Homily for 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2023
Introduction
We continue to read
from the Sermon on the Mount, in which last week Jesus taught us in the
Beatitudes how to be blessed or holy.
Today he teaches another lesson, which is, how to make our holiness help
other people to be holy. To make his
point he uses three images, with which we should be very familiar, that his followers must be the salt of the earth, the light of the world and
a city built on a hillside. For all
three do not exist for themselves but for something else.
Let us reflect on these images a little.
Scripture and Theology
First, Jesus says to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth." Salt has three common uses, as an antiseptic, as
a preservative and as seasoning.
·
From ancient times salt has
been used as an antiseptic, to kill germs.
Back in the day, people cleaned chicken with salt to prevent
salmonella. Salt has been used to clean
wounds, something my mother did liberally when I was growing up in Uganda. And today I gargle with salt to cure my
sore-throat.
·
Secondly, salt is a
preservative. Again, in the absence of
fridges and freezers, the only way to preserve meat or fish was to salt or
smoke them. Salt draws out the moisture
and decomposition does not take place.
·
The third use of salt is as
seasoning. Salt brings out the flavour
in food. For people without the wealth
of spices that we have here in New Orleans, unless they add salt, the food is
very insipid and bland, as anyone on a salt-free diet would testify.
And so, like salt, Christians should do all
three things: they should preserve what is best in society; Christians should
flavour society with some of the best teaching of Jesus like the Beatitudes
which we heard last Sunday; Christians should be an antiseptic in society,
removing evil that damages human life.
Next Jesus uses the image of light, telling
his followers: “You are the light of the
world.” At the time of Jesus having
light, especially at night could not be taken for granted. Homes in ancient Palestine, like homes in
most pre-industrial societies, generally had one room with no windows and only
a door. When the door was closed, the
house would be pitch black. The only
light source was a small oil lamp. The
only way the lamp would illuminate the whole room was if it was placed on a
stand or ledge above everybody’s head, to avoid anybody blocking the light. Without light, nobody could do anything
productive: no guests, no reading, no socialising, no work, perhaps only
sleeping. Light brought illumination.
Again, like light, Christians should
illuminate both the good and the bad in society. When with our Scriptures shed light on
society's values, we reveal what builds us up and what is truly dysfunctional;
and that is our calling.
The third image of the city, serves a
similar purpose to that of a lamp. In
that part of the world, most cities were built on hillsides for protection, but
also to serve as points of navigation.
Even our own city of New Orleans, although it is not built on a hillside
serves as point of navigation for boats and ships on the Mississippi river;
especially at night they use the city lights to guide their movement.
Therefore, like the city on the hillside,
Christians should help society navigate away from the boulders and rocks of
evil, towards the safe shore of heaven.
Christians should be the GPS that directs society towards the good and
away from evil.
So all images of salt, light and a city exist,
not for themselves, but for others. The
point of Jesus then is that the Christian faith and people do not exist for themselves,
but for others. When we are the salt of
the earth, the light of the world and a city built on a hillside, we are winning
salvation, not only for ourselves, but for others too. Jesus says so elsewhere: "Just so, your light must shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."
Christian Life
Much good can come from Christians being
good witnesses to the gospel, showing off what Jesus teaches as it were. Mahatma Ghandi once said that he liked Jesus
Christ and what he had to say; not so much Christians, because they did not
live up to that message. Therefore, we
must witness to the gospel with our works.
For example, the last pagan emperor, Julian
once wrote to a pagan priest chastising him because of the behaviour of
Christians. He said:
when it came about that the poor were
neglected and overlooked by the [pagan] priests, then I think the impious
Galilaeans [i.e., Christians] observed this fact and devoted themselves to
philanthropy. . . . (Julian, Fragment of a Letter to a Priest, 337, in The Works of the Emperor Julian, II, trans. Wilmer Cave Wright (New
York: The MacMillan Co., 1913). [They] support not only their poor, but ours
as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us” (To Arsacius, High-Priest of Galatia,
69; in The Works of the Emperor Julian,
III, trans. Wilmer Cave Wright [New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923]) ) .
These early Christians by their acts of
love, clearly understood the message of Jesus that they were to be the salt of
the earth, the light of the world, a city built on a hilltop, which directs
people to the saving message of Christ.
One of the things most people who visit
Uganda notice, and I hope you will visit my home country one day, is that the
first churches, both Catholic and Protestant are built on top of hills. You can see them from miles away. That is a good thing if you don’t have GPS
and are trying to get there. Of course,
not so good, for the people who have to walk to church on Sunday, for whom it
is an uphill task. These churches
literally cities built on a hillside.
But even better was the work that the
missionaries themselves did. When the missionaries came to Uganda, they not
only built churches and preached the gospel, they also lived out the message of
the gospel in addressing the material needs of the people especially through
education and medical care. And the
Church in Ugandan continues to do so.
The churches became a focal point for not just religion, but also
education and medical care and other social services. By their work among the poor and needy, these
missionaries became the salt that flavoured the community, the light that
pointed them away from evils to a better life, the city of God to which
everybody flocked. They did what our
first reading told us: "Share your
bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked
when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own." And like the first Christians, they did not
discriminate as to whom they helped, Catholic or Protestant, Christian or
pagan. They did not help because those
people were Christian, but because they who helped were Christians.
That is what our Catholic Charities does
today even here in our own community.
That is what Catholic Relief Services does abroad, not just helping
people, but by helping them point them to Jesus Christ, who inspires all our work. This past week the Holy Father has been
visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Among the groups he met are charitable groups that help the poor. This is what he told them:
While so many today dismiss the poor, you
embrace them; while the world exploits them, you encourage them. . . . I would
like to make better known what you are doing, to promote growth and hope in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and on this entire continent. I came here out
of a desire to be a voice for the voiceless.
Then he concluded that helping the poor is
not mere philanthropy; for Christians it is faith, for faith without works is
dead.
Conclusion
At the end of today’s
Mass, the deacon will dismiss us with the words, “Go in peace, glorifying the
Lord by your life” or “God and announce the gospel of the Lord. How will you and I go about doing that? How will be go about being the salt of the
earth, the light of the world, and a city built on a hillside?
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