Today’s gospel immediately
follows Jesus’ preaching of the Beatitudes.
Jesus went up the mountain. Moses
also went up a mountain, but where Moses went up to receive the revelation of
God, Jesus goes up this mountain in Galilee not receive the law, but to teach
it.
In the passage we heard
today, Jesus summons his disciples to be what God’s people were always meant to
be: “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”. Salt was used to flavor and preserve food, of
course. Through living the beatitudes,
the disciples of Jesus Christ are to do just that, to preserve God’s goodness
in the world and to help others experience that goodness. And he says that the disciple who does not
embody the beatitudes is like salt that loses its taste: good for nothing, basically.
Similarly, disciple of
Jesus Christ, that is, us, are to be light of the world. In the Jewish tradition Israel was to be a
light to the nations. Jesus calls his
disciples to fulfill this role by living the beatitudes in such a way that the
world may see our good deeds and give glory to our heavenly Father. Our good deeds, our works of Charity, our
care for the needy, are to point to God.
Saint John Henry Cardinal
Newman wrote a beautiful prayer, I prayed often in seminary, which honestly, I
would do well to pray more often, called “Radiating Christ”.
“Dear Jesus, help me to spread thy fragrance
everywhere I go. Flood my soul with thy
spirit and life. Penetrate and possess
my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of
thine. Shine through me, and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but
only Jesus! Stay with me, and then I
shall begin to shine as thou shinest, so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from thee, none of it will be mine; it will be
thou shining on others through me.”
May we all radiate Christ this
day, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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