Readings: Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-20
“You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world.” Jesus’ challenge to his disciples in today’s Gospel is also addressed to us who live in a culture that is as “flat” and “blind” as was the world of Jesus’ own day. As we struggle to be faithful to Jesus’ commission, let us pray with confidence the refrain of this Sunday’s responsorial psalm: “The just man is a light in darkness to the upright” (Ps 112:4a).
The Isaiah reading was spoken in the dark days immediately after the return of the Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem when they found their city and temple in ruins. Instead of caring for the poor and homeless, many selfishly pursued their own business, while conducting meaningless fasts which the prophet describes in the lines preceding our reading:
“Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers, yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. (Isa 58:3-4)
In God's name, the prophet demands: This, rather, is the fasting that I wish. Release those bound unjustly, untie the thongs of the yoke, set free the oppressed, break every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own.” (Isa 58:6-7)
Only after Israel rectifies the injustices in its midst will it be healed and become a light for a darkened world (58:8).
The second reading continues Paul's attack on the worldly factionalism among the Corinthians. He reminds them that his initial preaching of the Gospel was not done “with sublimity of words or wisdom.” Rather, he spoke only of “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” As befits a message about a crucified Messiah, he came to them “in weakness and fear, and much trembling.” For Paul, the success of the Christian Gospel does not depend upon the preacher’s gift for “persuasive words of wisdom,” like some worldly sophist, but on “a demonstration of Spirit and power” working through weak human instruments who reflect the message of the cross in their own lives. The cross is God’s “mysterious” and “hidden” wisdom which “the rulers of this age” cannot understand, as is proven by their crucifying “the Lord of glory.”
The Gospel continues last Sunday's reading which ended with the beatitude for those persecuted for the sake of the Gospel (Matt 5:11-12). Now Jesus uses two striking metaphors to alert his disciples to the importance of their role in the world. They are to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” Salt was important in Jesus' world as both a spice and a preservative. Both qualities apply to the disciples’ task. They must both challenge the world with Jesus’ teachings and preserve the deepest meaning of God's Torah (see Matthew 10, 18, 28). But Jesus ends with a threat of judgment:
“But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
Strictly speaking, salt cannot lose its taste, but in Judaism it can become unclean when tainted with too many impurities, and then it has to be thrown out. The disciples are warned that, despite their call, they may lose all if they are unfaithful in time of persecution.
The light image is based on the tradition in the first reading from Isaiah. A traditional Jewish hope was that Israel and the city of Jerusalem would become “a light for the nations” by manifesting God's justice (see Isa 2:1-5; 42:1-9). Notice that although the disciples’ “good deeds” are to be like “a city set on a mountain top” and a light “set on a lamp stand where it gives light to all in the house,” they are not to draw attention to themselves, but to bring the nations to God:
“Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Matt 5:16)
