Here I Am

Fifth Sunday of the Year. Fr David Goodill encourages us to stand boldly in the light.

Jesus uses two images in today’s Gospel to help us see how to live as his disciple. Christians are to be the salt of the earth and light to enlighten all peoples.

Salt preserves food and adds flavour. Before refrigeration salt was essential in helping to preserve food, and Christians are to act as salt in this world; preserving all that is good, working against all that is destructive and evil. Salt also adds flavour. Christians are not only to preserve the world; they are to make it a better place for all to live in. Just as salt when added to food spreads throughout the food Christians are to infuse the whole world with their goodness.

Light enables us to see and it guides us. The lamp on the lampstand spreads its light to the whole house and Christians are to spread the light of Christ to all people. The city set on a hill top provides light that will guide a traveller in the dark and Christians are to provide light to those who walk in darkness.

But how are we to go about this, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah tells us what it is to be a servant of God. To share our bread with the hungry, to help those in need. In doing this your light will rise in the darkness, your shadows become like noon.

This passage is taken from the final chapters of Isaiah, but if we turn to the beginning of Isaiah we hear the prophet condemning those who accumulate wealth at the cost of others; adding field to field while the poor are thrown off the land. In grasping more for ourselves we make ourselves less. Earthly riches provide a false glory and although those who possess them may seem to shine in our sight this glory is ephemeral, something which will pass in the blink of an eye.

True riches come to those who give and giving is good for our wellbeing. It can lift our mood and provide a sense of connection to others. To be truly generous, however, requires more than one-off acts of generosity. It involves the development of our character so that we become a generous, just and loving person. And where do we learn this? Through following the example of others, those who have allowed their light to shine in our lives, those who are the salt of the world. We learn to be generous through the generosity of others.

In Jesus Christ we see the generosity of his heavenly Father made visible to us here on earth. Jesus is the example all Christians follow; he is our salt and the source of all light. He is the light that has come into this world to enlighten all people.

Isaiah tell us that if we are generous our light will break forth like the dawn. We will cry to the Lord and he will say ‘here I am’. After the fall, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hide themselves from the Lord because they are ashamed. In his Son Jesus Christ the Father comes to us to take away our shame. In Adam we hide ourselves from God and it is God who calls out to us. In Jesus Christ we stand in the light and call out to God ‘here I am’. As disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to stand in his light, to be salt of the earth and a light to enlighten all peoples.

Readings: Isaiah 58:7-10 | 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 | Matthew 5:13-16

Image: satellite image of the Dead Sea via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)