From Witness to Faith: You are the light of the world

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

Light is for seeing – Light reveals the truth of things because it shows them as they really are -- their true colour, texture and form. Without light, in the darkness, nothing can be seen, nothing has colour, nothing has form.  The Christian who follows his Master, who is the way, the truth and the life, also becomes the walking truth, way and life. The Christian who is truly a Christian, lives with meaning, is a point of reference and model to emulate, a finger pointing to the truth because he embodies and lives it.

Light is for being seen – A blind man was invited to a friend’s house for dinner; after dinner, as it was already dark, the friend gave him a lamp to help him on his way home, the blind man said mockingly, “Can't you see that I am blind, what good is a lamp to me?” “Take it,” his friend insisted.  And so he did. When he was still a long way from his house, someone bumped into him and he, now understanding the reason for the lamp, shouted, “Did you not see my lamp?” “No, I didn't see you, that's why I bumped into you, but now I see that in fact you are carrying a lamp, but it has gone out.”

When visibility is poor, because of rain or because it is the beginning or end of the day, many drivers do not turn on their headlights, because they say they can still see; thus, forgetting that the lights are also for being seen by others.  

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father (Matthew 5: 15-16).

When, claiming to be Christians, we do not embody the word of God, we are a dimmed light that not only does not show the way, but is also a "stumbling block", which is the meaning of the word scandal in Greek.

Light exposes evil – (...) the Light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). In this sense, light has the same denouncing and anti-corruption capacity as salt. It is in the dark, in the dead of night, in secret that the worst deeds of evil of this world are done. Exposing these injustices is the Christian’s task, even if it is difficult and risky; if no one does it, darkness infests the entire society and transforms it into a mob; "where the sun doesn’t enter, enters the doctor", says the people.

Light must shine – In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, she asks Jesus where she should worship God, in the temple of Jerusalem or on the mountain of Samaria.  Jesus answers that God is worshipped everywhere, and because he is Spirit, he must be worshipped in spirit and truth. Without leaving the Synagogue and the Temple, most of his ministry took place in the street, in life.  The same happened in the first five centuries of the Church; the Word was preached in public squares or transmitted from person to person by his or her witness; the Eucharist was celebrated in people's homes. Worship was in life and life was in worship.

With the building of temples, after Emperor Constantine, worship and life were separated. Today we have life without worship, those who call themselves non-practicing Catholics, and worship without life, those who practice religion but only in Church, when outside they are equal to or worse than the others. Today the only light that shines is the lamp in the Blessed Sacrament, only in Church of course.

Let your light shine before men... We are called to be the light of the world, not the light of the temple; not a light that is put under a bushel, but a light that is at the top of the hill where we can see more of the world.  Like someone once said: "Faith either spreads or fades"; faith is either given or is lost; we only have faith when we give it away.

Christ is the Sun, we are the Moon – All light comes from the Sun.  Christ is the sun of our lives, the one who guides us, enlightens us and warms us.  We as disciples, or planets, revolve around him, capturing his light which we then, like the moon, reflect to illuminate the world that walks in darkness.  Christians are in fact like the moon in its different phases:

First Quarter – Those who gradually abandon prayer and the practices of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and see their light losing intensity and risk going out completely.

New – Those who have already set aside prayer, reading and listening to the Word of God, and practicing the sacraments, they are no longer enlightened by Christ or no longer shine themselves; they are a black hole, or the so-called non-practicing Catholics. Without the guidance of God’s Word, Catholics are easily led astray by the philosophies of this world.

Last Quarter – Those who strive to embody the Word of God and are in communion with other Christians, being part of the mystical body of Christ; they grow as people of faith and in human maturity.

Full – Those who despite still having dark areas in their lives (in reference to the large craters on the moon) fundamentally live for Christ, and as St. Paul said of himself, "it is no longer I who live but is Christ who lives in me". Their lives are a beacon for others; they are a living Christ.

"Love is like the moon, when it doesn't increase it decreases". Faith is exactly the same, it either increases or decreases, it never stays static because in this world nothing is static.  It has always been said that “what is not used, atrophies”. Faith grows when it is applied in life, when it is the driving force behind our lives; it decreases to the point of atrophy when it is not used in everyday life, when it doesn't inspire and motivate actions, and generate attitudes.

When we live out our faith in this way, we truly bear witness to Christ, we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and in this way, we carry out a silent evangelization, because it brings to faith many of those who see us and live with us.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

From witness to faith - You are the salt of the earth

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot." Matthew 5:13

We belong to a Church that suffers from verbiage when its founder was an incarnate Word. It is symptomatic that Jesus had compared his disciples to salt and light, whose action takes place in silence. Francis of Assisi understood this when he said, "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words”.

The incarnated gospel does a better job of evangelizing than the proclaimed gospel, because works replace words; in contrast, not only do words not replace works, but they are worthless in the absence of works, or by works contrary to words; works may not need words, but words always need works.

We could unload tons of bibles in the middle of a well populated continent, and not a single person would convert to Christianity because of them. We could also preach the Word of God to the four winds and achieve little else, because "words are carried away by the wind". The Word of God itself, after being spoken by so many prophets, had to become incarnate in order to be credible.

Christianity spreads through human contact, through the witness of life. "See how they love one another", said the Romans in observing the individual and social aptitudes of the early Christians. It is said that the education of children is aerial; what is educational is not so much the advice or even the works the parents do for the children, but their daily behaviour and the environment they create at home; the way they react to situations. The same is true of evangelization, what awakens faith is the silent witness of our daily lives, which is why Jesus exhorted his disciples to be salt and light.

Salt melts snow – In cities where snow is a constant during winter, it is salt that allows the roads to remain open to traffic. The Christian who is salt helps to re-establish communication between people whose relationships have been severed; he is the peacemaker in conflicts. Let us recall the Titanic’s collision with an iceberg, the snow avalanches that buried people alive; that is to say, water in its solid state is more at the service of evil and death than of life. 

Only in its liquid state is water a source of life, because only in this state can it be absorbed by living beings and form an integral part of them. Salt melts ice that causes people to slip, and keeps water in a liquid state; the Christian, who is salt, undoes the traps, the snares, the intrigues, and the plans that the evildoers weave to bring down their fellow human beings.

Salt fixes water in the body – Water and salt go together; the sea is the great reservoir of both. Without salt our bodies would quickly become dehydrated; in fact, little sachets of rehydration salts were the first thing we gave in Africa to people who were easily dehydrated by the high fevers that malaria causes. Just as water is the principle of physical life, the water of Baptism is the principle of Christian life; a Christian who is salt stays faithful to the baptismal promises. In the ancient baptismal rite salt was used; with baptism, we become part of the redeemed, those who possess the water that gushes forth to eternal life.  Without salt, this water escapes us.

Salt conserves and preserves – Salt preserves meat and fish; in the days when there was no refrigeration, this was the way to avoid corruption. Christians, who are salt, prevent corruption in the social fabric of families, institutions, companies, organizations, governments, clubs etc. In institutions where there are authentic Christians, there are no degradation or corruption.

In biology, when a wound opens, the body can be invaded by viruses, germs and bacteria that are harmful to health; salt has the power to kill many of these harmful agents. Similarly, in the fabric of society, in institutions, companies and clubs, there are situations that can cause someone to stumble. Thieves are not born as such, as the saying goes, "the situation makes the thief". The presence of Christians in these places has the same deterrent effect as sentencing in the judicial system.

Salt gives flavour – Just as salt gives flavour to food, the Christian gives meaning to human life. Only Christ can logically answer the three questions that all human beings who come into this world would at some point ask themselves: Where do I come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of life? Without Christ, human life is meaningless, tasteless and purposeless.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC