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| "The Sermon of the Beatitudes," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum / Public Domain. |
So it is with the Son of God from all eternity who came in time to be born a man of flesh and blood.
He brought his Godly goodness into our humanity.
In himself, he restored, awakened, and strengthened the human goodness that God gave us in the beginning when he made man and woman.
He rose from the dead as a man, and ascended thus to the heavenly throne, the beginning and fulfillment of humanity’s everlasting glory.
Since he is God and also truly a man, he is the salt of all creation, and can tell his disciples— those who learn from him— that they also “are the salt of the earth.”
Since he is God and man enthroned above, he is the light of the world, and calls his students to be the same.
He does NOT tell us we are salt of HEAVEN, or light of HEAVEN, but salt of the EARTH, and light of the WORLD.
We are to make a difference HERE and NOW.
Nonetheless, once all is said and done, the difference we are to make must in the end rise above, beyond, and hereafter, since he says:
We are here to salt and light the world, but we can do so only if and because we glorify our heavenly Father.
your light must shine before others
that they may see your good deeds
and GLORIFY YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER.
We are here to salt and light the world, but we can do so only if and because we glorify our heavenly Father.
For all eternity before the world or anything else was, the Son of God was utterly for the Father in the oneness of the Holy Spirit.
Before we set out to salt and light up the world, we must receive and carry salt and light from prayer and the worship of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout the testimony of the Gospels, the Lord Jesus is often at prayer in lonely places or the mountains; and on the Sabbath he is always to be found at prayer and worship in the synagogue.
The Church did not go out into the world until the head of the Church, Christ, ascended into the glory of the Father, having commanded the Church to pray for power from on high.
The Church obeyed for ten days of prayer together with Mary the mother of Jesus in the Upper Room that had seen the birth of the Body and Blood of Christ as food and drink, and would then see on Pentecost the public birth of the Body of Christ the Church.
Without having within us the salt and light that come only from prayer and worship that glorify the Father— above all, in the Body and Blood of Christ— we are not the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who tells us today:
But if salt loses its taste,
with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
