205. Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Meditations no. 567 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We Christians must be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

IN THE Gospel of the Mass, the Lord speaks to us of our responsibility as Christians: you are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world.

Salt gives flavour to food, makes it pleasant, preserves it from corruption; it is a symbol of divine wisdom. In the Old Testament it was prescribed that everything offered to God should contain salt, signifying the will of the offerer that his offering be pleasing to the Lord. Light, on the other hand, is the first divine work in creation and is a symbol of the Creator of heaven and earth; of Jesus Christ, who defined himself as the Light of the world. Darkness, on the other hand, means death, disorder and evil, in constant struggle against God. For light came into the world and men loved darkness more than light, because their works were evil.

Precisely in order to continue the work of Christ, the disciples of the one Teacher are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The light of the world, which guides and points the way in the midst of darkness; the salt of the earth, which gives the highest meaning to human values, prevents corruption and brings the doctrine of Our Lord to men. This is the mission of the Christian.

When they live according to their faith, with their irreproachable and simple behavior, Christ’s followers shine like stars in the world, in the midst of work and their chores, in their daily lives. On the other hand, how noticeable it is when the Christian does not show himself consistent with his faith in the family, in society, in the public life of cities and villages! When the disciple does not bring the doctrine of Christ wherever he develops his life, human values themselves become insipid, without any transcendence, and are often contaminated.

This fullness of gifts has not been given to Catholics so that they may selfishly enjoy them: is it perchance that a light is lit to be placed under a bushel, or under the bed? (Mk 4:21). Every Catholic, my daughters and sons, has an obligation, and a grave obligation, to do everything in his power to ensure that all men and women share in the word and grace of God, of which, unworthily but truly, he is the depositary.

Salt and light. Not the lantern of verbena that lasts only one night, but the lamp that illuminates the whole house, which is consumed in a quiet but effective service. This is the naturalness of which these comparisons of the Lord in the Gospel speak to us. “In fact, when Christ called us salt and leaven and light, he wanted to show that we must not be useful only to ourselves, but to many others.”

With the divine call and specific formation, we must be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, because we are obliged to set an example with holy shamelessness. We will be urged by the charity of Christ, to feel and know ourselves to be Jesus Christ, from the moment we have given ourselves to Him without separating ourselves from others, our equals, just as salt is not separated from that food that it is to season.

Let us ask the Lord, my children, that we may always be that good condiment in the lives of others. Our formation includes all the criteria and all the piety that the children of God must have in their Work, to season everything with their active presence.

We must commit ourselves to the new evangelization of society.

Many years ago, Pope John Paul II invited all Christians to commit themselves to the battle of the new evangelization of society: a constant apostolic mobilization, which cannot be interrupted, since it will always be necessary to strive to inform all human activities with the doctrine and life of Christ.

In the Work, from the very beginning, we echoed that invitation of the Holy Father, often repeated in successive moments. Then Don Alvaro wrote us a long letter to encourage us with new strength in the apostolate. Our age, he warned us, “is characterized by the search for material well-being at any cost, and by the corresponding forgetfulness-it would be better to say fear, authentic dread-of everything that can cause suffering. From this perspective, words such as God, sin, cross, mortification, eternal life… are incomprehensible to a large number of people, who are unaware of their meaning and content.”

These words are fully timely. It seems as if men and women, especially in the nations of the West, have lost the salt and light of Christ. And yet God asks us to act in such a way as to fulfill what he tells us today through Isaiah: your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will appear instantly, your righteousness will precede you, and the glory of the Lord will shut your way. If you cast away from your midst the yoke, the finger-pointing, and slander, and offer your own sustenance to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will break forth in the darkness, and your darkness will be like noonday.

“The task that awaits us is difficult,” wrote Don Álvaro, “although, I insist, fascinating from the supernatural and human point of view. Let us think - that’s right! - that God himself, through the mouth of his Vicar on earth, impels us to work in this sowing, in union with so many other Christians who are dedicated to the same cause. I encourage, then, and, I repeat, that no one is left behind! (… ).

“Are you not attracted by the certainty that you are protagonists, because God wills it, of a second evangelization … with the depth and capillarity with which it was carried out by our first brothers and sisters in the faith and those who followed in their footsteps? It is necessary to renew the deeds of Peter and Paul, of James, Patrick and Augustine, of Servicus, Willibrord and Boniface, of Cyril and Methodius: of all the evangelizers who, down the centuries, have crossed the roads of the old continent. We ask all of you to intercede for us before the Most Holy Trinity. And, it must be so, we children of God in Opus Dei surely turn to the intercession of our Father, who so often turned his eyes to those nations of the New Continent, and traveled so many kilometers along the roads of Europe, on journeys full of joyful penance, sowing everywhere the seed of his Hail Marys, of his preaching, and of his songs to the divine.”

At the beginning of the new millennium, John Paul II wrote: “The people of our time, perhaps not always consciously, ask today’s believers not only to ‘speak’ of Christ, but in a certain way to make him ‘see’ to them. And is it not perhaps the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every epoch of history and to make his face shine before the generations of the new millennium?”

This Work of God, made up of these few children of God-these are the words of St. Josemaría in 1937-must carry out a task of selection. A handful of salt is enough to season the food of many. To give a new flavor to the world, relatively few will be necessary; but those few, in obedience to the Will of God, will in fact be salt that heals and seasons. A spark of light, a small point of light, is enough to illuminate a multitude; how much light will the spotlights of the Work scattered throughout the world bring to many, to innumerable ones! Finally, the Work will choose, from among the crowd, men who will give themselves to Christ, and reach the summit, the summit, and who will be there like a city on the top of the mountain (cf. Mt 5:14), an example and model for all.

May we be, then, Lord, truly sal terrae, lux mundi (Mt 5:13-14), a city on the top of the mountain, but without immobility, but on the contrary: full of zeal and activity for the good of souls! If we obey the Will of God, if we behave like salt and light, if with simplicity and naturalness, without ever being shocked by our actions - just as it is not shocking when salt is poured on food or a light is lit in a room - if we exercise our apostolate, then the face of the world will change and, to this disorder and these miseries, Christian peace and happiness will succeed.

The means to accomplish this task.

TO BE effective in the task of the new evangelization, it is necessary, first of all, the example of upright conduct, the cleanliness of morals, the exercise of human and Christian virtues in the simple existence of every day. Light, good example, must go first. As Pope John Paul II said, pointing out the characteristics of the new evangelizers that the Church needs, “we need heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who know in depth the heart of the man of today, who share in his joys and hopes, his anxieties and sorrows, and at the same time are contemplatives, in love with God. For this, new saints are needed. The great evangelizers of Europe have been the saints. We must implore the Lord to increase the spirit of holiness in the Church and to send us new saints to evangelize the world of today.”

We will truly transform this earth - beginning with the area in which our activity is carried out and in which our illusions are awakened - if teaching begins with the witness of our personal lives, if we are exemplary, competent and honest in our professional work. There is no human task that cannot be sanctified, a reason for our own sanctification and an opportunity to collaborate with God in the sanctification of those around us. The light of the followers of Jesus Christ must not be at the bottom of the valley, but on the top of the mountain, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16).

To work in this way is prayer. To study in this way is prayer. To investigate in this way is prayer. We never come out of the same thing: everything is prayer, everything can and must lead us to God, nourish that continual relationship with Him, from morning to night. All honest work can be prayer; and all work, which is prayer, is apostolate. In this way the soul becomes entangled in a simple and strong unity of life.

We can ask ourselves if our companions, our relatives and friends, when they witness our actions, when they judge the results of our work, are moved to glorify God, because they see the light of Christ: it will be a good sign that there is flame in us, and not darkness; love for God and not lukewarmness. Good example, with the watering of prayer, prepares the soil in which the apostolic word will bear fruit. Without anything that is not proper to ordinary Christians, we will show what it means to truly follow the Lord in our daily work, as the first Christians did.

“We will carry out this work,” Don Alvaro wrote in the letter of 1985 cited above, “by living our spirit most faithfully - contemplative and apostolic - in the midst of each of the daily occupations, which we must carry out with all the human perfection of which we are capable. This is and will be the great medicine needed by secularized society, in which there seems to be no place for God. Because of divine will, the spirit of Opus Dei has a special attraction for men and women who-like those of our time-feel fully immersed in the world of work, politics, society, etc., which is our world. All that is required is that they open their eyes to the light of God, because they have them-as would have happened to you and me, without the help of vocation-full of the mud of worldly things. What a joy theirs - you all know this experience, as I know it - when they finally discover the Lord, precisely in the midst of those same cares that previously prevented them from contemplating Him!

“It is true that God respects human freedom, and that there may be people who do not want to turn their eyes to the light of the Lord. But much stronger and more abundant and generous is the grace that Jesus Christ wants to pour out on earth, making use - now, as before and as always - of the collaboration of the apostles whom he himself has chosen to carry his light everywhere.”

Let us never lose sight of this reality. It is beautiful to think that others will discover Christ in our simple and serene daily behavior: at work and in rest, in social life and in sport. … , acting at all times as true children of God and of Holy Mary. In the Upper Room of Jerusalem, Our Lady kept the Apostles and the holy women together in anticipation of the descent of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). Then those first Twelve dispersed throughout the world, bringing with them the light, the salt, the leaven of Christ among all peoples (cf. Mt 28:19-20). This is how we children of God will act, if we remain very close to the Blessed Virgin at all times.