Salt And Light: Words That Bear Repeating
In the summer of 2002, only about eight months after I had been received into the Church, I went on an international bus trip to Toronto with a parish youth group. The occasion: Pope John Paul II’s apostolic visit to Canada for World Youth Day. I was a new and curious Catholic, but even as a teenager, I was moved by the fervor of the elderly and Parkinson-wracked Pope’s proclamation of the same Gospel passage that we hear this Sunday: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world (Mt 5:13-14).”
I recently happened upon the text from one of St. John Paul II’s homilies given to the throngs of young people gathered in the heat of that Canadian summer. As I re-read the words that I would have heard nearly twenty-one years ago, I am moved to realize the effect that his message had upon my young heart and the whole course of my life. Here is a section of his address. His words bear repeating:
“It is our nature to seek the Absolute, the meaning and fullness of life. Do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals! You are right to be disappointed with hollow entertainment and passing fads, and with aiming at too little in life. If you have an ardent desire for the Lord, you will steer clear of the mediocrity and conformism so widespread in our society. You are the light of the world (Mt 5:14). The light which Jesus speaks of in the Gospel is the light of faith, God’s free gift, which enlightens the heart and clarifies the mind. That is why the words of Jesus explaining his identity and his mission are so important: I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12). Our personal encounter with Christ bathes life in new light, sets us on the right path, and sends us out to be his witnesses. This new way of looking at the world and at people, which comes to us from him, leads us more deeply into the mystery of faith, which is not just a collection of theoretical assertions to be accepted and approved by the mind, but an experience to be had, a truth to be lived, the salt and light of all reality (cf. Veritatis Splendor, 88). In this secularized age, when many of our contemporaries think and act as if God did not exist or are attracted to irrational forms of religion, it is you who must show that faith is a personal decision which involves your whole life…Discover your Christian roots, learn about the Church’s history, deepen your knowledge of the spiritual heritage which has been passed on to you, follow in the footsteps of the witnesses and teachers who have gone before you!...How many saints can we count in the Church’s history! In their love for God, their heroic virtues shone before the world, and so they became models of life which the Church has held up for imitation by all. But not everyone can see the light. Ours is the wonderful and demanding task of becoming its reflection.”
How could I have known then that my trip to Canada that summer would be life-altering? If only we would allow it, Christ’s words can be life-altering for us, even today, here in in our familiar church. The Gospel may not be proclaimed from the pulpit this weekend by a living saint, as it was when I heard it back in the summer of 2002, but the words we hear are Christ’s own words. And therein lies all their power and efficacy. These are not just words, they are His words!
So let us be what we are: salt and light!
~Fr. Howe