8 February 2026 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Is 58:7-10 -- 1 Cor 2:1-5 -- Mt 5:1, 13-16
H O M I L Y
Paul was one of the greatest minds of his time. He had been trained by the best teachers in Israel. He had learned everything that could be taught from the wisdom of Israel as well as that of the Greeks. When he came to Athens to proclaim the Good News, he thought that the best way to gain acceptance was to meet the people of the Agora on their own level, using his knowledge of their philosophers and poets. It did not work at all! It was a lesson for Paul, and he changed his method. When he came to Corinth, a much more popular city with a very decadent moral life and few intellectuals, he came as a poor man, bearing the cross of Christ in his flesh. And it worked. It was a few years later that he wrote to them the text we heard a few moments ago: Brothers, when I came to you, I did not come to proclaim the mystery of God with the prestige of human language or wisdom. Among you, I wanted to know nothing other than Jesus Christ, the crucified Messiah. And it was in weakness, fearful and trembling, that I came to you. My language, my proclamation of the Gospel, had nothing to do with the language of wisdom that seeks to convince; but it was the Spirit and his power that were manifested...
In other words, Paul did not come to Corinth as a teacher of wisdom, but as someone who bore witness – in his life – to the cross of Christ and his resurrection. This text is therefore a good commentary on today's Gospel. When Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, he is not inviting us to be proud, congratulating ourselves on being the ‘chosen ones’. On the contrary, he entrusts us with a mission – and a very demanding one at that. He invites us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, not so much through our teaching of wisdom, but above all through our witness.
Perhaps we like the idea of being the light of the world a little too much, so that the world can look at us and admire us! So let us pay a little more attention to the other image used by Jesus, that of the salt of the earth! There are at least two things we can say about salt: The first is that very little salt is required in food. A little salt gives food a good taste; too much salt spoils it. And it is to this element, just like the leaven in the dough, that Jesus compares the Kingdom of God. For the Church, for Christians in general, being a humble and small presence in the life of humanity is a normal situation. All the grandiose, pompous and noisy demonstrations of the Church's presence as a powerful and influential reality have little to do with the Gospel. And, precisely, the second characteristic of salt is that it dissolves into the rest of the food and acts in an imperceptible way. So does salt in the dough of humanity. Father Christian de Chergé, of the monastery of Tibhirine, said that he wanted to be a grain of salt in the soil and among the people of Algeria. His wish was granted.
The reading from Isaiah is perhaps the best explanation of what it means to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. This reading belongs to a context in which the prophet reacts against a form of worship that is cut off from the practice of charity and justice. And he concludes: Share your bread with the hungry, take the homeless poor into your house, clothe the naked when you see them, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh. THEN your light will break forth like the dawn. And a little further on, he adds: If you remove from your land the yoke, the threatening gesture, the evil word, if you give generously to the hungry and satisfy the desires of the unfortunate, THEN your light will rise in the darkness and your darkness will be like the light of noon. This is how Christians are called to be the light of the world, rather than through pompous processions, conferences and demonstrations of this kind.
We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world by translating Jesus' message of love into our everyday lives with those around us. The Bread of Life that we receive at the Lord's Table is what gives us the power and strength to be faithful to such a mission.
Armand Veilleux