The Witness of Good Works: Salt of the Earth and Light of the World
We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world (cf. Matthew 5:13-16). This means that we have a mission that goes beyond the limits of this church. What is that mission?
1. Salt does not
restore to life something that has already gone bad. The only One who was able
to restore to life our humanity rotten by sin was Jesus. But once Jesus rose
our humanity from the dead, we can, with His grace, preserve humanity from
corruption.[1]
Our good works, our good example, our being Christians not only in name but
also in words and in deeds, preserves human culture from complete corruption.
However, does it not appear, sometimes, as if salt had lost its taste?
When we do not give witness, we let everyone around us slide more and more down
the hill of sin. Sometimes Christians do worse: not only they do not give
witness but, even more, with their own sins they scandalize the non-Christians.
In this case, instead of being agents of preservation we become agents of
corruption. The devil knows that there is nothing better than a corrupted
Christian to foster evil among people. That is why the devil attacks Christians
more than he attacks other people: he knows that good Christians are the
antidote to his evil work in the world.
We Christians have a responsibility. We do not live for ourselves only.
We are the salt of the earth, whether we want it or not. We are responsible,
not only for our own salvation, but also for the salvation of those who do not
yet follow Christ. However, it is not a double job. When you do the good works
that you are supposed to do, you hit two birds with one stone: you save
yourself and you also contribute to the salvation of all those who see your
good works. But something similar happens with sin. When you sin, especially
when everybody can see your sin, you both condemn yourself and bring others
down with you.
2. We are the light of
the world. But how many Christians seem to be out of batteries… How many
Christians are under the bed, scared to show by their works who they really
are. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell apart a Christian from someone who
is not a Christian. Do Christians dress differently? Why would they, unless the
way you dress makes other people sin. You don’t have to wear a uniform because
you are a Christian. But, for example, do Christians watch the same things everybody
watches on TV? Do Christians gossip like the rest? Is there any difference
between a Christian and a non-Christian when they suffer? How do we react in
front of death, or in front of pain, or in front of our own illnesses? What do
we envy in other people, their welfare or their virtues? What are our hopes?
What do we desire the most, what do we love above all things? Believe it or
not, people can probably tell what we love the most in the depth of our hearts just
by hearing what we say or seeing what we do. Do they see light in our lives?
Christ is the light. Do they see Christ in us?
“Nobody lights a lamp and puts it under the bed.” Why do people light a
lamp, or turn the lights on? Because it’s dark. We are the light of a world
that is in darkness regarding the truth, a world that walks in darkness, a
world that stumbles and falls and gets nowhere but to its own destruction. Look
around you: where are people going? They don’t know. They try many things to
feel good, but they can rest in none of them, because things don’t last. They
keep walking, but they don’t know where to go, they don’t know what the ending
point is, they even try to avoid the question. They walk in the dark. God, who
wanted to save them, lit a lamp in the middle of the night to dispel the
darkness. “Let there be light!”, He said, and that light is you.
3. How are we light? Clearly,
we need first to take away darkness from our own lives: the darkness of
ignorance, the darkness of our own sins. We become light when we learn the
truth, love the truth and try to live according to it. We are the light of the
world when this truth shines in our words and in our actions.
- Some people want the truth but don’t know where to find it. We are
light for them when we propose to them the answers our faith provides, when we
lead them to the Church or to someone in the church who may respond to their
concerns.
- Some people think they are not loved. We are light for them when we
love them: we are ambassadors of God’s love for them. We are light for them
when we live in Christian joy, like children loved by their Father in Heaven, with
confidence in divine providence. We give them light when we announce to them
that they also are called to the joy of being God’s children.
- Some people stumble over the mystery of evil: it doesn’t make sense to
them. We are light, not only when we explain it to them (as far as it can be
explained), but especially when we are compassionate, when we share the
struggle and, even more, when they see that, despite our own sufferings, we do
not lose hope, we do not become dejected, and we keep praying and thanking God
for his grace.
- Some people fall into sin: they need a message of forgiveness, a way
out of the hole, so to speak. We are light when we show to them the compassion
of Jesus for sinners. When we tell the sinner, “God hates sin, not you. He came
to take away the sins of the world, and your sins as well.” The sinner needs to
know that God loves him, and that God can and wants to help him, so that he may
be once again God’s little child.
May God’s truth shine through our words, may God’s love shine through our
actions. Let there be light!
Comments
Post a Comment