Mass readings, reflections and activities for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A).
Reflection
Sentences beginning with “you are” are meant to demand our special attention. Part of Jesus’ discourse following the Beatitudes, Jesus employs the images of salt and light to make a crucial point also made in the two previous readings for today: the way you live expresses or obscures the truth of God’s love and mercy. In the words of the Redemptorist Priest Fr. Leo English, “you may be the only Bible someone reads today, so act it.” God is to be manifest in all we do, think, and feel, as well as in the attitudes and motives which govern our behavior. St. Augustine reaffirms this notion that an impure, or violent thought is only slightly behind a thought becoming an action – so be aware of thy self.
(Reflection: Diocese of Saskatoon)
Background on the Gospel Reading Following upon the teaching of the Beatitudes, Jesus uses the now familiar metaphors of salt and light to describe the life of discipleship. We take salt and light for granted in our society, but these commodities were more precious in ancient cultures. Just as now, salt was used in Jesus’ time for flavoring, as a preservative, and as a healing agent. Similarly, the widespread use of electricity in the modern world makes us less aware of the value and importance of light in our lives. Still, our familiarity with this passage from Matthew’s Gospel speaks well to the abiding power of the imagery that Jesus presented. Jesus’ call to be salt for the earth and light for the world powerfully states our mission as Church and as Christians. Our commitment to social justice flows from the exhortation that Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel. Some of the activities that this commitment leads us to are given more concrete expression as the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, console those who mourn, and so on, we show ourselves to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. When we do these things with the community of faith, the Church, we are indeed acting as “a city set on a mountain” that cannot be hidden! Source Loyola PressReflections
