Similes of salt and light
It is now the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, but as we all know these are troubled times, especially with our global problems with the novel coronavirus that certainly has affected the world economy. There are less and less passengers in airports and hotel booking have been cancelled, thus the tourism industry has been affected. Our gospel reading is a very simple teaching by our Lord Jesus Christ about the Similes of Salt and Light that you can read in the gospel of Matt.5: 13-16.
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
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There is no question that when our Lord teaches his disciples for their self-improvement, he uses the most basic things that many take for granted. When it comes to food, we all learned from our grandparents about the times they didn’t have refrigerators. It was in those days when basic food processing was storing meat or fish with salt and other kinds of spices. I even remember that in the late 1950s we didn’t have a water dispenser, but what we call a “banga” which cools our drinking water.
So when the Lord taught his disciples to be the salt of the earth, he really means that in their preaching of God’s word, they must come up with a bright dramatic teaching that would interest people. This is a tremendous responsibility for people who preach the word of God just as salt and light are ordinary elements of life. However, we simply cannot live without them. If you make a dry preaching, people might end up sleeping as you already lost your saltiness with your boring teaching.
We all know that food cooked without salt is bland. There are many speakers in many conferences, but those who have a bright topic to talk about are the persons who gather the most crowds. So clearly, for you to have so many people attend your talk or lecture you must have a cheerful, dramatic, and beautiful speech and not a boring one. Basically, this is what our Lord meant of a person who is the salt of the earth.
The other simile Jesus talked about is being the Light of the world. Let me repeat that portion in today’s gospel, 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
In Genesis, we read that the world was in darkness and when God decided to do things for a better world, he started his creation when he said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God had yet to create Man, but he already removed the darkness that engulfed the earth.
When our Lord Jesus said “I came into the world to give sight to those who cannot see…and take away sight to those who can!” He told the blind man he lives in darkness and as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world. He also meant that many people who really have good eyes often live in the darkness of their non-belief in the teachings of God.
When we face difficulties in life that have no worldly cure or answer we only have one safe place to turn and that is the invisible spiritual dimension for help. So many hidden lessons to be learned from the words of Jesus, that when you preach the words of God, you must be light the light of the world so people can truly see what your God really means for us.
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