Sunday 5 (A): Salt and Light in Baptism
Salt of the earth and light of the world are perhaps the two most famous
metaphors Jesus uses to describe the relationship of his disciples to the rest of humanity. Put another way, you might say
that the Church, the disciples of Jesus, gives humanity its true taste (salt) and its true vision (light). But Jesus warns
against a Church which becomes tasteless (insipid) and dark (light under a bushel), effectively calling it useless if that
were sadly to come about.
The question arises, then, as to what gives the Church its taste and vision
in the first place, as does also the question as to what preserves the Church tasty and visionary. There are some inadequate
answers to these questions which it might be useful to discuss for a moment.
Some think it enough to say that knowledge of the teaching of Jesus is enough
to be salt and light. For them it is a matter of the head. This answer runs into problems, however, when other thinkers pick
holes in the philosophy of Jesus, or offer quite convincing reasons to suggest that much of the teaching of the Church does
not come from the lips of Jesus (the Da Vinci Code?!). They thus point to lacks and even contradictions in what Jesus says.
In the face of high brow, intellectual opposition, the heady answer to the question of what gives the Church salt and light
might easily fall through.
Others think it enough to say that putting Jesus’ teaching into practice
in their moral lives is what gives salt and light to the Church. But who among us can say that they live a perfect moral life?
Who can say that they are sinless? And since no one can make such a claim, then by definition we all are tasteless and visionless
to some degree. No number of even slightly bad apples, when thrown together, can produce even one good one. If we pretended
such, we would rightly be laughed into obscurity as impostors and hypocrites.
Still others might give a purely dogmatic answer to our question: they might
say we are salt and light simply because Jesus said so. It is the take it or leave it approach, but it is also a rather elitist
one, almost childish in suggesting that “we are in the Jesus club and you’re not –so there!” But such
a mentality is hardly that of Jesus, unless we pick and choose what we like from his doctrine, effectively manipulating it
to suit ourselves.
So, the knowledge approach, the moral approach and the dogmatic approach
are not of themselves adequate answers to the question as to what makes the Church salt and light. Each of these approaches
does have something of the truth in it, but they all require a deeper foundation if they are to find their true value and
place.
Yet others will identify more superficial answers. Some will say that the
Church’s salt and light, or power and truth, lie in the strength of her 2,000 year old institutions and organization
or in her universal, geographical expanse, or in her political and diplomatic astuteness, or in her money! None of these,
however, is of itself secure, as history shows, nor, therefore, can it confer on the Church those qualities of salt and light
of which Jesus speaks. Again, there must be a deeper foundation.
I hope it is obvious to you that that deeper foundation is Christ
himself. To be more precise, it is his living union with us which gives us the power to be salt and light to the earth. Please
drink in deeply the following truth: the union of Jesus with his Church is not a metaphor, in the way in which the United States might
say to the nations affected by the recent tsunami, “we are united with you in your suffering.” The union of Jesus
with his Church is real, not metaphorical: as a husband and wife are united, body and soul, or as a child is in its mother’s
womb, so is Jesus united with each of us and all of us. Indeed, his union with us is even more intimate, more real: for he
is one not only with our bodies but also with our very souls. Indeed, when I think, he sees how and what I think; when I feel
anything, he feels it with me; when I suffer, he suffers with me in unspeakable compassion; when I weep, his own heart is
sorrowful.
How does this union take place? And why? Let it be said first of all, that
Jesus is never far from any human being, for every human being is created by him and held in existence by him. While original
sin meant that man withdrew from his first union with God, the death of Jesus on the Cross made reunion possible. Only if
a man accepts the loving death of Jesus can he know again the incredible intimacy of union with God. That is what happens
in baptism: through it we die with Christ to sin so as to live in union with God. That is the “how” of the union.
Baptism makes us branches of the Vine and members of the Body of Jesus and the rest of the sacraments deepen and perfect that
union.
And why does this union take place? Why else, but out of love! If
union is the desire and the fruit of love, then a union stronger than death is the desire and the fruit of an immortal love.
We are the object of such love, a love of which we could know nothing and which we could never merit by anything we do. This
truth is so difficult for people to understand today, because we all want the power of knowledge and information as we all
want to be active and hyper-active, in a work and efficiency-driven society, in the pursuit of God knows what. But, as St. Paul says, our human wisdom and knowing and feverish activity are not what constitute real power. Real power, real wisdom
is found in the proclamation of the scandal of the Cross, because the Cross reveals to man the power of eternal love, the
sublime wisdom of God which consists of Christ’s total self-giving to sinful man so that man might be free in him from
sin, death and eternal loneliness. Christ did not create us to die, and so he died that we might live the life of eternal
and divine love which plants its seed deep within the one who believes and is made one with Christ in baptism.
We are salt and light, then, because Christ is the true salt and the true
light, and he is in us. And so our knowledge of the doctrine of Christ is useful to the degree that we come to understand
more deeply what he has done for us, who he is in us, by means of baptism. Our moral life is truly Christian when it flows
from that source of grace and power within us. Our dogmatic statements about being salt and light because Christ says so are
true, not just on the basis of his words, but on that of the reality of his life and grace deep within us. Likewise, the physical
and external structures of the Church in space and time can only hold together or be of any use if they spring from the order
of grace and lead men and women back to it.
Two practical conclusions.
First, thank Jesus every morning, as your first thought, for your baptism,
by which you and he have become one in a love and in a bond that not even death can break. Try to refer back to your baptism
every experience, good and bad, that you live during the day. If you look at your life and activity from within the baptismal
font, it will give you unending strength and joy even in the midst of suffering. It will give a divine taste to your life
and help you see it in the light of Christ. If you cannot taste and see Christ in yourself, with difficulty will you be salt
and light to the significant relationships of your life. Remember your baptism, reflect on it, understand it, love it, pray
it into that spring of life-giving water welling up to eternal life.
Second, when you feel and know that your sins are making your salt tasteless
and hiding your light under a bushel, don’t give in! If you saw someone you loved being drowned or threatened, you would
not stand by, shrug your shoulders and move on. Why then let your love for Christ, and, more importantly, his love for you,
be snuffed out by spiritual laziness or indifference? What’s worse, if that is what you are doing, do not come to Holy
Communion and pretend that everything’s okay, expecting some kind of magical solution. Rather, be honest and realistic,
give yourself a sense of urgency for Christ, and come and have the grace of your baptism renewed, fresh as ever, in the waters
of sacramental absolution, in the sacrament of confession. There is no other means on earth that will give you the certainty
you need that your sins have been forgiven and that Christ has once again rendered you salty in his love and sparkling in
his truth. It may seem modern not to go to confession, but modernity is not the criterion of right and wrong. Not to go to
confession is very dangerous for the spiritual life; it is therefore foolish and the sign of an ungrateful and haughty heart.
Vatican II never abolished sin nor did it give anyone the license to sin; neither did it abolish the sacrament of confession
instituted by Christ out of love for sinners. Rather, the Council reaffirmed man’s freedom in Christ, which means man’s
responsibility to Christ, a responsibility to learn, to know and to practice the truth of Christ, for no other truth can set
man truly free. Confession is at the service of freedom since it liberates man from what is not true in his life and thus
restores him to true freedom and responsibility. Do not submit to the insipid and blind slavery of sin, but let confession
render you once again tasteful and enlightened in grace.
The earth today needs salt more than ever; it needs light more than ever.
Jesus is counting on us; the world, though it might not know it, is also counting on us. Let us be found worthy of our sacred
trust so that men may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father.
Msgr. Peter
Magee
Sunday, February 6th, 2005: St. Andrew Apostle, Silver
Spring – 5.00 pm Vigil &
8.30 am.
