1st Reading – Isaiah 58:7-10
Thus says the LORD:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
If you remove from your midst
oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday.
In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah is teaching those who have returned to the Holy Land from exile in Babylon that God does not want empty religious practices. Rather, God wants actions that make God’s love visible to God’s people.
Thus says the LORD: Share your bread with the hungry,
Literally, “break your bread” (see Acts 2:46; Mark 6:41; Mark 14:22). This is a very intimate act of sharing — not from a distance or through an agency, but face to face. Neither is this an act of giving of one’s surplus: the giver and recipient eat from the same loaf.
shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them,
The original Hebrew version of this text highlights a level of personal involvement when meeting the needs of others, stating that the poor who have been cast out are to be brought into one’s own house. The naked are to be covered whenever they are encountered.
These works of mercy are echoed in Jesus’ discourse on the Last Judgment in Matthew 25:23-45. His final judgment depends on our obedience to these mandates.
and do not turn your back on your own.
In other words, do not hide from the demands made by your kin. Be open to any all and requests made of you.
Having only recently returned from exile, the Israelites were in the midst of reconstructing their society, their political system, and their temple. We may think that caring for ourselves and for those for whom we are responsible is all we can manage, but Isaiah is calling for us to care for the needy in their need — not merely when we feel secure and it is convenient.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
The focus shifts from exhortation to words of encouragement.
If the people heed God’s call and perform the prescribed works of mercy, God’s love will be made visible not only to those who receive the direct benefits, but to everyone.
and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
The blessings that follow this way of selfless living all suggest some form of deliverance.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
This entire passage is part of a larger arc in Isaiah 58, which begins with the returned exiles asking God: “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Why do we afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”
God has answered by showing the Israelites how they have substituted empty religious practices for loving treatment of their fellow human beings. When they correct this, they will once again feel God’s presence.
If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
This second set of injunctions addresses other social concerns in addition to the basic human needs mentioned before.
“Oppression” is a broad term and could refer to economic burdens, political repression, or social abuse.
if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.
Isaiah is speaking to people steeped in anguish, stuck in “the gloom.” His advice for them is to share their bread with the hungry, which may seem odd and impractical. However, no matter how bleak our current state is, we always have bread to bestow on the hungry. If we reach out to satisfy the afflicted, “then light shall rise for you in the darkness.” Actively sharing in the misery of others is the sure way out of our own.
We will see this theme of light echoed in today’s gospel reading. When sharing makes the wealthy poor, and the poor share their spirit of humble dependence upon God with the wealthy, the final age will have come. God will fill the need of the world with his glorious presence.
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of Spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.
In today’s reading, Paul explains that there is nothing extraordinary about him or his manner of ministry. Not only will that not hamper the spread of the gospel, it will advance the manifestation of the power of God.
When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God,
The “mystery of God” is his plan for the salvation of his people, known only to himself. It is clear from earlier parts of this letter (1:18-25) that this mystery of salvation involves Jesus and the cross.
Some good manuscripts read “testimony” instead of “mystery.”
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
Corinth was heavily influenced by Greek culture, and Greek orators of the day were renowned for their eloquence and devotion to wisdom (sophía). Paul declares that this was not his approach in proclaiming the gospel.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ,
Paul wants the Corinthians’ faith to rest not on anyone’s charismatic preaching, but on a personal experience of Jesus Christ.
and him crucified.
Paul’s attention is focused on the crucified Christ, which is not the type of savior that either the Jews or the Gentiles expected. This is both the mystery and the scandal of Christian faith: the world has been saved by what appears to be human failure.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
The seeming weakness of the crucified Jesus is reflected in Paul’s own bearing. “Fear and much trembling” is reverential awe based on God’s transcendence, Paul’s awareness of which permeates his life. Compare this phrasing to his advice to the Philippians to work out their salvation with “fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), because God is at work in them just as his exalting power was paradoxically at work in the emptying, humiliation, and obedience of Jesus to death on the cross (Philippians 2:6-11).
Paul also had reason to fear for his safety, based on the difficulties he experienced in Corinth (Acts 18:5-17).
Was Paul really afraid of danger? Yes, he was, for even though he was Paul, he was still a man. This is not to say anything against him but rather about the infirmity of human nature. Indeed it is to the credit of his sense of determination that even when he was afraid of death and beatings, he did nothing wrong because of this fear. Therefore those who claim that Paul was not afraid of being beaten not only do not honor him, they diminish his greatness. For if he was without fear, what endurance or self-control was there in bearing dangers? [Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 392), Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 6,2]
and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
The conviction Paul’s message conveyed and the success that met his preaching at Corinth were due to the Holy Spirit, and not to rhetorical eloquence or philosophic reasoning. Thus, the faith of the Corinthians rests on God’s power and not in the cleverness of a human preacher.
Gospel – Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
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.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Today’s gospel is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. After teaching with the Beatitudes about striving for personal sanctification, Jesus now calls Christians to also strive for the sanctification of others. He does this with the very expressive similes of salt and light.
As we will see, Jesus teaches his disciples to let their good works be evident but not to become proud or egotistical because of them. What will be accomplished in and through the deeds of the disciples will be God’s work, not their own.
Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth.
In the ancient world, salt was rare and highly regarded. It was traded along with gems and gold, and the Romans thought so much of salt that part of a soldier’s pay was a ration of salt, a practice that led to the word “salary.”
Throughout history, salt has served two major purposes: to preserve food and impart flavor. Metaphorically, disciples of Jesus are to be the pure salt that will preserve the world from moral corruption and lend flavor to life.
Christians should be radiant. In a harried world, we should be the composed ones; in a despairing world, the joyful ones, because Christ has risen.
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.
Jesus poses a Socratic question, that is, a question asked not to inform the questioner but to cause the student to think.
What Jesus suggests is impossible: Salt cannot lose its saltiness. It is of the essence of salt to be salty. Further, it is God who makes it salty, not human beings. If salt were seasoned with anything else it would no longer be salt.
However, in Jesus’ day, common salt had all sorts of chemical impurities that could cause it to be useless. It was often put in a bag and lowered into soup or broth; as the pure salt was used up, the contents of the bag lost its flavor and only the dregs remained.
People, like the salt of Jesus’ time, can go flat.
You are the light of the world.
Light, too, is light because God has made it light. Light cannot lose its light and still be light.
Light imagery is usually applied to God, and Jesus elsewhere referred to himself as “the light of the world” (John 9:5). This is an eschatological title, so in addition to the meaning of the metaphor itself, it also marks the disciples as the fulfillment of that particular eschatological expectation.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.
Two images are used to illustrate the metaphor of light: a city on a mountain and a lamp on a stand in a house.
Building a city on a hill or mountain enabled the inhabitants to see enemies at a distance and more easily defend themselves.
The lamp imagery presupposes a single clay oil lamp that was commonly used in the one-room house of the Palestinian peasant. Like salt, light was a precious resource to be maximized for the benefit of all — the flame is uncovered and held high so its rays light up an entire home.
The purpose of light is not to draw attention to itself, but to make everything else visible.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
The light metaphor is further explained: true disciples are the light that shines forth in the darkness of ignorance or faithlessness. They must be missionaries, that is, they must go out and let others witness their good deeds. This highlights the public nature of our role in the world. Discipleship cannot be a merely private affair any more than light can.
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Spiritually, we don’t produce our own light; we’re reflections of Jesus’ light.
Just as salt seasons because God made that the nature of salt, and light illumines because God made that the nature of light, so disciples make God’s presence and love visible to others because this is the nature of discipleship. The fruit of discipleship is to bring others into a loving relationship with God.
“Laymen have countless opportunities for exercising the apostolate of evangelization and sanctification. The very witness of a Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have the power to draw men to the faith and to God; for the Lord says, ‘Even so let your light shine before men in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 6).
Connections and Themes
Action follows being. We live in a world where appearances frequently matter more than they should. We are often overly concerned with how we look and with how to impress others. Contrary to this predominant tendency, Jesus teaches us that what we do flows from who and what we are. We can enlighten the world with the message of the gospel because our lives have been transformed by that gospel, and now we ourselves are light for others. We can serve others in various ways only because we have been saved by God’s grace, and now we are agents of that grace in the lives of others. The gospel tells us that others will “see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father,” and Paul acknowledges that his message was “a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
The weak things of the world. Extraordinary things are accomplished through ordinary people. Jesus was born in a stable and grew up as the son of a carpenter; some of the apostles were fishermen; Paul was a tent-maker. We ourselves are everyday people: store clerks, teachers, bus drivers, doctors, lawyers, engineers. If we allow ourselves to rely on God and not merely our own abilities, the Spirit and power of God will work wonders through us.
Again and again in these Sundays of Ordinary Time, we see how God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the strong. Unfortunately, we don’t always appreciate the significance of this in our own lives. Either we want to do spectacular things for God or we ignore the possibilities for good that common things can provide. If we could only realize that our ordinary lives are waiting to break forth with the brilliance of God, with the essence of the divine, we would embrace that life with enthusiasm and gratitude.
Take action! The Gospel tells us what to do (e.g., live for our light to shine), Isaiah tells us how to do it (feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc.), and Paul provides encouragement. We may wonder how we, who are not important people, can accomplish all these things. This is when Jesus’ metaphors are most powerful: in darkness, even a small match is illuminating; even a few grains of salt have flavor; even a small one-room house provides refuge from the elements. Paul carried out his mission “in weakness and fear and much trembling,” but he knew the power of God was at work through him and he persevered.
Works of mercy. As children, many of us learned the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We learned that we can practice them in every walk of life. Today’s readings remind us of this. These works can be as simple as sharing food with neighbors when they are suffering from illness or death in the family; opening our homes to sick or elderly relatives; giving directions for strangers when they seem to be in unfamiliar situations; taking time out to help a child accomplish a task. We can comfort and encourage people with cards and flowers; we can share the wisdom we have learned from life with those who have not yet trod the path we know so well. We may not be asked to perform extraordinary feats, but all disciples of Jesus are called upon to do the ordinary things of life in an extraordinary way.
Sunday Readings 