2.7 Response
STAGE 2: Awareness of Self
MY HIGHER PURPOSE
LOVING THE GOAL
RESPONSE
Aim: To examine the degree or quality of response to our higher purpose.
Readings
Salt and Light (Mt 5:13-20): Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. […] For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.
Friends and prophets (LEW 90): “Eternal Wisdom, ever transcendent in beauty, by nature loves everything that is good, especially the good of man and woman (Wis 7:22), and consequently nothing gives her more pleasure than to communicate herself. That is why the Holy Spirit tells us that Wisdom is forever seeking throughout the world for souls worthy of her (Wis 6:17), and she fills these holy souls with her presence making them ‘friends of God and prophets’ (Wis 7:27)”.
Comment
At the time of Jesus there was a peculiar way of putting salt on the food. People would place in the cooking pot some stones naturally loaded with salt. During the cooking process, the stones would slowly release the salt they contained, thus providing taste to the food. A stone could be used for this purpose number of times until it became totally “discharged”; then it had to be thrown away. Since the external appearance of the stone – whether charged with salt or empty of salt – was always the same, it was necessary to eliminate it after its use to avoid mixing it with the good stones. It was better, therefore, to “throw the empty stone out into the street” and to keep in the kitchen only those stones still “charged” with salt.
The parable of “salt and light” tells us that what determines the quality of our human-Christian life is not the exterior appearance, but our being either “charged” with love or “empty” of love. It suffices to look at the office or room of a person, or at the way he or she talks and converses with people, to understand what kind of “salt” and “light” this person is producing and propagating. It is enough to stop by the threshold of a house or a community to understand if people living in that house or community are stingy or generous, intimate with each other or distant from each other.
An indispensable and fundamental requirement that makes us true prophets of Wisdom and friends of Christ is that our presence in the world has to “salt” and “enlighten” the reality around us; it has to bring flavour and diffuse light; it has to make a difference. This is the only sure proof that the Lord is present in us, the only testimony that convinces people around us. Contrary to this, we are only persons playing a role, perhaps a beautiful and noble role, but destined to change nothing in substance.
Personal Reflection and Sharing
How am I responding to the call to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”? Am I “charged”? Am I “empty”? Or what?
How do I describe the unique “good taste” that I leave in others? What is my unique way of being “a lamp” in my family, community, society, etc.?
[2-7] CALL RESPONSE COMMITMENT PRAYER