5thSunday in Ordinary Time 2023

Everyone wants to do something good in life. Leave some kind of trace behind. To do something meaningful in life that will have some value.  The most important thing is what is left after us. Living the Gospel is an invitation to be a light for others. Does my life bring light into the lives of my loved ones? Does my behaviour, my attitude to people, to the world, the choices I make, bring goodness, love, respect into my world? Sometimes we lose our lives on things that nobody really needs. We lose money, we lose health, we lose precious time.                                   What really matters in life? What is really important? This is a question each of us must ask ourselves every day.                                                                                                                   Jesus in the Gospel today gives the answer to this question. ” Your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works…”     We are worth as much in life as we create good in our lives. How much good and beauty we bring to this world. To what extent we are a light for others.

Today’s Gospel gives us another hint: “You are the salt of the earth”. Just as salt gives flavour to a dish, faith gives each of us a sense of meaning to what I do, what I do, what I live for. A sense of meaning is the foundation on which happiness and the future are built.                                     These are the two important things Jesus talks about in the Gospel today.                                       To be a light for others, to personally discover the meaning of life and to help others discover it, especially our loved ones. However, there is another very important sentence in this text that we cannot disregard. It is a question of the motivation behind our actions. In order for our witness to be eloquent and powerful, the motive for our action can be nothing other than a constant reference to a source of light, a source of meaning. By wanting to carry only our light, we run the risk of being akin to an extinguished candle in bright sunlight. If we want to show others meaning, we cannot convince them of our ideologies, of our only view of the world.

For we may turn out to be blind men who lead ourselves and others into the abyss.                        In our daily search for the meaning of life, in our daily toil, in our daily witness, let us make a sincere and fervent plea to God to give us courage, strength and a clear mind, so that we can build our happiness on Him in our lives. That we may have the courage to build our future on God. So that, by listening to God’s word with an open heart, we may know how to live out its wisdom.