Today, Christian discipleship is given two powerful images to help shape it. The context for this moulding or modelling comes just after Christ preached the paradoxical blessedness of the Beatitudes. To His disciples whom He had told to rejoice even if they were persecuted, He added these two defining characteristics: A Christian disciple must be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.What does it mean to be salt and light? The first reading speaks in terms of justice and the poor. Isaiah skilfully links the practice of justice and a caring concern for the poor to a genuine worship of God. And in that way, the disciple’s light will shine like the dawn.
But that is a bit lofty, is that not?
Perhaps what resonates with us is how religious belief must not lose its vital connexion with life. We use phrases like “practise what you preach” to encapsulate this connexion. If not, we would be like salt that has lost its taste and a lamp its light. Simply put, a faith that does justice is the most effective witness of discipleship in Christ.
How can we practically live a faith that does justice and so be effective disciples? Here, we need to disabuse ourselves of a glorified or a heady notion of “discipleship”. In practical terms, it is enough to be salt and light where we are. Thus, a faith that does justice does not require that we leave our home or our job and go searching for wrongs to make right. Nor are we expected to be salt and light only in Church. A glorified notion of discipleship often blinds us to the reality that where we are is where we flavour the earth and light up the darkness. One sad fact is when people are asked who they think best represents the salt of the earth and light of the world, many do not go further than Mother, now Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She is the prime example of a faith that does justice.
Placing Blessed Teresa up there on a pedestal has a way distancing us from looking at ourselves. Perhaps it is timidity. We are fearful. And a common lamentation is, “I not good enough”. Or it may simply be that there and not here, tomorrow and not today would be the best place and time to embrace discipleship. But, more than location or waiting for the perfect moment, what is unsaid is that we have not fully counted the cost of discipleship. Poor discipleship is often a reflexion that we may have a vague notion of or simply have not embraced what discipleship entails. It is said that we would be hard pressed to find an atheist—someone who does not believe in God. Instead we will encounter many practical atheist—they just do not believe because it is more practical not to. Likewise, many of us are disciples not because we are truly convinced but because it is more practical to believe.
To follow Christ is always radical. Again, do not confuse radical discipleship with glamorous discipleship measured in terms of this world—novelty, excitement, recognition and etc. The unpleasant truth is that discipleship will lead one way or another to Calvary. If we honestly reflect on this, our image of Christ is closer to a feel-good doting indulgent Christ than to the exacting Christ of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes and Calvary. In short, we have blunted our discipleship by our false expectation or worse by our lowering our expectation to the point that we expect Christ not to expect anything from us.
As long as I pay my dues: go to Church, go for confessions occasionally or once a year and do what is necessary like feed the poor, then my religion must not inconvenience nor exact anything from me. For many of us, salt and light are simply reduced to “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil”. It is a form of privatised religion and it accords well with a religion of convenience. People who live in condominium know this—you do not know your neighbours and so “morality” becomes a private matter and quite easily relativised. Priests will tell you that they have heard this in confessions: “I have not really done anything wrong”. Well, it is commendable to have done nothing wrong. But, discipleship is not a measure of the wrongs we do not commit. Instead poor discipleship is a measure of the good we neglect to perform. Poor discipleship is not paying the full price of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Salt and light are powerful images of discipleship. In themselves they sort of describe the purpose of discipleship. But, their strength as images are tied to the requirements of the Beatitudes. “Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speaks all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad”.
A clarification is necessary here. Firstly, it does not mean that we go searching to be “abused or persecuted”. That is masochism. What others would call a “martyr complex”. Rather, discipleship in Christ is born out of rejection. Christ was rejected and so will we be if we stand with Him. The master was treated so badly. We should not expect less and often rejection often comes from fellow Christians. Second, discipleship does not mean we need to “do” something extraordinarily. It is about faithfulness and not about glamour. For example, there is nothing glamorous about discipleship in suffering. Would you dare embrace sickness as a vocation? That for no reason than personal identification with Christ that He calls you to personal suffering through debilitating illnesses. Of course, there are two types of suffering. One is we deserve it. When we live a dissolute life there will be consequences and perhaps suffering to be deserved. The other type is uninvited, incomprehensible and that for no other reason we find ourselves having to put up with it. Here, the prayers in the Rite for Anointing is quite helpful catechetically as it helps us to understand what it means to be salt and light. One of them prays that the sick person would be serene in hope and so give us all an example of joyful patience in the midst of suffering. Thus, quiet suffering through no fault of ours when united with Christ’s suffering is valuable salt and light.
Discipleship is here and now. In the pew now. You bag on the seat is meant for another person. And afterwards in the car on the way out, no honking and of course it also goes for those who habitually take their own sweet time to go the car—to make sure that they do not unnecessarily inconvenience others. At home in the kitchen, at the desk in the office etc and the list goes on. And here, St Paul in the second reading consoles us. The success of the Gospel, that is, how we can be more flavourful or more enlightening is not dependent on our cleverness. It may depend on perseverance but certainly how we can salt the earth better and light the world brighter is dependent on the power of Christ. Thus, we should worry less about how we may fail but entrust ourselves more and more all to Christ for He never fails us. If He calls, He will provide the necessary grace.
