The Church does Good in the World, 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Mt 5:13-16; Isa 58:7-10

Today I want to reflect on that phrase of the Lord: being “the salt of the earth” and “light to the world”.

I want, to make 2 points:

First that, as a Catholic, you are a part of an organisation that is a powerful force for good in the world, an organisation that does SO MUCH good that it merits being called the “light of the world”.

Second, I want to make the point that reminding ourselves of this fact can help motivate us to do more in that regard ourselves.

Now, as we all know, serious scandals have beset the Church in recent years.  

Scandals of horrendous evil-doing.

One of the risks with this is that we get DISHEARTENED and stop doing good ourselves.

We stop doing to Mass;

we stop giving to charity;

we stop praying.

However, stopping going to Mass because there are sinners at Mass is like stopping going to the gym because there are fat people there 

-in fact, the fat people are at the gym because they know they need to do something about it;

-and, sinners are at Mass because they know that this the place to stop them being even more sinful.

The FULLER picture of the Church,

the more AUTHENTIC picture of the Church, is not seen in her scandals, but in her good deeds.

Those of you with the internet, who can look at this sermon text online, can follows some links about this.

Historically, we might note that things like hospitals and health care for the weak we ONLY have because of Christianity:

The ancient world, the Romans & the Greeks, left the weak and poor to die, left them as failures.

the ancient Romans, in fact, were puzzled by the way that Christians would give to the poor 

Even today there are many parts of the world where this pagan worldview remains.

It was Christians who rescued discarded babies in the ancient world 

see here 

and here 

It was Christians who founded the first hospitals and care homes for the sick and the destitute, see here 

Today, the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organisation in the world.

see here

and here

Every day the Catholic Church feeds, clothes, shelters and educates more people than any other organisation in the world,

see here

You can see a list of what the Church does in Africa alone:

see here

and watch youtube here

Feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, educating the poor.  

And you, and your own parish, are a part of this.

Financially, as you can see on the parish website, we recently gave to St Timothy’s project in South Africa, we funded 2000 ‘buckets of love’ -food for the needy at Christmas.

see here

Our parish gives vast amount to our local food banks.
And at a personal level, one-on-one locally, our SVP group visits the housebound 

see here

We heard in today’s Gospel text the Lord Jesus tell us we are called to be "the light of the world"(Mt 5:14).  

Often the work the Church does is not showy, is not really seen, 

it’s more like the other image we heard the Lord use: "the salt of the earth"(Mt 5:13).  

Salt is not something you SEE in food, 

but it is something that affects the whole food item it is within.  

Salt is a small thing, a colourless thing, but we notice its presence.  Colourless but not flavourless. 

To return to where I began, 

as a Catholic, you are a part of an organisation that is a powerful force for good in the world, an organisation that does SO MUCH good that it merits Christ calling it the “light of the world” and “the salt of the earth”;

reminding ourselves of this fact can help motivate us to do more in that regard ourselves.