“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Sunday, 5th February 2017.
Fifth Week in the Ordinary Time
Is 58:7-10;
Ps 112: 4-9;
1Cor 2: 1-5;
Mt 5:13-16
SALT AND LIGHT TO THE WORLD!
Christianity is not a private religion. Christianity is a vision which is meant to change the world and there is no doubt that, to a great extent, it has. However, it seems like some followers of Christ play ‘hide and seek’. They don’t demonstrate their faith or rather don’t actively live their faith. Some other Christians hide by getting lost in the crowd. They hide their “faith” by going along with the crowd, participating in various activities with others that are not appropriate for true believers. When we embrace the world and its standards, instead of finding acceptance, we end up getting trampled by the world. When we hide our faith by living just as the world lives, the world overruns us.
However, if you’re living as a light, demonstrating God’s love, acceptance and grace, people will be drawn to you in their times of darkness like a fly to a lamp. There is only one reason for us to be salt and light for others and that is so people may be drawn to God as their Lord. Our only aim in living out the Gospel with maximum visibility is to point people in the direction of the God who loves them and who is their ultimate happiness. Our aim is to urge people to work together for the kind of world that God wants us to have. This is within the reach of the most simple, even illiterate, people. It is not a question of passing on knowledge but of sharing our experience of a loving God. If we live as salt and light, we bring refreshment, hope and guidance to those around us. People will seek us out.
Salt is an amazing seasoning that adds flavor to food. Salt by itself is not that tasty. But when added to a variety of food, it enters in and adds much. We are called to be the “salt of the earth.” And just like salt, we are not made to simply be the star and center of attention. We are not made only for ourselves. Instead, it is our Christian duty to enter into our world and add to it, helping to transform it into a world of grace and mercy, full of the “flavor” of God’s Kingdom. This is done, especially, by the building up of relationships. It’s done by striving to touch one person at a time so as to enhance their lives and help them to be closer to Christ. The love of God that we bring into our world, and into the lives of those whom we encounter, can be seen analogously as salt entering into food and enhancing it.
How do we lose our taste? In other words, how is it that we fail to be the “salt of the earth?” We do this when we enter into our world, encounter various people, and fail to truly enhance their lives. When our presence in the lives of others has little or no effect upon them for the good, then our actions are like tasteless salt that is only good to be thrown away and “trampled underfoot.” If we fail to make a difference in the lives of others, we are missing the point of those relationships and we are failing to be the salt of the Earth.
Let us reflect upon this duty that we have been given by Christ, upon the calling we have been charged with to make a difference in the lives of others. When others grow in faith and love as a result of your presence in their lives, we are fulfilling this most basic command of Christ. Let us commit ourselves to be the salt of the Earth so that this world of ours will be a better place, filled with the flavor of the Kingdom of God.
Prayer: Lord, I offer myself to You for Your service and for Your glory. I pray that You will use me to transform our world into a holy place and a place where Your goodness dwells. I thank You for the privilege of being used by You and pray that You will use me in any way You desire. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen
