DOCTRINE AND FAITH
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
READINGS OF THE DAY: Is 58:7-10; Ps 111 (112); 1 Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16
The prophetic passage of Isaiah (cf. 58:7-10) takes a stand against a
religiosity based entirely on rites and practices and devoid of any concern for
humanity. The inspiration comes from the practice of fasting, which was
required on certain days and on certain liturgical occasions.
But God wants something else, insists the prophet, meticulously listing
three times the behaviours that constitute true fasting, the kind that pleases
the Lord. One might object that our current situation has profoundly changed
from the one that gave rise to the prophet's polemic; ours is no longer the
time of frequent fasts, numerous ritual practices, and frequent prayers offered
for ostentation. However, if the prophet's polemical framework has lost its
relevance, the most important core of his discourse has not: what pleases God
is your good attitude toward your fellow man or woman. This is the core of the
prophet's discourse, which retains its modernity intact. The God of the
prophets never ceases to amaze us: rather than being concerned primarily with
what his faithful do for Him, this God is concerned first with what his
faithful do for other people.
Among the concrete ways of helping others, two are closest to the
prophet's heart. The first is "untying the chains," breaking the yoke
of oppression, restoring freedom to prisoners - in a word, liberation.
Certainly, the prophet here reflects the experience of Israel, which in exile
understood the meaning of the lack of freedom. Helping individuals and peoples
to regain freedom is more pleasing to God than practices of personal
mortification. The second is sharing one's bread with the hungry. The prophets
know well how hunger can humiliate a man. Liberation from slavery and the fight
against hunger are the two things the God of the prophets expects of his
people. Indeed, he is a God concerned about the ever-growing multitude of the
disinherited, and he speaks of them to anyone who comes to the temple to meet
him.
In the Gospel (cf. Mt 5:13-16), the two comparisons used by Jesus - the
disciple must be like "light" and like “salt” - are clear and should
be taken in their literal sense. The brief discourse is addressed to the group
of disciples (the verbs are plural), not to the individual. Being salt, being
light must apply to the group, to the community, and not simply to individual
Christians. The discourse is therefore addressed to the entire community.
The two images (salt and light) are expressed in the indicative form
("you are"), and this shows a fact, a reality: Jesus affirms, with
great force and simplicity, that the disciples must be a point of reference, of
purification, of transformation, under penalty of complete uselessness (for
what good would salt have served if it becomes tasteless, or of what use is a
hidden light?). If the disciples lose the strength of the salt that should be
always in them, they are useless ("thrown out") and even despised
("trampled underfoot”).
But what does it mean, then, to be salt, and to be light? And what are
the concrete good works to be displayed, or good works capable of inducing men
to glorify the Lord? The prophetic reading comes to our aid once again, which
agrees with the Gospel in its response: breaking chains and sharing bread with
the hungry, these are the works to be displayed to the world, works capable of
inducing men to glorify the Lord and capable of transforming those who perform
them into a light that illuminates and salt that gives flavor, that is, into a
point of reference that attracts, stimulates, and encourages.
Happy Sunday!
Bishop of Awgu
