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People love pretty lies, so the world needs Christians who are willing to say hard things in a convicting way. Or, to put it another way, “You are the salt of the earth.”
At the same time, people feel embattled and crushed by life, so the world needs Christians to say encouraging things about our ultimate purpose. In other words: “You are the light of the world.”
This is the paradox that has made the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A one of the best remembered, most cited, and at the same time most mysterious passages in the Bible.
Last Sunday Jesus explained what makes you “Blessed” — this week he tells you what makes you a blessing.
As Lent approaches we are getting Christianity 101 on Sundays; the Sermon on the Mount in slow motion. After launching Jesus’s ministry with the Baptism of Jesus, the “A” Cycle in Ordinary Time takes us through the key teachings of Matthew’s Gospel, starting with the Beatitudes. Jesus told us we are “Blessed” in the Kingdom of heaven if we value God above all things; now he tells us that makes us a blessing on earth because we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” antidote to a world that is too often insipid, and too often dark.
Continued below.
media.benedictine.edu
At the same time, people feel embattled and crushed by life, so the world needs Christians to say encouraging things about our ultimate purpose. In other words: “You are the light of the world.”
This is the paradox that has made the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A one of the best remembered, most cited, and at the same time most mysterious passages in the Bible.
Last Sunday Jesus explained what makes you “Blessed” — this week he tells you what makes you a blessing.
As Lent approaches we are getting Christianity 101 on Sundays; the Sermon on the Mount in slow motion. After launching Jesus’s ministry with the Baptism of Jesus, the “A” Cycle in Ordinary Time takes us through the key teachings of Matthew’s Gospel, starting with the Beatitudes. Jesus told us we are “Blessed” in the Kingdom of heaven if we value God above all things; now he tells us that makes us a blessing on earth because we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” antidote to a world that is too often insipid, and too often dark.
Continued below.
This Sunday, the Deep Psychology Behind ‘Salt’ and ‘Light’
Jesus said what Carl Jung later noticed: The world is a battleground and we are our neighbors’ source of light.
media.benedictine.edu
