REJOICE AND BE GLAD, BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!
REJOICE AND BE GLAD, YOU'S IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

It is not so hard to believe,
when Jesus say’s in John’s gospel,
“I am the light of the world.”
We can all affirm that Jesus is the light of the world.
It is easy to believe that Jesus is the salt of the world,
that his life made a difference in our world,
that all he said and did change the world forever.
It is not so hard to believe that Jesus is holy,
or that the saints are holy,
or even that there are some among us who might be considered holy.
It is easy to see that Jesus was blessed,
that Mary and Joseph,
the apostles, the martyrs and saints are blessed,
some of us might even feel blessed every once in a while.

BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!

Today, however, in Matthew’s gospel,
Jesus proclaims to all his followers,
“You are the light of the world.”
“You are the salt of the earth.”
He calls all of them, all of us,
“blessed” and “holy.”
That, my friends, is sometimes hard to believe.
Looking around the world today,
reading the newspapers or
watching the news on TV,
the world doesn’t look all that blessed or holy.
Looking at our own lives,
we don’t often see ourselves
as salt of the earth and light of the world,
we don’t recognize ourselves
as particularly blessed or holy.
Yet that is precisely what Jesus calls us.

BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!

What would our world look like
if we took Jesus’ words to heart,
if we really believed that we are the salt of the earth
and the light of the world?
What would the world look like
if we always thought of ourselves
as blessed and holy?
How would the world be different?
Isaiah gives us some clues in today’s first reading.
If we took seriously what Jesus says about us,
We would “share our bread with the hungry,
Shelter the oppressed and the homeless.”
We would “clothe the naked when we see them”
And would “not turn our back on our own.”
If we were, as the Psalmist says today,
“gracious and merciful and just,”
if we were to “give lavishly to the poor,”
then our light would surely shine
for all the world to see.

BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!

“You are the salt of the earth!”
“You are the light of the world!”
Don’t loose what you bring to the world!
Don’t hide the light that is in you!
Jesus says to us.
We come here week after week
to strengthen the flavor of that salt
before it goes flat.
We come to the table of the Lord
to brighten the light that may have begun to fade.
And here, at the table of word and sacrament
we are reminded time and time again
that we are blessed,
we are holy.
We come here so that we can go back out of here
to make a difference in the world.
Imagine if all two billion Christians around the world
really began to live the life we have been given,
to be holy and blessed,
to be salt and light for the world!
Imagine how this world would look
if it were truly kingdom of God
each and every day!

BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!

But we don’t have to do it alone.
No one of us is salt for the earth and life for the world.
Together, by the grace of God,
we can be that salt, that light.
Together, with our brothers and sisters in faith,
we can make this world a better place.
Together, Jesus is with us,
and together, God is in our midst,
and together, we are blest and we are holy,
and the kingdom of God is ours.
What we do here together week after week,
we usually call Mass.
The word comes from the Latin missa,
which means the sending.
We don’t come here just to get together,
or even just to worship the Lord,
to hear the Word of God
and to eat and drink at the Table of the Lord.
We come here to do all those things
so that we can be sent into the world,
blessed and holy,
salt and light.
We come here to be changed
so that we can change the world for the better
by living the beatitudes we heard last week
and bringing to fulfilment what Isaiah said in today’s first reading.
If we did all those things
then the kingdom of God would truly be ours!

REJOICE AND BE GLAD, BLESSED ARE YOU, HOLY ARE YOU!
REJOICE AND BE GLAD, YOU'S IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD!