Homily for February 5, 2023
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Stay Salty, My Friends
In
Jesus’ day, salt wasn’t just a flavoring. More importantly, it was used to
preserve food. In the days before refrigerators and freezers, meat and fish
would be salted to ensure a long shelf-life and prevent spoiling – almost like
making beef jerky, which lasts forever at room temperature.
And
there is an element of this in the life of Christians, too. Christian lives of
holiness preserve the world from total corruption. There is an ancient Jewish
tradition called the Tzadikim Nistarim, which says that there are 36 hidden
people in the world in every generation who sustain the world by their
holiness. It is said in the Talmud (an ancient Jewish commentary on the
Scriptures) that if the number fell below 36, the world would be destroyed
because of its sinfulness. So these 36 holy people, unknown to the world,
sustain it in the sight of God (Of course, the number 36 is richly symbolic – 3
persons from each of the Twelve Tribes, 3 persons because of the three-fold
praise of “Holy, Holy, Holy”).
One day,
a person asked the early twentieth century Rabbi Abraham Heschel whether he was
one of the Tzadikim. In humility, he responded, “Maybe, but what is preventing
you from becoming one?”
A very
good question! What is to prevent us from becoming the kind of Christian who
brings joy to the Heart of God? The kind of Christian whose life and holiness preserves
the world from falling into total self-destruction?
This
Gospel comes in the midst of Jesus’ beautiful and challenging discourse called
the Sermon on the Mount. Starting with the Beatitudes last weekend, we will
continue reading this Sermon through the next several weeks. This Sermon on the
Mount lays out a radical new way of understanding of our life in Jesus Christ.
Love your enemies…don’t even look at a woman with lust…blessed are the poor, sorrowful,
persecuted…pray and give alms in secret…radically trust God for every need…this
is a revolutionary concept of life as a follower of Jesus Christ. One can live
it fully, or one can live it half-heartedly. So Jesus leads off this sermon
with the exhortation to live it fully – to be salt with full flavor, light with
full visibility.
But here’s
the deal – we cannot live this dynamic Sermon on the Mount through our own
efforts. This is only possible through Jesus Christ. It’s significant that “Light
of the world” is the only title that is applied to both Jesus and us.
Today He calls us “the light of the world” and later on, He calls Himself the “light
of the world”. It’s much like the moon – it has light, but only reflected from
the sun. So we too are light, but only because we are connected to Him, the
True Light of the World. We are the candle, He is the bonfire which sets our
candles aflame.
“If you
are who you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” said St. Catherine
of Siena. A world of corruption is waiting for disciples who are unafraid to
take Jesus at His words! Over the next few weeks, as we hear from Jesus’ Sermon
on the Mount, hear His words – not just with your ears, but with your heart –
and put them into practice! His Words are the best and safest way to become a
saint – and not just a saint, but salt which preserves a corrupted world, light
which shines in the dark fog of modernity.
Back in
the 1200s, the world and the Church was also in great disarray. Immoral clergy,
corrupt leaders, apathetic laity…much like the struggles today. In response to
such evil, some people wanted to live like that salt and light…but they did it
in the wrong way. A group arose, called the Cathars (which means “the Pure”),
who began to separate themselves from the Church and the world. They said that
the material world, marriage, meat, and any type of fun was absolutely
forbidden, and they believed that the Church was so corrupt that it was no
longer the Church of Christ, so they set up their own parallel church full of “the
pure” only.
This
became a pretty serious crisis in the church, because a lot of people were
legitimately fed up with the corruption in the church and the political world.
But into this situation came a young man named Francis, from a small Italian
town, who gathered a few followers to live a life of total poverty. They then
marched to Rome to seek approval from Pope Urban II.
Pope
Urban heard about this upstart group, and worried that this was another one of
those Cathar branches who wanted to abandon the Church and the world. He had
decided to refuse to even meet with Francis. But one night, he had a striking
dream where he saw a giant church, teetering and toppling over. Suddenly, a
thin man in a brown robe stepped forth and steadied the church with his hand,
preventing it from falling. When the Pope awoke, he realized that it was
Francis who had come, not to flee the world and the Church, but to renew and
transform it, through his holiness. Pope Urban immediately called for Francis
and enthusiastically approved his new order of brothers.
Francis
was the salt that preserved a mixed-up Church from falling into ruin. Rabbi Heschel
was the salt in a century of confusion, and he invited others to join him. If
you and I put Jesus’ words into practice, we too will be the salt and light in
a world so desperate for authentic Christian lives. As St. Peter of Alacantra
said, “Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin
in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.”
Stay
salty, my friends.
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