Audio File
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5th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell,
OP
OLR, NOLA
Who
can restore your love for Christ if you lose it? If salt can lose its
power to season, what is there to season the salt? What brings
flavorless salt back to life? What Jesus is asking here is this: who
can bring faith back to a disciple if he/she loses it? Each of
the original disciples was personally chosen by Christ. He's taught
them his secrets. He gave them the means to interpret his parables.
He made Peter his steward, giving him the keys to the kingdom. The
disciples have lived with Jesus; eaten with him; fled the crowds with
him; nearly drowned with him. They've seen every healing miracle,
every wonder he's performed. They met with him privately many times
and questioned him many more. If there are any saltier in the faith
than these men, we don't know who they are! If they lose faith, if
they succumb to despair or anxiety, or fall prey to false teaching,
who will bring them back to the Way? Jesus is urging his disciples
(and us) to remain pure in their faith, to remain zealous in their
preaching and to preserve the truth of his teachings. They cannot
fail b/c there is no one who can restore the purity of their love for
Christ.
[Omitted in the audio] In
the ancient world, salt represented purity. Writing to the
Corinthians, Paul insists on the purity of his preaching. He reminds
the Church in Corinth that he came to them to preach Christ and him
crucified. He came to them with the power of the Spirit and not with
“the sublimity of words or of wisdom.” He preached out of what
later saints would come to call “holy ignorance,” that is, a
total reliance on the Spirit of God to provide the wisdom necessary
to preach His truth. As a source of wisdom, Paul knowingly sets aside
his training as a philosopher; his experience as a public speaker;
and his extensive knowledge of the Law. He uses all of these to
convey God's wisdom but none are the source of this wisdom.
None reveal the mystery of God. None help him to receive all that God
has to show him. God alone reveals His mystery. To the world, Paul is
ignorant. For the Church, for us, he is salt and light. His preaching
purifies, preserves, and enlightens the mystery we all participate in
right now and hope to live with forever. Lest anyone misunderstand,
Paul is not advocating an anti-intellectual faith, a sort of “blind
faith” that shies away from education or the use of human reason.
When Paul writes that he preaches “Christ and him crucified,” he
means that he's grounding his testimony in the historical death and
resurrection of the man Jesus. He is not arguing his way to belief
with logic and rhetoric. He is not emoting his way to faith. He is
not experimenting his way to God in a lab. The wisdom Paul preaches
is God Himself revealed in Christ crucified.
When
Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the
light of the world, he is reminding them that they have witnessed
God's Self-revelation in his own life and works. After the coming of
the Spirit at Pentecost, they will remember – even as we do today –
that when they saw and heard and followed Christ, they saw and heard
and followed God Himself. They remember – even as we do today –
because the Spirit of God comes upon them, surpassing all human
understanding, and overwhelms them with His recreating love. Like
salt sown to purify and light shone to pierce the darkness, they go
out preaching, offering testimony, healing the sick, freeing the
captive, and feeding the hungry – even as we do today. Jesus says
to his disciples and to us, “. . .your light must shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly
Father.” Our good deeds, done in imitation of Christ, are done so
that others might come to glorify the Father. We help others pay
their light bills in order to glorify God. We donate food, clothing,
and toys in order to glorify God. We build and repair homes in order
to glorify God. And when we do these things, God's light shines
through us and we remain, as Christ commands, salty.
HOW
we are tempted to dilute our flavor and dim our lights may have
changed in two millennia, but WHAT tempts us is no different. The
Corinthians suffered from what Paul calls “itchy ears.” They
wanted to hear what they wanted to hear. They wanted complex
theologies and elaborate philosophies. They wanted logical arguments
and scientific proofs. They wanted eloquence and what passed for
wisdom among the pagans. Don't we, in our own way, want these too?
How much do we rely on the world's wisdom for our moral choices? Do
we accept as normal our culture's worship of the Self? The use of
violence to solve our problems? How much do we depend on technology
to maintain our personal relationships? Do we allow caffeine,
nicotine, amphetamine, alcohol to rule our moods? My point here is
not to scold or blame but rather to show that we are as tempted now
as the ancient Corinthians were to set aside the most fundamental
truth God has given us: His love in Christ Jesus. We are
tempted in ways that the Corinthians could never imagine: TV,
internet, cell phones, credit cards, self-help psychobabble. But the
temptation itself remains unchanged: replace God as the center of
your life with something or someone else, anything or anyone else.
Make a created thing your god. If and when this happens, you lose
your saltiness; your light dims. . .and your love of Christ fades.
In
weakness, with fear and much trembling, go out into the world,
wherever you find yourself and preach – in word, deed, thought –
preach Christ and him crucified. Shine the light Christ has given
you. And give all glory to God the Father! The brighter you shine for
others, the more of His mystery you will illuminate and the more you
will truly see.
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