5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Now Jesus did not really say such things to
his disciples, did he? In fact, he chose
very different images for his disciples – images that directly contradict those
we’ve just heard. As disciples, he says,
you are not to be bland – not dull.
Rather, you are to be the salt of the earth. Your very presence is to lend taste to
life. It is to enhance life’s flavor and
bring out for others their own savor and spice.
It’s in your absence that life should seem to become bland and dull.
You
are not to even give a hint of appearing pale or dim or murky – because you are
to be light for the world. Your presence
brings brightness and warmth – allowing others to recognize and rejoice in the
brilliance and fire they bring to life.
It is in your absence that life should seem to become shadowy and lives
should seem to remain unthawed and stiff.
Jesus chose simple yet life-giving, nourishing
images to describe his disciples – to describe us. Salt: it opens up a person to flavor – even
to their own flavor. Light: it allows a
person to see and grasp reality - even their own reality. We are to feed, fuel and flame up one
another’s lives.
That is how Jesus would have us understand and
imagine ourselves. Stop and think on
this! What would our everyday lives look
like – if we really took on to ourselves, really inhabited the images Jesus is
using about us? I am salt! I am light! I give flavor to life – to others. I am a lamp bringing luster – to others. Imagine wanting to say to others: I want to feed and flow into your life.
Jesus recognized just how powerfully images
communicate. Remember he told us he
wanted to become “bread and wine” for us in our life journey. He wanted to share his love and his life with
us. He recalls us to those images at
every liturgy. I want to be bread and wine – body and blood for you. Take from me and eat. Be nourished.
Take and drink me in. Be
satisfied.
Images are such powerful communicators. But stop and think on this. What if you imagined yourself not “bread and wine” but rather “bread and water” – a diet given to people to chasten, sadden and punish them. You could not – you would not dare invite another to take of my life and drink me in. Sadly, you could not dream of yourself bringing nourishment and goodness to others.
Self-image tells us who the person is we
really live with. Who am I – to
myself? Am I here – as a disciple? Am I here – trying to learn how to be a
disciple? Or, am I here – just to go to
church?
At this Eucharist let us allow Jesus to speak
to us his self-image and our self-image: bread
and wine – body and blood – given out for the life of the world. Let that be our communion with the Lord and
with one another. Together we give
ourselves out – for the life of the world.
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