Tuesday, June 13, 2017
10th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Cor 1:18-22 Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its strength, how can it be made salty again? It has become useless. It can only be thrown away and people will trample on it.
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and covers it; instead it is put on a lampstand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before others, so that they may see the good you do and praise your Father in heaven.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
When salt is no longer salty one option is to put salt on it to make it salty again. But that would be a ridiculous option. The more sensible thing to do is to throw it away and get fresh ones. Today’s Gospel gives the same advice. “But if salt has lost its strength, how can it be made salty again? It can only be thrown away and people will trample on it.”
When the Lord compared discipleship to salt, he was setting a standard of effectiveness to all disciples. He wanted his disciples to cultivate the power of salt to preserve. When refrigerators were not yet invented, people put more salt on food to preserve it. As salt preserves goods, so a disciple should preserve rather than destroy what is good.
We didn’t have a stove on our dirty kitchen when I was young. So we always had problems making fire on rainy days when firewood was humid. My mama found a solution to his problem. She would sprinkle salt on the embers and the salt would keep the fire alive. Similarly, a disciple is supposed to keep the fire of love alive in his community. When a disciple inspires hatred anywhere he goes he is not a true disciple. How can a troublemaker be a disciple of a Person who is Peace on Earth to Men of Goodwill?
Today’s Gospel also compares discipleship to light. There is a similarity between salt and light in the way they behave. When salt is thrown into a pot of hot water it couldn’t withhold its saltiness from the water. Similarly when light is cast into darkness it couldn’t withhold its lumens. Darkness couldn’t stand before a bright light. Similarly, a disciple should not withhold his goodness before evil.
There are two lessons we can draw from the parables of salt and light we read today. First, like salt we must preserve what is good. Second, like light we must condemn the darkness of evil. When we fail to preserve what is good and condemn what is evil, what good can God make of us? Like salt losing its taste God will just throw us away and people will trample on us. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM
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