Ordinary 5

The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 58:7-10; Psalm 112; I Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16

“You are salt…”

“You are light…”

What does it mean to be light and salt? Do you know?

A kaleidoscope of prophecy, parable and poetry does.

 

“Share your food with the hungry.

Shelter the oppressed and homeless.

Clothe the naked.

Do not turn your back on your own.”  [Isaiah 58:7ff]

 

“For I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me drink,

a stranger and you welcomed me,

naked and you clothed me,

ill and you cared for me,

in prison and you visited me.” [Matthew 25:35-36]

 

"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me…”

["The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)]

 

What would you say is at the heart of all these passages?

 

Is it not how you and I are to treat other people in need?

And particularly the oppressed, the stranger, and the poor?

           

Did you notice the one criterion by which we are to decide who and when to assist a person?

No?

It is their neediness.

Their hunger. Their nakedness. Their lack of welcome. Their loneliness. Their fear. Their weariness.  People’s neediness determines Christian action.

There are no restrictions on to whom we are to be light and salt.

 

As Pope Leo corrected Vice-President Vance, there is no hierarchy of love. There is only love of neighbor which even embraces the enemy.

 

That is the principle which underpins the Parable of the Good Samaritan. You see someone in need and you address the need. A Samaritan sees a Jew beaten, bloodied and abandoned. He sees a person not an enemy. He cares for that person. The Samaritan breaks with the convention difference and chooses compassion.

 

Like many Americans, I have been watching what is happening in Minneapolis. And it raises questions that are not just political but moral and spiritual as well.

 

So let us turn the kaleidoscope from prophecy, parable and poetry on us.

What do we see as the prisms move and change?

 

Immigrant families are being torn apart.

Children are being detained and used as bait.

            Consider five-year-old Liam Ramos.

People are being aggressively assaulted and traumatized.

Citizens with passports are fearful.

            They happen to have a darker skin colour which inevitably puts them under suspicion.

People are being indiscriminately returned to countries where their lives were threatened.

            People send back to these countries are being imprisoned and tortured.

People are being killed.

            Renee Good and Alex Pretti did not deserve to die.

 

What is it that drives these actions?

 

What is happening to us?

Why have we decided to live in a self-created universe that comprises “us” versus “them”?

Why are we not speaking about what morally right / good versus wrong or immoral?

What are we achieving by this division?

 

There is a coarsening of morality. I hear it in the demonizing language that characterizes groups of people and individuals in the words of administration officials, media’s talking heads, and self-proclaimed influencers. Words of hatred, violence and power that are antithetical to the Gospel.

 

I watch the cruelty and meanness against children, the elderly and parents. How would you feel and react if your child or grandchild were taken from your home by masked unidentified men?

 

Why are people who want to belong, to experience a sense of community and contribute to society, being treated in this manner? Or people trying to protect others whose human dignity is being accosted?

 

Is there any difference between the immigrants of today and each of our family’s ancestors who came to these shores. Do we think they all came here legally? Were they all “killers, rapists, and drug dealers” as has been claimed of today’s immigrants and asylum seekers?

 

We forget that too long ago in our history signs that read “Irish Need Not Apply” also meant “Catholics Need Not Apply”.

 

If like me, you are male and white, you have little to fear.

Though I should probably talk to Alex Pretti about that.

But I can’t.

 

 

Civil Law is to be respected.

There are proper channels to change unjust laws or to address new situations.  

There is a tradition of civil disobedience in our country grounded in the Constitution that needs to be respected. Protest is not to be tolerated but is a part of the democratic process.

I would think that a nation that has only been comprised of immigrants should have a particular preferential understanding and option for the immigrant. Why don’t we?

 

In our ugliest times, our preference seems to be white, Protestant/Evangelical Christian, straight, and male. Consider how many people are left out of that family portrait?

 

Let us turn the kaleidoscope one last time.

 

“You are salt…”  “Love your enemies…” “You are light…” “Forgive every time you are approached.” “When you welcome the stranger, you welcome me.”

 

Christians cannot ignore, exempt ourselves, water down or explain away the teachings of Jesus. They are clear. The scriptural teachings about the goodness and dignity of the human being, the need to care for the poor, the stranger and the oppressed, and working for the common good are fundamental to being a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.

 

So fundamental are these values that they repeatedly occur from Genesis throughout Exodus and Deuteronomy, in the Psalms and Hebrew prophets culminating in the actions of Jesus and the teaching of his church in what is called Catholic Social Teaching. This compendium grounded in the scripture is found in the thought of Popes Leo XIII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, Francis and Leo XIV.

 

Christians are not called to live one set of values in church or when it suits us and another set of values in the world. There must be a consistency between our spiritual beliefs, biblical values and our actions in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, what is the point?

 

History shows us that our Christian values will at times place us in direct conflict with the values of the world including our own country. A choice is imperative.

 

We need to begin with ourselves.

 

How do you and I view inmates on death row, migrants, protesters, L.G.B.T.Q. people, people who don’t speak English, people who are various shades of brown? Do you believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity? Are there exceptions? Who are they? Why are they exempt from care, justice, and dignity?

 

Regretfully some of our fellow citizens, even some Christians, do not believe that every human being deserves dignity. That is what is being set forth, only our side deserves to be treated with dignity, and the other side is evil and subhuman. We have all heard the outright statements and innuendos by prominent people. Catholic Social Teaching rooted in the Hebrew prophets and Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God, teach us otherwise.

 

Silence is not an option in these divisive times.

 

How do we Christians balance multiple legitimate claims on our lives and society?

Are there issues in which there is no option for balance but a decisive choice?

 

The answer to those questions will be found when we have reflected on what does it mean to be light and salt for a person in need?

 

 

 

 8 February 2026