Mt 5, 13-16
«Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven»
There are many ways to understand Jesus; some of them valid and most of them insufficient. Some conceive of him as a great teacher of wisdom, just like so many who have been in the world, others as a bearer of criteria that promote a more just and egalitarian society, others as the incarnation of God who becomes man to open the doors to eternal life… Others, finally, as the path to follow so that God’s project, the Kingdom of God, may become a reality: “I am the way…”.
Jesus is the way and lends us his light so that we can walk by him without stumbling and without missing the route, but he needs our help so that that light illuminates all people… And how?… well, in his style; without boasts or spectacles: “*Let men see in your good deeds the love of the Father.*” And that’s it.
The heart of the good news is Abba: the Father who loves us with madness and to whose love we respond by loving others (his other children). But it is very difficult for “men to see the love of the Father” when what they usually see in the world is not love, but injustice, oppression, and exploitation. Christians have seen the love of God in Jesus, and what he asks of us is to help others see that love in us. “As the Father has sent me … so I send you.”
According to today’s text, the mission to which Jesus invites us is concretized in being light and in being salt. The invitation to be light has a danger, and that is that we fall into the pedantry of going through life believing ourselves to be light for others. We must be very clear that this light is not ours; in any case, we are mere bearers of the light of God that we have seen reflected in Jesus.
We all have a little of God’s light, and by offering what we have and receiving what is given to us, we can walk through the world as brothers and sisters who strive to advance without stumbling. Ruiz de Galarreta compared Christian life to a candle, which if it is not consumed to give light, it is good for nothing. And he gave the example of Jesus; a burning candle that burned to the very end to illuminate the world with the light of God.
The sign of salt is much more humble, less pretentious, and so fitting to the style of Jesus that we can imagine it is his invention. Salt only serves to be added to other foods and enhance their flavor, and this so simple, so everyday, can be an excellent parable of what happens with Jesus, who is the salt that gives flavor to everything we do: to live, to work, to rest, to triumph, to fail, to be healthy, to be sick, to die… to everything.
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here
English version translated with AI