Sunday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates the Sunday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time. The assigned readings are Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; and Matthew 5:13-16. The Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 112 (Psalm 112: 4-9).

Today’s Gospel reading is as follows:

Jesus said to his disciples:“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

In today’s “Daily Ignatian Reflection,” Rev. Mr. John Brown, S.J., notes that “Salt had a very strong symbolic meaning for the Jewish people who lived a little closer to the earth. Jesus takes advantage of this in Matthew 5:13-16, when he says to his followers that they are salt of the earth.

“First, salt was pure. This is easy to see because salt is so white and sparkling. Second, it kept things pure. Salt acts as a preservative and, in a time without any reliable methods of refrigeration, salt was necessary for preserving foods like meat. Third, salt added flavor. Things taste better when they're not so bland.”

Deacon Brown also notes that “Salt without taste is sand. It's that grit in your food, that speck in your eye, that dirt on your clothes. A Christian with no joy is that hypocrite with the sad face, wishing everyone else were just as sad. Despite any purity, or any call to preserve what is good, the joyless Christian is his own billboard advertising death rather than life. His witness is a scandal that testifies to a Jesus still in the tomb."

“So when we share our bread with the hungry and shelter the oppressed and the homeless, it can't just be a cold handout. We have to truly extend ourselves out to the ones we intend to show love to. It has to be the joy of our life to give ourselves, in imitation of the Christ.

“This is a testimony to a real belief in the creed we profess. And it must not be hidden. . . .”

Another reflection on this day’s readings comes from Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio, who notes that “Blessed be the Bland” and “Blessed be the Boring” are not among the beatitudes:

Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio: Salt of the Earth, Light of the World

In his reflection on these readings, Father John Kavanaugh, S.J., reminds us that we may “repress [our Faith] in our public lives, presuming that it has nothing to offer the ‘real’ world of politics and economics. Or we may just keep it under a basket – a ‘private’ matter that makes no difference to society.” However, he notes that Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, “challenges his listeners to live out their discipleship precisely in the context of their culture and world”:

The Word Embodied: Christian Faith and Politics