5th Sunday Ordinary Time - Year A

The prophet Isaiah (58:7-10) and the evangelist Matthew (5:13-16) team up this Sunday to keep members of the praying assembly mindful of their responsibilities for one another and for the needy of this world.  Matthew speaks metaphorically, representing Jesus as charging his disciples to be salt and light for the world.  The challenge embedded in this metaphor demands a real and thorough going commitment.  That commitment to be salt and light must be prompted by a living faith and translated into tangible works.

The faith-driven, salt and light activities, described in today’s first reading from Isaiah are worth noting for a self examination: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech and do not turn your back on your own.  Notice how material this new spirituality is; it concerns bread, home, body, flesh and engagement with the painful doctrines of human wretchedness and need.  The presence of God, as the prophet affirms, is found in the daily embrace of the neighbour, the hungry, the poor, the naked, the homeless.  The only worthy response to this God who comes disguised in the needs of others is to give my bread, open my home and give of myself.  Sharing my bread requires a much more personal involvement and engagement with others than simply writing a cheque or giving a gift certificate for groceries.  Sharing my bread, along with all the other corporal works of mercy means sharing the same table at the same time and partaking fully of the fellowship that naturally evolves from such mutual sharing and caring.  When sharing is personal, sincere and authentic, then, promised the prophet, light shall break forth and wounds will heal.  Sinners will be vindicated and all will know the attentive presence of God when they call out in prayer.

Part of that prayer, as Hans Küng (“Global Responsibility, In Search of a New World Ethics”, NY:1991) once suggested, might include an acknowledgment of guilt for not having always met the challenges set forth by the ancient prophet and thereby failing to be salt and light for the world. Let us have a renewed resolve and determination to be saltier and more luminous witnesses to Christ and the Gospel.