My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we are in the 5th Sunday in ordinary time. Today we have the gospel passage from St Mathew, this is the continuation of the sermon on the mount. After the Beatitudes Jesus does something striking: He does not give new rules, He gives an identity. “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” Not you should become, but you are. Discipleship begins not with performance, but with being transformed by Christ.
Salt works quietly, it disappears in to food, yet without it everything becomes tasteless and eventually decays. So too the Christian life: fidelity in small acts, patience in suffering, integrity when no one sees. When salt loses its savor, it is not because it is attacked, but because it is diluted. Faith loses its force not through persecution alone, but through compromise. Light on the other hand, cannot hide itself. It does not shout; it simply shines. Jesus is clear: the purpose of light is not self-display, but that others may “give glory to your Father in heaven.” Christian witness is never about drawing attention to ourselves, but about making God visible through mercy, justice, and truth.
Isaiah reminds us today that light rises when we feed the hungry and shelter the poor. Paul reminds us that God’s power is revealed not in brilliance, but in weakness. May our lives, shaped by humility and love, quietly preserve the world from decay and gently illuminate it with hope. Once mother Theresa narrated a story which happened in Melbourne Australia about a poor man. He was a poor man without any friends, he lived in a basement, which seemed completely neglected. The room was very dark and he was living there. Mother Theresa went there, she greeted him and started to sweep the room and kept it tidy. The man protested saying leave it alone it is okay as it is, after all nobody comes to see me. But mother continued doing the task of cleaning. She chatted with him, talked with him. While she was cleaning the room she found a tiny oil lamp in the corner of the room, filled with dust. She took it out, wiped it and cleaned it. Mother said that man you have a beautiful oil lamp how come you never light it up. The man said why should I, nobody comes to see me, why should I have a light here for me. Mother with a compassionate heart told him, will you promise me to light this lamp every day? I will send one of my sisters to visit you daily. Immediately the man said yes. Mother Theresa made sure that two sisters visited him regularly and whenever the sisters went there the man lighted up the lamp, then after a few days he told the sisters, now I learned to manage my life and found a light in my life, but tell that sister the one who came on the first day that the light she lit is still burning in my life. My dear ones, a simple lamp light lit by a compassionate mother gave life and hope to that man living in darkness for so many years. Similarly, we can also bring new light to the people with gloomy faces, we can also add a new taste to the people if you become a true living salt. Amen