Bishop Robert Barron You Are the Salt of the Earth Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon Friends, we are reading from the marvelous Sermon on t...
Bishop Robert Barron
You Are the Salt of the Earth
Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon
Friends, we are reading from the marvelous Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. This week, we hear Jesus compare his disciples to three things: the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city set on a mountain. What do all three of these things have in common? They do not exist for themselves; rather, they exist for something else. How is your Christianity impacting the world around you—making it better and getting in the way of evil and wickedness?
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks, "If salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?" That question ought to bother us as much today as it did Jesus’ audience long ago. What he means is that a weak Christianity is a disaster for the world, for the world depends upon the Christian Church in order to become what it was meant to be.
Consider the truly awful gun violence in the streets of Chicago and other large American cities. A vibrant Christianity would actively get in the way of this affront to human dignity. Vibrant Christian churches would rub salt into the earth of this violence; vibrant Christian witness would be a city set on a hill.
Consider the tens of millions of unborn eliminated over the past fifty years. I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of the mothers and fathers of these murdered children came from a Christian background. Why wasn’t their Christianity strong enough to function as salt and light? Why wasn’t their faith illuminating enough to shine a light into the darkness of what they were doing?
The clear implication is that without vibrant Christians, the world is a much worse place.
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