Tuesday of Week 10 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 5:13-16

We may be totally filled with the spirit of the Beatitudes, but it will not do very much good unless their effects are clearly seen in our lives. To be a Christian, it is not enough to be good; we must be seen to be so. It is not enough to ‘have a spirituality’ that fills us with a feeling of peace and tranquillity. The spirituality of the gospel is outreaching. We have not only to be disciples of Christ but also need to proclaim him.

In today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount immediately following the Beatitudes, Jesus presents us with a number of images expressing this. Jesus first says that his followers should be “the salt of the earth”. Salt is an essential ingredient in almost all cooked food (even sweet food) to provide taste. We all know what it is like to have soup that contains no salt; we know how much part salt plays in flavouring mass-produced fast foods.

We are to be like salt; we are to give taste and zest to our environment. We do that through the specific outlook on life which we have and which we invite others to share. At their best, Christians have been very effective in doing this, and have had a great impact on the values of many societies and in bringing about great changes.

To be tasteless salt is to be next to useless. Salt that has lost its taste is fit only to be thrown out. At the same time, in the West we sometimes, too, put some salt on the side of our plate. That salt, however tasty it may be, is still not doing any good unless it is put into the food. And this is an interesting feature of salt, namely, that it blends completely with food and disappears. It cannot be seen, but it can be tasted.

That reminds us that we as Christians, if we are to have the effect of giving taste, must be totally inserted in our societies. We have to resist any temptation, as Christians, to withdraw and separate ourselves from the world. It is a temptation we can easily fall into, and there are many places where the Church is absent nowadays. There is no salt there. For example, in our commercial districts, in our industrial areas, in our entertainment and media centres, where is the visible Christian presence?

Other images used by Jesus today include being the “light of the world” or being “a city built on a hill”. There is no way it can be hidden; it sticks out like a beacon. And what is the point of lighting a candle and then covering it over with a tub? You light a candle to give light so that people can see their way and will not fall. To be baptised and to go into virtual hiding is like lighting and then covering up a candle.

Finally, Jesus gives us the reason for making ourselves so visible—so that people may see our good works. Is it in order that we can bask in their admiration and wonder? No! Rather, it is so that people will be led through us to the God who made them, who loves them and wants to lead them to himself.

It is for us today to reflect on how visible our Christian faith is to others, as individuals, as families, as members of a Christian group, as parishioners and as a diocese. Are there people or places in our area where a Christian witness is for all intents and purposes absent? Can we do anything about that?

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Tuesday of Week 10 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:18-22

It seems that Paul has incurred a certain amount of criticism from the Corinthians and is coming to his own defence. In the verses just preceding today’s reading, he admits that he had intended paying them a double visit. On his way to Macedonia, he intended passing through Corinth and then pass through Corinth again on his way back. He did not do this, and it seems he was accused of being two-faced, of being a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ person at the same time. Feelings seem to have been so strong against Paul that he had to deal with the problem at a distance through letters and delegations (internal conflicts among Christians are nothing new!).

Unable to deny the change in plans, Paul nonetheless asserts the firmness of the original plan and claims that it does not indicate in any way a lack of constancy in his behaviour and work. He grounds his defence in God himself, who is utterly firm and reliable. So he claims that this quality can be expected to be found in varying degrees in all those who are associated with God. Christ, Paul and the Corinthians all participate in analogous ways in the constancy of God.

So he goes to his own defence and denies that he was in any way two-faced:

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you is not “Yes and No.”

Like Jesus, his Lord, he claims that he together with his missionary companions, Timothy and Silvanus, were never anything but ‘Yes’.

However many God’s promises are, they are always an unequivocal ‘Yes’—not ‘No’ or ‘Maybe’. Similarly, an ‘Amen’ (‘So be it’) from Paul and his helpers goes through Jesus to God for his glory. The real source of Paul’s security in the Corinthians and the one who anointed him and his companions for their work is the same God. Their guarantee of that is their total endorsement of Jesus.

In turn he says:

…it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, who has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

The Corinthians should be assured, then, that his failure to make the promised visit was not due to any insincerity on Paul’s part.

We might note that a number of the terms in the passage, which appear related only in concept in Paul’s Greek or an English translation, would be variations of the same root in a Semitic mind, such as Paul’s. These include the words ‘yes’, ‘faithful’, ‘amen’, ‘gives us security’, ‘faith’, and ‘stand firm’.

Integrity is an essential quality in our Christian life:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
(Matt 5:8)

People need to be confident that what they see in us and hear from us comes from deep within us. Paraphrasing the slogan, we should be able to say of ourselves, “What you see is what there is”. Falsehood or hypocrisy of any kind will seriously diminish the effectiveness of our Christian witness.

Parents and teachers and others responsible for the formation of the young have a special responsibility here. We are not to be like the Pharisees who teach one thing and do differently.

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