“You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13, 14) The Lord here is telling us what he is looking for in those who would follow him. Today’s Gospel follows the Lord’s teaching on what we refer to as: The Beatitudes. There he describes the blessedness of those who will achieve happiness in the Kingdom of God: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, … Blessed are the gentle, …” and so forth. (Matthew 5:3-12) It is such as these who are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
“You are the salt of the earth.” Life in this world can be tough and much of that hardship is caused by what others are doing or not doing: corruption, greed, violence, and the like, mean that for a great many people life is a struggle just to survive, and it has little joy in it. It’s as though the meal served up to them is just stodge: it fills you up, but it tastes like crap. But add a little salt to it and it gets a little tang in it and it doesn’t taste so bad. So what Jesus is saying to us is that we are to be that salt of the earth which gives a little tang to life, putting a little joy into the lives of those very ordinary people whose ordinary experience of it is more often hardship and misery—letting them feel that it’s good to be alive (cf: Matthew 17:4) … by being those who comfort those who mourn (Matthew 5:5), giving a little food and drink to those who are hungry and thirsty (Matthew 5:6; 25:35), who make the stranger feel welcome and clothe the naked and visit the sick. (Matthew 25:36) And even if we have nothing to give, we can be there for them by just holding their hand and letting them know that they are not alone … and making life seem like the good gift that it is.
Today we celebrate the Feast of St Bernard. He is a man who was the salt of the earth. The Cistercians when they first got going, were admired for the zeal of their holiness … but no one wanted to join them because their life was seen to be just too hard. But Bernard came along and added that little something to their way of life that made it all seem doable and worthwhile, and suddenly many could see in the Cistercian Way a way to live that was ‘good tasting,’ and new monasteries began opening up all over the world. We are all called to live like that, helping one another to live more meaningfully the life that is ours with a little joy.
“You are the light of the world.” Light is meant to shine, for that is what light does. So here, Christ is telling us is that we are to be a ‘lamp alight and shining’ that others can see and bask in the light that we give. (John 5:35; Matthew 5:15-16) ‘Light of the world’ is a title that Jesus took to himself. (John 8:12) He says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) This means that we, too, must let our light shine for as long as we are in the world; there is no time when we can let our light be dimmed or covered over; there is no time off. (Matthew 5:15. Cf: John 3:19-21) As Jesus puts it: “No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub. No, he puts it on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.” (Matthew 5:5 Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16) Our light is just meant to shine for all to see.
Yet, we need to be mindful that it is Christ who lights our lamp. The light that shines in us is not our own, but Christ’s light shining in us. (John 1:7-8, 9) For, as we know, the Light that shines in our darkness is Christ, and we become a light in the world by learning to walk in the light that Christ gives, by walking ‘in complete goodness and right living and truth.’ (John 12:35; Philippians 2:15; Ephesians 5:8-9)
The good works that we do, we do not do to be praised by others. (Matthew 6:1) Rather, we do them in such a way so that those who see them ‘will give praise to our Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5:16) We need to cultivate a humility that ‘does not become elated over our good deeds’ but rather ‘praises the Lord at work in us.’ (Rule of St Benedict [RB] Prologue:29 30) For, with St Paul, we know that ‘to do good works is present in us, but to do them is not. The good we want to do is not what we do, but the evil we hate that is what we keep doing.’ (Romans 7:18-19) And so, like St Paul, we need to declare to all: “By God’s grace I am what I am.” (RB Prologue:32; 1 Corinthians 15:10) The sheer wonder of our doing the good we want to do, then, should elicit in all who see it, praise of the God who is our Father and author of the good we do. (Matthew 5:16. Cf: RB 7:70) For it is God at work in us that enables us to do the good we want to do.
St Bernard was just such a man: he let his light shine, and the light he gave still shines in what he wrote … even down to this day. We, too, are to let our light shine, though for us perhaps more in what we do than in what we say (RB 2:12. Cf: RB 4:75-76), but all the while always giving credit to God for any good we see in ourselves, yet always claiming the harm we do as our own and humbly and readily always seeking to say, “I’m sorry,” to the one we may have hurt—this, too, is grace at work. (RB 4:42-43, 73. Cf: John 3:21) In this way, we will hear it said to us on the Day we are to give our account of ourselves: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13, 14; 25:34; Romans 2:16; 14:10 12)