SPEAKER_00: This Sunday, once again, we're standing on the mountain with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Last week he proclaimed the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_00: Today he turns and looks directly at his disciples, and that means he's looking directly at us as well.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying to us and to those disciples, not who should not who we should be, not who we might be someday, but who we are by virtue of our baptism.
SPEAKER_00: He says to them, You are salt of the earth, you are light of the world, you are a city on a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And before we spiritualize these words, before we soften them, before we reduce them to something safe and comfortable, we need to hear them as his first listeners heard them.
SPEAKER_00: Because these are not sentimental images, they're demanding ones.
SPEAKER_00: Salt, light, a city on a mountain do not exist for themselves, they exist for others.
SPEAKER_00: Salt does not sit in a jar admiring itself.
SPEAKER_00: Light does not shine for its own enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: A city on a hill does not hide.
SPEAKER_00: Each one exists to change its environment.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, salt was not optional.
SPEAKER_00: It preserved food.
SPEAKER_00: Without it, things decayed.
SPEAKER_00: Rot spread.
SPEAKER_00: Corruption took over.
SPEAKER_00: Salt kept what was good from going bad.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus dares to say, that is what you are.
SPEAKER_00: You're meant to preserve what is good in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You're meant to keep truth from decaying.
SPEAKER_00: You're meant to slow the spread of evil.
SPEAKER_00: But salt also had another use in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: When an enemy city was destroyed, its fields were sometimes sown in with salt, rendering barren, rendering barren, incapable of producing life again.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, salt does two things.
SPEAKER_00: It preserves what is good and renders evil infertile.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever think of your Christian life in that way?
SPEAKER_00: That your fidelity, your moral courage, your refusal to go along with everyone else might actually stop evil from spreading.
SPEAKER_00: Now consider light.
SPEAKER_00: We live surrounded by artificial light.
SPEAKER_00: Ancient people did not.
SPEAKER_00: When night came, darkness was real and total, dangerous, disorienting, far fear-inducing.
SPEAKER_00: And into that world Jesus says, You, you are light.
SPEAKER_00: Light reveals what is good, but it also exposes what is hidden in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: When light comes on, certain things scatter.
SPEAKER_00: That's why light is uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: That's why light is resisted, and that's why it's sometimes attacked.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus gives the final image, a city on a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Before GPS, before maps, before street signs, a city on a hill was a reference point.
SPEAKER_00: You looked at it and you knew exactly where you were.
SPEAKER_00: You looked at it and you know the direction you needed to go in.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, that is you.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is supposed to tell the world where goodness is, where truth is, where hope is.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the uncomfortable truth of this gospel, and we can't avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: When Christians lose their identity, the world suffers.
SPEAKER_00: When salt loses its taste, decay accelerates.
SPEAKER_00: When light is hidden, darkness expands.
SPEAKER_00: When the city disappears into the fog, people lose their way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the last century alone.
SPEAKER_00: Unthinkable evil, industrialized death, communism and totalitarianism regimes, entire cultures collapsing into lies.
SPEAKER_00: And many of those whores arose in places one shaped by Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the reasons are complex, but Jesus already gave us part of the answer.
SPEAKER_00: The salt became bland, the light flickered, the city dimmed, faith became private, conviction became optional, silence became safer than truth.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm honest, this gospel doesn't just accuse the world, it accuses me.
SPEAKER_00: The extent that my faith is sometimes not what it should be, or the extent that my light is hidden, to the extent that my sins may contribute to the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not meant to crush us, it's meant to ignite us.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus does not say, just try harder.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says, remember who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You are the one I have chosen, you are the one that I have redeemed, you are the one that I have claimed in baptism.
SPEAKER_00: You are salt, you are light, you are a city.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you're perfect, but because I live in you.
SPEAKER_00: And that means something terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your choices matter.
SPEAKER_00: Every prayer you say, every mass you attend, every act of charity that no one sees, every temptation you resist, every dollar you give for something good, every time you refuse to compromise truth, none of it is small.
SPEAKER_00: Each one pushes the world just a little bit away from darkness and into light.
SPEAKER_00: Do not go with the flow of a culture drifting into confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Do not tell yourself your faith is just personal.
SPEAKER_00: Do not believe the lie that silences humility.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't climb the mountain to inspire us, he climbed the mountain to commission us.
SPEAKER_00: So now the gospel leaves us with a question we cannot dodge.
SPEAKER_00: If this is who Jesus says you are, a salt, light, a city on a mountain, how then are you living this?
SPEAKER_00: Not in theory, not someday, not when life slows down?
SPEAKER_00: Where is your faith actually preserving something good that otherwise would decay?
SPEAKER_00: Where is your presence exposing darkness instead of blending into it?
SPEAKER_00: Where is your life giving someone else a clear reference point for truth, for hope, for an understanding of God's mercy?
SPEAKER_00: Because salt that stays in a jar changes nothing.
SPEAKER_00: A light that stays switched off saves no one.
SPEAKER_00: A city that refuses to be seen becomes useless.
SPEAKER_00: This gospel is not asking you to be louder, it's asking you to be real.
SPEAKER_00: Real in how you speak, real in how you love, real in what you refuse to compromise, real in how you pray, how you give, how you forgive, and how you stand when it would be easier to sit down.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity does not fail because the world is dark.
SPEAKER_00: It fails when Christians decide the dark is more comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already told you who you are.
SPEAKER_00: The only question left is whether you will live like that.
SPEAKER_00: So this week, in a very special way, be the salt that preserves truth in your family.
SPEAKER_00: Be the light that names goodness at work.
SPEAKER_00: Be the city that points someone, anyone, towards God.
SPEAKER_00: Do not underestimate what faith, ordinary obedience can do.
SPEAKER_00: The world does not need more opinions.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't need huge heroic acts, it needs small acts of love.
SPEAKER_00: Be a witness.
SPEAKER_00: You are salt of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You are light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: You are a city set on a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus is commissioning to go and live this.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.