Year A

Jan 14 2025

A Little Salt, a Little Light, a Lotta Difference

One of the most common advertising strategies is showing what you can look like after you purchase a certain product or follow a particular program: a more pleasing shape, greater muscle definition, blemish-free skin, silkier hair, and so on. Jesus today offers two images to his disciples, salt and light, indicating what they can be if they follow his teachings. In both instances the benefits go to others.

Salt was important in Jesus’ time for preserving meat and for bringing out the taste of food. Its usefulness depends on its interacting with something else. When it doesn’t interact, it is useless. So, too, if a follower does not live in the world as a child of the kingdom, the world will be bland.

And not only that, but also blind, unable to glimpse God’s presence here and now. The disciples must show themselves to the world as followers of Jesus, rooted like him in the law and the prophets. With so much darkness due to hatred, cruelty, and greed, the disciple who shares bread with the hungry, helps shelter the homeless, clothes the naked, and does not live indifferent to the needs of others, will truly be salt and light.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to hear the Sermon on the Mount, a compilation of teachings that Matthew has collected to give us the program we are to follow so that the world may catch a glimpse now and again of the reign of God.

Consider/Discuss

Do you see ways in which you can bring savor and light to the world?
Do you recognize that Jesus is calling the church as a community of believers to dispel the darkness and gloom?

Responding to the Word

Pray that God will help you to recognize the gifts given to you and your community for the good of others. We also ask God to give us the humility not to feel threatened by the gifts of others, but to rejoice in them and encourage their use.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

Today’s passage from Isaiah maps out the kind of behavior required if one is to enjoy the blessing of the covenant. It proclaims ethical mandates, not religious practices. Communion with God is dependent upon the fulfillment of social responsibility. The blessing that follows such a life is frequently described as some form of light. Light can be a symbol of deliverance, of prosperity, of truth, or of God’s favor. It is associated with life and all of the good things that come with it. Because its meaning here is not explicitly stated, the reference to life can include all of the richness of the symbol.

Paul reminds the Corinthians of their lowly status in society. This lowliness enabled the power and glory of God to shine forth unimpeded through them. He applies this to his own manner of ministry. He insists that there is nothing extraordinary about him, but that will not hamper the spread of the gospel. Quite the contrary; Paul’s ministerial approach was humble and unassuming because he did not want his manner of delivery to get in the way of the dynamism of the gospel. He wanted the faith of the community to be grounded in God and not in the cleverness of a preacher.

Jesus employs two metaphors to characterize the essence of discipleship. First, salt is both essential for life itself and valuable for preserving, seasoning, and purifying food. Its value is in its effect on something else. Applied to disciples, they too are valuable to the extent that they influence others. Second, the disciples are a light that shines forth in the darkness of ignorance or faithlessness, like a city on a mountain or a lamp on a stand in a house. They enlighten others not by words but by their manner of living, a manner of living that declares to the world that the reign of God has indeed been established in their midst, and the age of fulfillment has dawned.

Jan 14 2025

Getting into the Kingdom

Billy Collins’ poem “The Afterlife” proposes that when we die, we will all go to the place where we always expected to go. And so, some will end up in the light, others before a judge; some will be singing in the choir, others seated around a food-filled table. He concludes somewhat wistfully, saying that the rest will just end up in their coffins, wishing they could return to do things they never did.

Matthew’s Gospel has a lot to say about the kingdom of heaven, beginning with the Beatitudes, which can be thought of as “Be-Attitudes,” ways of being in the world now that will get you into the world yet to come. They are not the usual rungs on the ladder to success that call for calculation, competition, and caring little for anyone other than oneself.

Being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering and thirsting for justice (God’s, not the usual brand meted out in our world), showing mercy, being clean of heart, making peace, and putting up with persecution—this can sound like an eight-step program for being losers in the world.

But to those who chose to walk these ways, Jesus declares, “Blessed are they,” and promises that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Or, as Paul puts it, God chooses the nobodies to work on, with, and through. It’s enough to make you search out another kingdom. Only there you might not end up being blessed, just wishing you could return to do things you never did—but should have.

Consider/Discuss

What is your notion of the kingdom of heaven?
To which of the groups Jesus names do you feel most akin? Which are least related to your life?
Which quality do you hear Jesus inviting you to take up?

Responding to the Word

We pray that we may become seekers of the kingdom of heaven now and learn the wisdom of God that was embodied in Jesus, a wisdom that will bring us to share in the “righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” that are to be found by living in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

Zephaniah addresses the people with a threefold exhortation: Seek the Lord! Seek righteousness! Seek humility! Israel is told to seek the Lord after having violated the covenant; to seek righteousness after having turned to sin; to seek humility after having acted arrogantly. The second part of the reading provides a very different picture. This section is an oracle of salvation, loving words of God that offer assurance and hope. The path of righteousness followed by the remnant will be the consequence of their deliverance, not its cause. The blessings are not rewards for their fidelity. Rather, every good that comes to them is a gift from God.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that, judged by the standards of society, they are really nobodies. They have little about which they can boast. According to Paul, God chooses the nobodies of the world in order to shame those who think they are somebodies. Those who lack honor in the eyes of the world are highly honored by God by being chosen, while those whom the world honors are shamed by being overlooked by God. God acts this way so that no one can boast of her or his own accomplishments. Since every good thing is received because of Christ, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).

The sermon on the mount was directed to Jesus’ close followers, not to the broader crowds. While his teachings are all in some way directed toward the establishment of the reign of God, the type of behavior or values that he advocates here is frequently the opposite of that espoused by society at large. This fact offers us a way to understand the challenges set before us in the Beatitudes.

One way to interpret them is to look first at the blessings promised. We may see that the behavior that Jesus is advocating is at odds with what society claims will guarantee the blessing that we seek.

Jan 14 2025

Living in the Light

During this annual week of praying for Christian Unity, it may be either consoling or disheartening to realize that from the beginning there were divisions in the church. In Paul’s day, the bickering arose in Corinth over rival loyalties: “I belong to Paul . . . to Peter . . . to Apollos . . . to Christ.” Paul tries to put an end to this from the start, asking the various factions, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).

Today’s readings remind us that the darkness of division, whether among nations, churches, or families, is not part of the kingdom of heaven. Diversity, yes; division, no. The light that Christ came and continues to bring is the light that allows us to look into the face of our brother and sister and see the face of God.

Jesus came into Galilee preaching the good news of the coming of God’s rule, proclaiming that God’s loving presence was here even now: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). There is an urgency here, a call to repent, change, seek, and accept God’s rule in our lives. This call is as urgent for us today as it was then. As nations continue to build up arsenals of nuclear weapons, there is an unparalleled possibility of devastation on a global level.

Jesus continues to seek others to join him in preaching this gospel message. A divided community is a counter-sign, not serving to bring about the kingdom. The death of Christ was to heal such divisions. When we settle for division, we “empty the cross of Christ of its meaning.”

Consider/Discuss

Do I hear Jesus’ call to repent as if it is spoken to me?
Have I made peace with division in my life where there could be unity?

Responding to the Word

Turn to Psalm 27 (today’s responsorial psalm) and use it for meditation. Today’s short response can also serve as a mantra during the coming week: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” We pray that the Lord deliver us from any division that threatens the body of Christ and that we live in the light and be a light for others.