adultery, divorce and oaths – let us take only the first one for our reflections, namely, “You shall not murder”. According to him, just avoiding murder is not enough. Anger is the root of murder. When we overcome or master anger, murder or any violence becomes impossible. Neither ‘murder’ is done by knives, guns and terrorists’ bombs alone nor is violence present only in the bomb or in the killer’s gun. Rather. it is deeply rooted human heart. The fruits are seen when we nurse resentment and revenge against our offenders which goes for days, months and sometimes for years. According to Jesus the spirit of this fifth commandment goes much deeper than external act of murder – transformation of a bitter and vengeful heart in which it is rooted. The evil roots of resentmernt, vengeance or retalitaion must be tackled (uprooted) so that the evil fruits will not emerge. We observe an atmosphere of all-prevailing violence in our society that causes a real threat to human life. Because of its omnipresence, experts speak of a culture of violence existing and accepted as normal by an incresing number of people in our world today. Here the term ‘culture’ refers to attitudes and behaviour which accept violence as inevitable to solve human and social problems without considering its terrible consequences. In the midst of such an attitude, Jesus invites us to create a culture of active non-violence which is life-promoting. His teaching motivates us to take active steps to overcome violent tendencies within us and in our communities, instead of merely feeling sad about it.

We can do it in various ways, such as (1) by consciously cultivating non-violent language in our speech; (2) by following the path of non-aggressive behaviour in our personal lives; (3) by cooperating with so many good willed people in our world who promote non-violence; and (4) by promoting non-violent language and behaviour among children. I am shocked to hear about a video game played by children in their mobile phone: If you shoot down your neighbour’s dog you gain 50 points; if you shoot down your neighbour 100 points and if you shoot down your parents 200 points. See, how the culture of violence is subtly injected into the tender minds of children! Listen to the vulgar, abusive and violent language used by a number of people, including children – much worse than the words “You fool” used in today’s gospel (5:22). Think of the name-calling done on people of a different race or ethnic group in any society, and the domestic violence perpetrated against women and domestic helps. Our everyday language is full of violent words such as “bash”, “bang”, “smash”, “thrash”, etc. Many of us say: “So and so should be thoroughly hammered…. Shoot/ kick/ thrash him/her….”, etc. Often we approve and laugh over such language of spitting poison of bitterness when we hear others speaking against those who have wronged them. Children imitate these things from their parents and companions.

When we read about the first murder recorded in the Bible – in the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-16) – we come to know how Cain’s envy and anger towards his brother Abel ended up in hatred and cold-blooded murder. We have to admit that there is a Cain sitting inside of each one of us who broods over the wrong done by others, imagines and plans terrible things against those who have wronged or offended us. This Cain is nothing else but our own mind that gives in to aggressive and violent behaviour against our brothers and sisters. This story makes us deeply aware that there is something of the wild beast in all of us lurking at the door, but we must “master it” as the Bible says (Gen 4:7). If violence which is inherent in human nature is not contained or mastered, it will create havoc in human/social relationships and contribute to the all-prevailing culture of violence. Like Cain we too try to cover-up our guilt and refuse to accept responsibility for our violent behaviour by saying: "Am I my brother's keeper (Gen 4:9)?" God’s voice is clear to us: “Are you not responsible for your brothers and sisters? Are you not answerable to your God and society for the prevailing culture of violence in the world?”

Anger and resentment have roots in our rational nature. Rationally we brood over the injury or harm done, or hurt caused to us by evildoers/ adversaries and demand satisfaction for it. Violent and aggressive behaviour in words and deeds is a common means of dealing with injured pride. But the fact is, even after evildoers get their punishment, including imprisonment or capital punishment – as it happens in some serious court cases – people’s anger, hatred and revenge does not end. Let us take Jesus’ example. While undergoing the agony of crucifixion, Jesus made an excuse for the evil action of his crucifiers below the cross by praying for them to his Father with the words that they did not know what they were doing (Lk 23:34). Though they knew that they were crucifying an innocent man, he made an excuse for their action. Moved by this example, can we also admit our ignorance of the motives, background and emotional state of our offenders? We really do not know why so and so behaved with us in such a nasty manner, or was rude to us. Jesus lays down the principle of compassion for the weakness of such people which leads to forgiveness from the heart.

Jesus further instructs us to cultivate a spirit of forgiveness of and reconciliation with those who have offended us as well as those whom we have offended (5:23-26). This, according to him, is an indispensable precondition for Christian praise and worship. Worship of God cannot be performed by an impure heart infected with resentment, bitterness and revenge. He wants that true worship of the heart must be sustained by brotherly/sisterly love and reconciliation. He gives the example of an accused man taking step to reconcile with his accuser while on the way to the court (5:25-26), to emphasize the point that the offended party should take the first step towards reconciliation rather than the offender.

It is easier to offer sacrifices and attend religious services than to forgive an offender from one’s heart; is it not? It is easier to avoid committing an act of murder than removing anger, resentment, hatred and bitterness from the heart; is it not? Heart of hearts many of us are happy that we have never committed murder and adultery; hence are righteous or holy before God. But today’s gospel asks those of us who consider ourselves righteous and “spiritual-minded” to answer this question: “Have you not ‘murdered’ the good reputation of your opponents/ offenders/ adversaries through defamation, slander, character assassination and using abusive language against them? By spitting venom against them and going after their blood, have you not ‘murdered’ them in your heart? How many people have you stabbed, not in the front but in the back?”

Harbouring hatred is also serious enough because murder is conceived by hatred.  There are people who nurse so much hatred in the heart that they would have preferred to murder their opponents or enemies. But they refrain from doing so because of fear of punishment (from God or from the court of law), social stigma and losing social respectability.  Hatred and crying for vengeance is like committing murder in one’s heart. Does Jesus’ teaching that we should reconcile with our opponents and enemies before we begin to worship God or offer our gifts on the altar make any church-goer return half the way? Of course, we need not take it literally. But Jesus asks us to examine how many times and how often we have offered our gifts on the altar with all resentment, vengeance, enmity and hatred in our heart.

Again, what is the use if we pat ourselves on the back saying that we have never committed adultery, but continue to lust after other men or women, and become slaves to cyber-sex or pornography in the media especially in the internet?

5.  Response to God's Word

Do our religious practices influence our inner attitudes and motives? Do we nurse resentment and revenge against our offenders and refuse to talk with them for days, months and sometimes for years? Do we feel we too are directly or indirectly responsible for the prevailing culture of violence in the world? What steps we would like to take to promote a culture of active non-violence? Is our worship sustained by brotherly/sisterly love and reconciliation?

6.  A prayer

Purify our hearts and inner attitudes, O Lord. Teach us the language of love and the need to cultivate diligently non-violent and non-aggressive communication. Give us courage and humility to overcome the prevailing culture of violence in our world by seeking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation. Amen.

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 5:13-16]

05.02.2023

The Call of Disciples as Salt and Light

Readings: (1) Is 58:7-10 (2) 1 Cor 2:1-5

1.  Theme in brief

Our vocation to season human society and light up the world

2.  Focus Statement

A Christian disciple is called to give taste or flavour to human society, preserve it from evil of corruption and be pure like salt; and be a light shining from a high place in the darkness of our world.

3.  Explanation of the text

In today’s gospel Jesus explains the vocation and mission of his disciples in the world or human society with emphatically repeated words, “you (my disciples) are called to be salt and light”. He uses three metaphors to explain their vocation or role: (1) salt of the earth; (2) city built on a hill; and (3) light of the world (5:13-14). Jesus does not tell his disciples to become like salt or light, as many of us understand his saying. They already are salt and light by their faith in him. Now they have to manifest what they already are. How? Of course, by exhibiting the qualities of salt and light in their personal conduct, so that their life may become a witness for him and bring glory to their Father in heaven (5:16).

The qualities of salt are these: (1) purity because of its white colour (if it is “salt of the earth,” that is,  rock-salt extracted from the mines); (2) giving taste/flavour to food, or seasoning food; and (3) preserving food (especially meat and fish) from decay or corruption. Jesus tells his disciples not to lose their saltiness or taste; instead always be true to their vocation to remain ‘salty.’ He warns them if they lose their seasoning and preservative qualities, they become useless disciples like insipid salt that is thrown out and trampled under foot (5:13). Not only here, but in some other parts of the gospel too Jesus upholds this dictum: Uselessness or fruitlessness always invites disaster or rejection (cf. Lk 13:9; Jn 15:6).

The disciples are like a city built on a hill or mountain that cannot be hidden. If this is true about ancient cities, how much more about modern ones. In modern age such cities or towns, far from hiding, marvellously shine even from a far distance with all types of electrical illumination at night. Jesus says that his disciples cannot hide their faith. If they practice the beatitudes that were proclaimed in last Sunday’s gospel (Mt 5:1-12), their life-style, behaviour and action will be clearly visible to others.

Light symbolizes the following: (1) a thing that shines in such a way that it can be seen by others; (2) a medium through which darkness is dispelled; (3) that which reveals what is hidden; (4) that which shows or guides the way, or becomes a beacon. Now we can understand that Jesus gives his disciples a mission to light up the world, dispel its darkness, reveal God’s presence through their lives and guide others to God’s ways or his values. Jesus further speaks about the foolishness of lighting a lamp and covering it up with a basket instead of putting it on a high place such as a lampstand, so that all can see its light (5:15). It is clear that our light is meant for shining before people and not for hiding.

The ultimate purpose of shining their light is to draw attention to God who is at work in and through their “good deeds”. Their good conduct or deeds are like a light shining from a high place attracting people and bringing glory not to themselves but to God (5:16).

4.  Application to life

In the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-10), Jesus has already given the blueprint of an exemplary Christian discipleship. In today’s gospel he uses three metaphors to describe the disciples who practice the norms laid down in the Beatitudes. They are compared to salt of the earth, city built on a hill and light of the world. Their vocation is to give taste to unsavoury situations, light up the dark areas and shine brightly so that they are seen from afar. These metaphors are a beautiful reflection on the true value, preciousness and privileged nature of our Christian vocation. Our vocation lays upon us a tremendous responsibility for the world. As disciples, we are called to live out our identity in the world by exhibiting the nature of salt and light.

First of all, as salt, all our motives and intentions must be pure. Secondly, like salt, we have to add joy to our daily work and give taste to tasteless situations in our lives. We are to constantly reflect how we can bring joy into our life in the midst of routine and monotony of doing the same work every day. To add flavour to this situation, we are to radiate joy and optimism in the midst of hardships. Thirdly, we are called to improve the quality of human life by improving the quality of our service and contributions to human society. We are to make life tasty not only for ourselves but also for others. Just as people add salt to food to make it tasty, we are called to add value and quality to the world or to human lives. If we ourselves lose quality of life, how can we bring quality in others’ life? Fourthly, like salt, we are called to preserve our society from moral corruption, evil and ungodly ways.

Neither salt nor light exist for themselves. The purpose of salt and light is met only when they are used, poured out and spent. Similarly, neither Christ’s disciples nor the Church exist for their own sake but for the world’s. As explained above, salt has three main qualities: seasoning, purifying and preserving. Salt keeps food from being insipid and preserves it from corruption. In order to give taste, salt must come into contact with food. Similarly, a Christian must touch the issues and concerns of humans and their society in order to give taste to it, and preserve it from corruption and decay.

If table-salt is kept in a nice sprinkler on the table, it doesn’t do any good. When it is sprinkled on food and gets dissolved into it, it adds taste. Similarly, if light is covered and kept hidden, it cannot show anything to anybody. Only when it is brought out in a dark place, it can brighten up the area. The purpose of our Christian vocation is to fulfil our mission to sprinkle salt all over our society. Far from non-involvement, we are called to influence every sphere of human society – social, economic, political and cultural – with the values of the gospel. Instead of compromising with sin or evil of the world, our mission is to save the world from sin.

In the given gospel text, actually Jesus does not say that we should become “the salt of the earth” and “light of the world.” By our baptism, we are already are salt, city on hilltop and light. Jesus motivates and challenges us to live out this vocation in the modern world and show in our conduct what we have already become. Hence, we have to manifest to the world who we actually are by staying salty. The word used for “losing taste” or becoming “tasteless” in original language (Greek) literally means “to become foolish.” Christians who do not stay salty or lose their saltiness are making fools of themselves. Instead of being salt of the earth, they tend to be “sugar of the earth.” Salt has a bite of its own, especially when it is applied on a fresh wound. We are called to stay ‘salty’ even when others oppose us for this quality. We should resist the temptation to make the gospel either a sugar-coated cake or salt-free potato chips. We can season the earth only when we live a sugar-free gospel and sprinkle sufficient salt on our ‘potato chips,’ that is, our life and social situation.

By the example of our lives we are called to preserve the world from total moral corruption and decay. By our influence and personal and communitarian example, we save the world from universal evil. We are called to purify human society from corruption in mass media, commerce, politics, public life, and even within the Church. We have an obligation to arrest corruption in our society by our own purity. We are called to exert a moral influence on our society.

Jesus warns that there is a possibility that salt may lose its saltiness or salty taste or value. Losing zeal, vigour and enthusiasm is also like losing savour. How do we lose our saltiness or taste? Or, let us put the question positively: How can we give taste? We can do it by (1) our positive and optimistic way of thinking; (2) showing enthusiasm and zeal for life and service; (3) radiating joy; (4) showing a taste or interest in God or in spiritual matters and leading others to develop a taste for spiritual values; and (4) avoiding destructive criticism and tendencies to become prophets of gloom or doom; etc. In the beginning of any new venture, job or entering into a new state of life, we show a lot of initial enthusiasm, but our fervour dies after some time. When we show a lack of zeal, vitality and joy in our behaviour and action, we become tasteless or flavourless Christians. Jesus says that such flavourless disciples are useless, and may be rejected by the world. So we have to ask whether we are worthwhile or worthless Christians.

 Christ is the light of the world (Jn 8:12). As bearers of his light, we too are the light that shines in the darkness of the world. In other words, we are called to be a beacon (light in a high place) in the midst of darkness, chaos, unrest and sadness. Yes, we must be a beacon of truth in a world of sin, dishonesty and falsehood. Today, Jesus makes us aware that, as his disciples, it is not enough to attend devotions, novenas, retreats and healing sessions without any concern for darkness in the world. Our world, in spite of being basically good, has enough of darkness in it. People who often suffer the darkness of evil in the world get frustrated. Just as the light burns for others, we live not only for ourselves, but for others by flashing our light in darkened areas. Like the sun, we radiate the light of love, service and truth to all around us.

Jesus tells us to shed light of faith, hope, charity, mercy, peace, justice and honesty or truthfulness amidst darkness that negates these values. He tells us to light up our workplace, family and neighbourhood with these values. Bribery, injustice, exploitation, widespread violence and so many other evils lead the society to decay. Unless there are some people to uphold moral purity and preservative quality of salt, this decay will be worse. Therefore, we should not forget to penetrate human society with the sprinkle of a little bit of salt wherever we go and work. When we dilute the message of Christ and compromise with evil, or fail to live according to our Christian vocation we become insipid (flavourless). Then we lose our opportunity to bear testimony to Christ which is like losing our flavour and becoming useless disciples.  

Both the metaphors of a city built on hill and a lamp put on an elevated place emphasize the fact that our Christian vocation is not purely a private affair, but is of public nature. As followers of Christ we are not secret agents. As nobody dreams of putting a light under a bushel, we have to be sure that the reason for our existence as Christians is to give light to those who surround us. Our faith is not meant for hiding; it must be shown not so much by the cross we wear on our chests, but in our good conduct or loving service. In the area where I work as a missionary, a number of villages are called ‘Tongritoli’ or ‘Pahartoli’ (meaning a village on a hill or mountain). Can such villages hide from being seen from far? We are often tempted to hide our light in the following manner: by not speaking when we must tell the truth; by compromising with the values of the world; by colluding with the evil; by closing our eyes on the needs of others, especially of the poor; etc.

If we really want to be salt and light, we must behave and act differently from the general current of our society. People notice it. They may even ask us: “Why do you behave differently? Why don’t you follow the crowd?” Whenever we bear witness to Christ through our good conduct and works of mercy others recognize Christ in us and it becomes the cause of giving glory to our heavenly Father and not to ourselves. If so, where is the place for arrogance, working for one’s own name and fame or taking credit for oneself?

5.  Response to God's Word

Are we really living out our vocation and mission as Christian disciples? How do we fulfill our call to manifest “saltiness” in our workplace, neighbourhood, family and community? What are the dark areas in our family life, friendships, work relations, and neighbourhood? Do we try to make our Christian identity visible through our good conduct or keep our faith in hiding? Are our motives pure, or selfish and insincere? Do we withdraw from good work when people reject, ridicule and oppose us because of our ‘salty’ nature? Do we succumb to public pressure to accept corrupt ways of the world? In the past, when and how did we hide our faith?

6.  A prayer

O Lord, give us the courage to preserve our society from moral corruption, evil and ungodly ways. As bearers of your light, grant that we may shine brightly in the darkness of the world. Give us the grace not to hide our light out of fear of opposition and criticism. May we attract people to you by our good conduct or deeds and bring glory to you. Amen.