Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica V per Annum A
5 February 2023

 Last Sunday’s Gospel proclaimed to us our Blessed Lord’s teaching of the Beatitudes.  In what can be considered a New Covenant parallel to Moses’ journey up Mt. Sinai to receive the Law in the Commandments of the Old Covenant, our Lord goes up the mountain and he gives the Beatitudes.  In Scripture a mountain is a place of God’s revelation and it is a place of divine encounter with mankind.  As we heard last week, adopting the posture of a rabbi, our Lord sat down and taught and his disciples gathered around him.  Thus, the setting of the Beatitudes and the Lord’s posture show us a revelation that gives inner vitality to our living of the Commandments, which have not changed and have not been replaced.  His posture also shows us a teaching with authority that is meant to guide our lives.

   Today’s passage comes immediately after the Lord delivers the Beatitudes.  In the brief passage today, the Lord uses three images that tell us of our mission as disciples in relationship to the world.  The Lord references salt, light, and being a city set on a mountain.  All three of these images that Jesus uses for his Church are continuations of images associated with the identity and calling of God’s People Israel.

Jesus says of his Church and his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.”  Salt is a sign of permanence and purity.  God established his kingdom on an enduring relationship with King David and his sons by means of a covenant of salt.  Whereas you and I hear the Lord reference salt and probably only think of seasoning our food for taste, what we miss is that for the Jew salt had a ritual use.  It had a very particular use in that it was to be sprinkled on the offerings made in the Temple as part of Israel’s covenant fidelity.  Thus, you can read in the Book of Leviticus, “Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel for ever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?” (Lev. 13:5).

Jesus says of his Church and his disciples, “You are the light of the world.”  The People Israel had the vocation to be a light to the nations so that God’s offer of salvation would radiate and grow and go out to all peoples.  Israel was a chosen people, but chosen to be a servant to all the world.  The Prophet Isaiah reports this prophecy of the Lord God speaking to Israel, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is. 49:6).

   With a slight adaptation of the Gospel words, Jesus says of his Church and his disciples, “You are a city set on a mountain” (adaptation of Mt. 5:14b).  This image connects disciples to the privileged place of the Holy City Jerusalem, which was to be a city set on a hill drawing all people to itself and to the Temple.  Thus, the Prophet Isaiah also reports, “It shall come to pass… that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains… and all the nations shall flow to it” (Is. 2:2).  Light is not hidden but it is set on a lampstand so that it gives light by which to see.  Light is placed in prominence.  Like a city set on a mountain that cannot be hidden, Jesus says of his Church and his disciples, “[Y]our light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mt. 5:16).

   As the assembly of Israel received the Law in the Commandments on Mt. Sinai, so in the New Covenant the assembly of the Church receives the Beatitudes on the mountain top.  Disciples should receive this authoritative teaching from the Lord as a revelation of our relationship to God, a revelation of our identity in belonging to Him, and a revelation of our mission, our vocation.  There is a very popular and pervasive idea in culture, and even among Christians, and you hear people directly and indirectly promote this idea all the time.  It’s probably why we need something like a New Evangelization.  The idea is that faith is a private affair, a purely personal matter, that should be kept out of polite company and public discourse.  That idea needs to be completely dismantled and dismissed for the parasite that it is on our vocation and mission as disciples.  That erroneous idea did not come from the Lord on the mountain of authority.  Rather, it comes from secular elites from the high places of halls of power and money.  I bet there are times in your own life that you can admit that this parasitical notion has infected you and your sense of how to live the faith in the world.  We can easily fall prey to it.  Is it more comfortable to have a faith that is conveniently packaged and sealed, opened only on Sundays and in private places?  Probably so.  But that is not who we are called to be!  That is not what we are called to do!  To those who accept the idea that faith is a private and purely personal affair, we should say: Then explain the images of salt of the earth, light of the world, and a city set on a mountain!  Those would be totally bizarre and nonsensical images for Jesus to use if his idea was that faith is only private, if his idea for his Church and his disciples was that we be a club concerned only about ourselves and tucked away from interaction with the world.  No, the Church’s mission, fulfilling that of Israel’s, is to evangelize and to spread the Good News of the Kingdom precisely TO the world!  Our light must shine before others, Jesus says.  We are not being the disciples the Lord calls us to be if our faith is not evident in how we live our lives in public.  Cultural powers use every means they can to cudgel us into a private faith that has no bearing on our daily living.  They draft laws and orders that require us to act contrary to our faith.  They seek to criminalize those who do act according to their faith.  The government seeks to force religious employers to pay for contraceptives.  There are those who want to force people with religious convictions to be part of funding for abortions.  The cake shop owner in Colorado is a good example of how the powerful elites seek to force small business owners to participate in events celebrating immoral activities and fictions like gay marriage and transgender reveal parties.

   Our world, made good by God, loved by Him, and which He desires to return to Him for fullness of life, is stale, dark, and flat – is soul-less without God – and Jesus and his Church are to be its salvation.  You and I aren’t Christians on mission if our faith is only a private affair.  From the Gospel: “But if salt loses its taste…. It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”  May that never be said of us.  We can’t lose our seasoning.  Start with yourself and include your family in a daily habit of prayer to keep your seasoning.  The Rosary should be a natural devotion for us.  Frequent confession to be healed of sin and a regular sacramental life keep our light burning brightly.  Being willing to share your faith in how you raise your children and in your friendly witness to those around you at work, in your neighborhood, and in public is a way to be a city set on a hill.  In all this we do not seek to have ourselves seen, but rather to let our witness drive others to glorify the heavenly Father and to be brought into the covenant of salvation.