This is exactly what Jesus hinted at in today's gospel. As Christians we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are invited not simply to be influenced by what is going on around us. Rather we are challenged to change what is going around us by living according to the values and teachings of Jesus Christ.
We have been given the tools to this. In the second reading of today Paul talks about his source of courage in order to be able to continue to do his missionary work with those who were not Jews. He says that I do this because I have a firm conviction that this God who died and rose for me is alive within me today. We can all recall the people who have touched us in our lives. We all have someone who because of their faith spoke at the right time to our yearning heart. We all have someone who because of their care and love for us inspired us to believe that there is a God who is passionately in love with us.
I can immediately recall a couple of people like that. The first one is my mother. I distinctly remember one day when I had to sit down for an entrance exam to a particular school. I was very young and I was scared and anxious. My mother could not help me much with my studies. Yet, she did something that gave me encouragement and hope to keep moving forward. She simply sat on the other side of the table where I was doing my studies, knitting. That presence was enough for me. I knew that I was supported and cared for. The second person was my first parish priest who was like a father to me. A short time after I arrived in my first parish, he prayed for me so that I can become a powerful witness of Jesus' resurrection. I will never forget that prayer because it shaped the kind of ministry that I have been involved in for quite a few years now. I know deep down in my heart that Jesus Christ my God touched me in a very deep and personal manner as a result of that prayer. I am who I am today as a priest because of that prayer.
I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world when I continue to give the best to my family and friends, when I do not simply go along with what many desire or say if that goes against the teachings of Jesus Christ. I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world when we continue to promote and uphold that in Jesus Christ we are all one in the face of racial intolerance and prejudice: when I do not walk away or simply pass by when someone is hurt, alone, feeling offended, betrayed or simply depressed.
Two weeks ago the world remembered the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the people from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp by the Russian Army. It is a place where God had no place among the people who ran that camp. The result was evil. I was reading that Olly Ritterband made it from Copenhagen to the black iron gates of the death camp in Southwest Poland where 1.5 million people, 93% of them Jews, were murdered. Then she could not go any further. "I don't want to go into the camp. I just can't do it. Enough is enough", said the 81 year old Jew who survived the camp but lost 70 family members there and in other concentration camps. I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world when because of my faith in Jesus Christ I stand and fight for what is true and for what is just and fight against what is not true and just.
Today is Project Compassion Sunday where we as Catholics during Lent are asked to think in a practical manner about those who are in need. The theme of this year is "The Challenge is Poverty, The Time is Now". We are being called to focus on the countless millions around the world trapped by poverty and oppression. Project Compassion enables our Catholic Relief Organization, Caritas, to respond to emergencies immediately, even before there is an appeal. Moreover it enables Caritas to maintain its presence after an emergency especially when the headlines disappear.
Project Compassion gives us a wonderful opportunity to take this challenge to fight poverty with generous spirits. This is very well captured in the last verse of the first reading of today from the prophet Isaiah. "If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word, if you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness, and your shadows become like noon." (Is 58:7.10)
