Its up to us - To be that “light”

Today at Holy Mass we hear Jesus say in the Gospel of St Matthew that…."You are the salt of the earth”……Which is a huge compliment - Right?!?………In Jesus’ day salt was used as something to preserve food due to the fact they did not have refrigeration…Salt was an essential commodity………But Jesus did not end there - He followed up his statement with this…..”But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”…How does “salt lose its taste”? - How does a Catholic loses his / her impact on the world?…….By living outside the state of grace……….Jesus founded a Church…Remember, Jesus did not write a book - The Bible came roughly four hundred years after Christ - But Jesus founded a Church - To give us the Sacraments, which are “the medicine” for a fallen world…..So again, how do we stay in the state of grace? - By not sinning morally - By going to frequent Sacramental Confessions - By receiving the Blessed Sacrament each Sunday at Mass…..And when we do this……We will become a “light to the world” and a “city set on a hill”……We must comes to understand that our “light” does not belong to us - It comes from the Holy Spirit…..Our job is to make room for the Holy Spirit, by “clearing away” all the “stuff” in our life that “gets in the way”…….When a Catholic does this and lives Sacramentally, he / she makes room for the Holy Spirit….That is how we are “salt and light”…..Nothing we do are self manufacture this state of being…..…However, it is through our cooperation with Christ and his Church that we “shine” in a dark world….St Paul in the second reading today brings this point home…Remember, Paul was a highly educated man - He was greatly gifted! - Yet, in this passage he takes no credit for what he does…Why? - Because Paul knows that only God can pierce the hearts of men….Mere words will never make that happen, even if the words are well said and well intentioned…….”When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom. but on the power of God”……….God continues to use the most unlikely of people to bring his message to the world…….The more we empty ourself, the more room we make for the Holy Spirit…….This is how we reach the unreachable…….”Through 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.” - Believe it and be not afraid!

“I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life”

Many Catholics in their life have heard great homilies at Mass…..Many priests are extremely gifted and can deliver a great message….But after hearing such a message the question becomes - Were you changed by it?…..Words while they resonate for a short period of time within the human heart are just simply words….However, witnessing the Holy Spirit work through a person is something of a different matter…..Such a witness “stops the world in its tracks”……It leaves the hardest of hearts speechless……Sacrificial love lived out, which is empowered by Sacramental living is the witness Catholics need to project to the world……For example - A Catholic man and a woman, united in the bond of marriage, who are open to life raising many children……A priest living humbly and speaking boldly the eternal truths of the Catholic faith from the pulpit……We Catholics must “stand in the breach” of our fallen world and that will not happen if we do not live sacramentally and are not a people of deep prayer………Before I was married, every Advent I would travel to India to serve the poor with Mother Teresa’s sisters…..When I would go, people would literally hand me money…I would not even ask for it…They would just give it to me…..And I would give this money to the Missionaries of Charity in India…..Why do you think that happened?- People just handing my thousands of dollars - People do not just give people money in this world - Right?!?……The answer is - The service God was working through me resonated deeply within the human heart to those around me…It clearly was not me!!! - No one has EVER given me money…But what God was doing through me “spoke” to the world around me….This is a small example of how we as Catholics must strive to be “salt and light” in the world….We must live our Catholics faith radically and sacrificially - Giving of ourself until it hurts - That is what real love is - Love must “cost us”…And when we do this - The world will take note!….Our life will challenge the status quo….Our life’s example will cause people to question choices made…Our joy and peace will radiate into the darkest of places and into closed hearts…..This is how we “change the world”…Mere words will never accomplish this kind of lasting transformation……However, before Catholics “change the world” - We must be changed from the inside out ourself………..Our lives should make no sense to the secular world - When the secular sees your life - They should say to themselves - ‘How does this person do what they do?”….And when they say that and if they direct that statement to you - Your response as a Catholic should be…..”It is not I but Christ who lives in me”!

“His heart is steadfast; he shall not fear. Lavishly he gives to the poor; His justice shall endure forever; his horn shall be exalted in glory.”

Today at Mass Jesus tells us we as Catholics must we a “sign” to an unbelieving world…That means we cannot be like the world - Right?!?…….We must be and live differently - Right?!?……….Is that what is happening?…….”Going along to get along” is not going to “cut it” - That is how - ”Salt loses its taste, no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”…….If we are to be “the light of the world, we need to get serious!….And then as Cardinal John Henry Newman put it so eloquently…..” Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others; the light, Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching: not by words, but by our example”…….One solitary “light” is more powerful than all the darkness oil the world - We have within ourselves the “power” to be “that light”……..Its up to us - To be that “light”…………JMJ