CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 10TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (1)
CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 10TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: NEVER LOSE YOUR TASTE, NEVER LET YOUR LIGHT GO OUT.
BY: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU
HOMILY: READINGS: 1KINGS 17:7-16, PSALM 4, MATTHEW 5:13-16
✓•Promote Christ by avoiding evil
✓•No act of kindness goes unrewarded
✓•Feed the hungry poor
✓•Be good to helpless stranger.
✓•Impart!!!
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord the day we accepted baptism, we accepted to be advocates of Christ: being salt and light to the world. As salt we chose to add the flavour of God to the seeming tasteless situations in our world. And as light we declared to follow the ultimate light, Christ who shines in the darkness and is not submerged (Jn. 1:5). We chose to shine before people so that seeing the good we do, they may praise God (Matt. 5:16). May I quickly challenge NEVER TO LOSE our saltiness and our light; but go on shining brightly and illumining the darkness around us.
In antiquity, salt was highly valued; why the Greeks called it ‘divine’, the Romans considered it the most useful element alongside the sun. It connected with purity, preservation and flavour. As Christians living in a world of high immorality, decadence and irreligion, we must hold aloft the standard of purity in speech, conduct and thought. In the words of St. James 1:27, I exhort the true Christian to strive to keep himself unstained by the world. Our saltiness should preserve us from corruption. According to William Barclay; “If Christians are to be salt to the world, they must have a certain antiseptic influence on life”. We must have a cleansing effect on life; our mere presence should defeat corruption and help others tread the path of goodness. Moreover, Christianity is to life what salt is to food. As food without salt is a sadly insipid and even sickening thing, so is life without the flavour of Christ baseless.
Consequently, Jesus commands us to be the light of the world. This simply translates to him saying we should be like him; for he said in John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” His followers therefore cannot but be radiators of this light in order to conquer the darkness of sin, vice and evil. He intends that our Christianity be like light that cannot be hidden. Beloved, someone once said, “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.” Our Christianity MUST be conspicuous to everyone: within the Church and outside the Church. We ought to be ‘guides’ to those in sin and error. We have to be ‘warnings’ to those headed for damnation because of their unholy lives. And we ought to attract people to God and also earn him praise by our good deeds.
Beloved friends, the Letter to the Hebrews 13:16 remind us: “Do not be willing to forget good works”, through our good deeds we not only show forth the light of Christ to others, we earn for ourselves God’s blessings. The widow at Zarephath fed Elijah from her last meal and her jar of flour was not spent, nor her jug of oil run dry (1Kgs. 17:16). Through our shining examples of righteousness, we can guide others onto the right track; we can warn those living in darkness of the impending disaster that would befall them, hence make them praise God and in turn earn a spot for ourselves in eternity. Amen.
FEED THE POOR
