It has been an extraordinary February thus far. The country has been swept by the worst winter storms in recent memory and everywhere people prayed the Groundhog would see his shadow. Then the concern over terrorism at the Winter Olympics and the Beatles 50th on the Ed Sullivan Show stage and so much more. Our minds have certainly been on anything but being salt and light to our world. I share with you, in the beautiful words of an extraordinarily wise man, Thaddeus, given last Sunday at St. Joseph University Parish, Buffalo, NY, where he is deacon. Thank you Thaddeus. You are always an inspiration!
This was certainly an extraordinary week. We had the triple header last Sunday: Solemn Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Super Bowl, and Ground Hog Day. We also saw the end of Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and the Start of the Winter Olympics.
How many watched the Super Bowl? How many thought it was the most exciting Super Bowl ever? That was pretty bad. I was going to make some jokes about the Denver Broncos, but I didn’t want to beat a dead “horse.” How many liked the National Anthem sung by opera star Rene Fleming? Last question, "How many have seen the play or musical movie of Les Miserables?" Several times at key points of the story, the hero, Jean Valjean sings "Who Am I"?
Jesus very clearly answers that question in today’s Gospel, "You are the Salt of the earth, you are the Light of the world." Now this is extremely important because most often Jesus is telling us who He is, "I am the bread of life, good shepherd, true vine, way, the truth and the life."
All of these symbolic identities invite us to use our minds to interpret what it might mean. Both salt and light serve to change the things around them. Nobody makes salt for dinner [at least I hope not]. We make chicken for dinner and when we put salt on the chicken it makes it taste better. So we enjoy the taste of the chicken and not just the salt. And even if it is thrown to be trampled upon, salt changes ice to melt it which is why we are facing shortages with this severe winter.
Light is like this also. We do not turn on the light to look at it
[unless you're a moth] but in order to see other things in the room or
perhaps read a book. It changes the darkness so that we can see what is around us.
It is because of light that a person can enter the Sistine Chapel and look up at the ceiling to see the magnificent masterpiece by
Michelangelo. There in a famous frame that we call the Creation of
Adam, we see God reaching out to humanity, fingers barely separated.
If you look closely at the cape behind God, you will see that it is
perfectly shaped like a cross section of the human brain! God is
handing over to humanity the great gift of intelligence - the capacity
to think - or as I like to call it, the Divine Mind.
That image from the Sistine Chapel is the foundation upon which the
Scriptures are built. From the very beginning, in the Book of Genesis, people have been faced with decisions to make. Some were good, others not. That started a 5000 year tradition that is embodied today by Pope Francis.
Moses told us how to treat the widow, the poor and the immigrant.
Isaiah echoes that saying, "share your bread, shelter the oppressed and comfort the homeless." And today Pope Francis calls us to serve the marginalized and to work for justice.
I started today by asking four questions. Not everyone raised their hand for each one because our brain sent yes or no signals to our hands. Even if you sat there and said that this is dumb and did not raise your hand at all, you used your mind to decide that.
There was an old saying that when you went to Church you should check your brains at the door. A faithful person was defined by the phrase "Pay, Pray and Obey." The emphasis was on rules over reason.
But Jesus says "You are the sale of the earth, you are the light of the world." We are called to use our minds to change the world around us. It starts with one on one personal relationships whether family, friend or person in the parking lot after Mass.
You can tell when you bring light to a person by the smile on their
face. I like the style of the priest who greeted people with long
faces in the confessional with the penance to make 10 people smile
that day. On average, a 4 year-old smiles 400 times a day while adults only 15. As Friedrich Nietzsche observed, "Christians so often do not reflect on their faces the joy that they have been redeemed." It starts on a one-to-one level.
And then it spreads as Isaiah gives us the bigger picture today, "You
shall cry for help and He will say, here I am; if you remove from your midst oppression ad malicious speech - if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted - then Light shall rise for you in Darkness."
At our baptism each one of us was given a candle lit from the Easter
candle to go out and conquer the darkness. The Letter of James recalls this ancient tradition of joining prayer with action. He writes, "If a brother or sister lacks food, shelter or clothing and you say to them, 'Go in peace I will pray for you' but you fail to give them what is needed for their body, what good is it? Faith by itself, without
works, is dead."
We are salt and light, we can use our prayers and our minds to change the world around us.
We cannot merely pray to God to end war, we must use our mind to
discover the path to peace within our heart and with our neighbor.
We cannot merely pray to God to root out prejudice, we must use our mind to see the goodness and diversity in all people.
We cannot merely pray to God to end starvation, we must use our mind to develop our resources to wisely feed the world.
We cannot merely pray to God to end human trafficking, we must use our mind to not let evil go unchecked and delude us into thinking that some lives are less valuable than others.
We cannot merely pray to God to end poverty, we must use our mind to clear away slums and give home to the despairing.
We cannot merely pray to God to end disease, we must use our mind to search out new cures and treatments for those who suffer.
Therefore, we pray to God for strength, determination and will power to use our Divine Mind to make the world a safer and better place.
When we were baptized we were called by name, not to get used to the dark but to shine as lights before others. On my First Communion I received a rosary with a glow in the dark crucifix. We should replace those glow in the dark statues with glow in the dark Christians. We have been given the Light to glow in the midst of darkness.
So to be salt and light means to live our lives in such a way that
others will use our salt and light to, "Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord."
Jesus very clearly answers that question in today’s Gospel, "You are the Salt of the earth, you are the Light of the world." Now this is extremely important because most often Jesus is telling us who He is, "I am the bread of life, good shepherd, true vine, way, the truth and the life."
All of these symbolic identities invite us to use our minds to interpret what it might mean. Both salt and light serve to change the things around them. Nobody makes salt for dinner [at least I hope not]. We make chicken for dinner and when we put salt on the chicken it makes it taste better. So we enjoy the taste of the chicken and not just the salt. And even if it is thrown to be trampled upon, salt changes ice to melt it which is why we are facing shortages with this severe winter.
Light is like this also. We do not turn on the light to look at it
[unless you're a moth] but in order to see other things in the room or
perhaps read a book. It changes the darkness so that we can see what is around us.
It is because of light that a person can enter the Sistine Chapel and look up at the ceiling to see the magnificent masterpiece by
Michelangelo. There in a famous frame that we call the Creation of
Adam, we see God reaching out to humanity, fingers barely separated.
If you look closely at the cape behind God, you will see that it is
perfectly shaped like a cross section of the human brain! God is
handing over to humanity the great gift of intelligence - the capacity
to think - or as I like to call it, the Divine Mind.
That image from the Sistine Chapel is the foundation upon which the
Scriptures are built. From the very beginning, in the Book of Genesis, people have been faced with decisions to make. Some were good, others not. That started a 5000 year tradition that is embodied today by Pope Francis.
Moses told us how to treat the widow, the poor and the immigrant.
Isaiah echoes that saying, "share your bread, shelter the oppressed and comfort the homeless." And today Pope Francis calls us to serve the marginalized and to work for justice.
I started today by asking four questions. Not everyone raised their hand for each one because our brain sent yes or no signals to our hands. Even if you sat there and said that this is dumb and did not raise your hand at all, you used your mind to decide that.
There was an old saying that when you went to Church you should check your brains at the door. A faithful person was defined by the phrase "Pay, Pray and Obey." The emphasis was on rules over reason.
But Jesus says "You are the sale of the earth, you are the light of the world." We are called to use our minds to change the world around us. It starts with one on one personal relationships whether family, friend or person in the parking lot after Mass.
You can tell when you bring light to a person by the smile on their
face. I like the style of the priest who greeted people with long
faces in the confessional with the penance to make 10 people smile
that day. On average, a 4 year-old smiles 400 times a day while adults only 15. As Friedrich Nietzsche observed, "Christians so often do not reflect on their faces the joy that they have been redeemed." It starts on a one-to-one level.
And then it spreads as Isaiah gives us the bigger picture today, "You
shall cry for help and He will say, here I am; if you remove from your midst oppression ad malicious speech - if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted - then Light shall rise for you in Darkness."
At our baptism each one of us was given a candle lit from the Easter
candle to go out and conquer the darkness. The Letter of James recalls this ancient tradition of joining prayer with action. He writes, "If a brother or sister lacks food, shelter or clothing and you say to them, 'Go in peace I will pray for you' but you fail to give them what is needed for their body, what good is it? Faith by itself, without
works, is dead."
We are salt and light, we can use our prayers and our minds to change the world around us.
We cannot merely pray to God to end war, we must use our mind to
discover the path to peace within our heart and with our neighbor.
We cannot merely pray to God to root out prejudice, we must use our mind to see the goodness and diversity in all people.
We cannot merely pray to God to end starvation, we must use our mind to develop our resources to wisely feed the world.
We cannot merely pray to God to end human trafficking, we must use our mind to not let evil go unchecked and delude us into thinking that some lives are less valuable than others.
We cannot merely pray to God to end poverty, we must use our mind to clear away slums and give home to the despairing.
We cannot merely pray to God to end disease, we must use our mind to search out new cures and treatments for those who suffer.
Therefore, we pray to God for strength, determination and will power to use our Divine Mind to make the world a safer and better place.
When we were baptized we were called by name, not to get used to the dark but to shine as lights before others. On my First Communion I received a rosary with a glow in the dark crucifix. We should replace those glow in the dark statues with glow in the dark Christians. We have been given the Light to glow in the midst of darkness.
So to be salt and light means to live our lives in such a way that
others will use our salt and light to, "Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord."
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