Salt and light

THAT’S what Christ tells us about who we are and what we are supposed to do in this world. “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” (cfr. Mt 5,13-16) He addressed these words to his disciples. And if we consider ourselves also as disciples of his, then we should also regard these words as being addressed to us.

We have to take these words seriously and figure out how we can conform ourselves to what Christ wants us to be. We know that salt somehow gives a certain flavor to our food as well as helps in preserving highly perishable food items. Light, of course, enables us to see things clearly.

We can readily conclude that what Christ wants is for us to provide Christian flavor in a world that is fast evolving, as well as help in preserving the true Christian spirit in a world that is so exposed to a lot of changes, many of them with their luggage of dangers even as they also offer a lot of benefits.

We also are meant to give light to the others by giving good example and by actively doing apostolate, leading people to God along the right if prudent and tortuous and treacherous paths of this world. With rectitude of intention, we have to inspire others to follow us so that with us they can come to Christ.

Let’s make St. Paul’s words ours also: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11,1) These words are a corollary to what Christ said about us being light of the world: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5,16)

Let’s try our best that we too can echo another of St. Paul’s words: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2,20) This is the ideal to aim at, because Christ himself said, “I am the light of the world…the man who follows me will have the light of life.” (Jn 8,12)

We can only give the true light if we have the light of Christ, if we are with Christ and so identified with him that whoever sees and hears us sees and hears Christ. (cfr. Lk 10,16)

We cannot overemphasize, therefore, our need to be identified with Christ who, after all, is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. We are supposed to ‘alter Christus’ (another Christ) if not ‘ipse Christus’ (Christ himself), an ideal that can be realized by us because Christ has given us all the means for it.

We should just do our part, studying deeply the life and teachings of Christ, incarnating them into our life, and availing ourselves of the sacraments where Christ himself, especially in the Holy Eucharist, gives himself to us even as food.

We should be so identified with Christ that wherever we are, whatever the situation, we always feel the urge, if not the instinct, to give witness to him through our words and deeds. Even if we are deeply immersed in our earthly affairs, with all the mundane and technical things they involve, we should be able to project and channel the presence and the abiding work of Christ on all of us.

For this, we need to have a certain boldness, overcoming our usual shyness and awkwardness in carrying out this duty. If we remain simple and humble, we actually can do it with great ease, because more than us it would be Christ who will be doing things through us and with us.

Let us be salt and light of this world as Christ wants us to be. And let’s encourage and help everyone else to be so. This is actually where our true joy is, where our true self-fulfillment can be achieved.