Just a Word before we go...Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time...February 5, 2023

Jesus, in our Gospel this weekend, tells us that we are salt and light. Isaiah defines those terms for us as sharing, feeding, clothing and sheltering others, opposing oppression, refraining from false accusations and so on. And so we try to do. 

Being salt is becoming people who are alive, who grow into who they were created to be, in order to leaven the world. And as for light...we are made to bring hope to those who suffer, who are marginalized, who are in pain. Living as salt and light, as Jesus instructs, brings greater meaning to our lives, and can fill our hearts with an inner joy that the world cannot diminish.

Recently I came across Amanda Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, and found that it offered insight into our readings today, in light of the divisions in our world and in our church.  These lines were especially resonant:

“Where can we find light in this never-ending shade? And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. And so we lift our gaze not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.  We lay down our arms (and I would add, our preconceptions, prejudices and world-views) so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.

When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid; the new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

If only we are brave enough to see it;

If only we are brave enough to be it.”

Let us move forward as individuals and as a parish to embody Jesus’ description of us as salt and light.  We know the way how...Isaiah tells us...Amanda reiterates it... we just need the will to follow it.