Isaiah 58:7-10
1 Cor 2:1-5
Mathew 5:13-16

At the beginning of this month in February, in the state of New South Wales where I live, the summer season brings in the longest days and shortest nights. Summer is always the eagerly awaited season of the year, falling between spring and autumn. It means brightness and warmth, vacation and a more carefree style of existence. In general, light is welcomed, is positive and encouraging – and today’s readings have some of that flavour.

But reading between the lines there is another reality here. For sometimes the light lets us see more than we want. It is true. The light in the house doesn’t just dispel the darkness; it can also illuminate the dusty corners, the accumulated junk, the ugly decoration, the ants crawling on the decaying woodwork.

Then there is the dark side of our own lives; not only the deep darkness of sin and evil, but also the shadow elements in our lives, those parts of us which speak of weakness, of incompleteness, of limitation, those parts which need healing and acceptance, yet which are also easier to ignore. Speaking from experience, exposing these parts of myself to the light does not come easily – even if I am the only one to see it. It is much more comfortable to let them lay low in the unconscious world pretending that all is well.

Today’s readings also speak of this other dimension of light – light as tied to removing oppression, feeding the hungry and looking after the afflicted in society. According to the Book of Isaiah, if these things can be done, “Then light shall rise for you in the darkness”. We want the light, yet the work of removing the darkness from our personal and communal life is difficult. The afflicted, the oppressed, senseless abortion of the unborn, sexual abuse of children, racial and genda discrimination, human rights abuses are all too much for us.

Hence the readings today are a call to witness but not for any egotistical purposes.

In his remarkable 1975 encyclical, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI speaks repeatedly of the importance of witness. For example, he says, "Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." (#41).

Our world history has given us so many ordinary men and women whose very life exemplified the readings today. And these are people across the street, neighbours, mums and dads, poor and rich whose basic goodness help to dispel the darkness in us and other stuff which makes us less human. No, let’s remove the chill which would say that the task is too big and beyond our abilities. In fact this invitation to be the ‘salt and light’ wherever we go can only be accomplished with God. We are not supposed to do it alone. With your hand in God’s hand, may be you be the person God wants you to be this very moment in your life.

God is relying on you.