“Let us make up for lost time; let us give to God all the time that remains to us, and let us not wait till the moment of death to begin to love Him”. – St Alphonsus Liguori
Gospel Reading : Matthew 5:13-19
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
What do the Fathers say?
St JEROME. By the Apostles the whole human race is seasoned.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. But to live well must go before to teach well; hence after He had called the Apostles the salt, He goes on to call them the light of the world. Salt preserves a thing in its present state that it should not change for the worse, but light brings it into a better state by enlightening it; therefore the Apostles were first called salt with respect to the Jews and that Christian body which had the knowledge of God, and which they keep in that knowledge; and now light with respect to the Gentiles whom they bring to the light of that knowledge.
St HILARY. It is the nature of a light to emit its rays wherever it is carried about, and when brought into a house to dispel the darkness of that house.
Thus the world, placed beyond the pale of the knowledge of God, was held in the darkness of ignorance, until the light of knowledge was brought to it by the Apostles, and henceforth the knowledge of God shone bright, and from their small bodies, wherever they went about, light is ministered to the darkness.
St REMIGIUS. For as the sun sends forth his beams, so the Lord, the Sun of righteousness, sent forth his Apostles to dispel the night of the human race.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. Mark how great His promise to them, men who were scarcely known in their own country; that their fame should reach to the ends of the earth. The persecutions which He had foretold, were not able to dim their light, in fact they made it but more conspicuous.
By the lamp He exhorts the Apostles to preach with boldness; as though He said, ‘I indeed have lighted the lamp, but that it continue to burn will be your care, not for your own sakes only, but both for others who shall receive its light and for God’s glory.’
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden even though it wanted to; the mountain on which it stands makes it to be seen of all men; so the Apostles and Priests who are founded on Christ cannot be hidden even if they wanted to, because Christ makes them manifest.
The Venerable BEDE. Christ Himself lighted this lamp, when He filled the earthen vessel of human nature with the fire of His Divinity, which He would not either hide from them that believe, nor put under a bushel that is shut up under the Law,. The lampstand is the Church, on which He set the lamp, when He affixed to our foreheads the faith of His incarnation.
St HILARY. Or, the lamp, that is Christ Himself, is set on its stand when He was suspended on the Cross in His passion, to give light for ever to those that dwell in the Church; to give light, as He says, to all that are in the house.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM.Teach with so pure a light, that men may not only hear your words, but see your works, that those whom as lamps you have enlightened by the word, as salt you may season by your example. For by those teachers who do as well as teach, God is magnified; for the discipline of the master is seen in the behaviour of the family.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from :
Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
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