Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples: "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt losses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Jesus said to his disciples: "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt losses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
When I heard this gospel reading in mass this morning I wanted to stand up and start singing "You are the light of the worrrrrrrrrld. You are the worrrrrrld!!!"...as I do every time I hear just about any verse from this chapter of the Bible. A special thanks to Steven Haines for deciding to put on the musical Godspell my junior year of high school so that I will now forever equate the Gospel of Matthew with....showtunes. :) I suppose it could be worse. In fact, I actually really like that I can sing my way through some of the most powerful yet simple verses in the good book.
ReplyDeleteAs far as this one goes, I found myself (perhaps during the homily...I have a bad habit of this sometimes) thinking about how I often get so bogged down in my own struggles and all I have to show for myself is a negative attitude about certain situations in my life. To me, this is equivalent to the "salt losing its taste" or putting my "lamp...under a bushel basket."
The priest today ended his homily with that phrase "you may be the only Bible some people ever read." In light of being mindful of how we respond to adversity in our lives I think it's important to keep things like this in mind...not from a self-righteous perspective but for the sheer fact that God needs us to be vessels for his love. Actions always speak louder than words.
In turn, one would hope that those we encounter in our lives would also then find the strength and courage to "let their lighhhhhhts, so shine before men, let their lighhhhhts so shiii-iiiine. So that they mighhhht knowwww some kindnessss again....WE ALL NEED HELP TO FEEL FINE! (Let's have some wine!" ...*As I recall we cut that last line from the show. womp womp.)
I love it. If you ever needed a confidence booster to get your swag back, this is the passage. “You are the salt of the earth”, “You are the light of the world”, “A city set on a mountain”…God is just letting you know that your self worth is off the charts. That you have so much pure, unprocessed, organic goodness in you that you should do nothing but let it flow out of you like an uninterrupted flood. I definitely see myself as a glass-is-half-full person, and I make an effort to be as positive as possible in this life.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is one thing that can be dangerous with this mindset that I’m working on. Sometimes in the process of trying to be so good, I don’t necessarily let out problems that may arise. Instead, I let people know that things are “ok” and that they have nothing to worry about. Which for the most part is true, because I’d like to think that there aren’t too many stressors that I face right now. However, when they DO come up, it’s ok to be vunerable and allow people to see the real you…and that even in times of strife, this broken-down fraction of yourself is still inheriently good because God intended and molded that part of you in His image. We’re not perfect. We never will be. But letting your goodness burst out and allowing yourself to be truthful to yourself and others is an important process to live out.