Is. 58:6-10; 1 Cor. 2:1-5; Mt. 5:13-16
Over and above this, the people were asked to share their bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless into their homes. They were asked to cover the naked and not to hide themselves from their relatives who may need their assistance. [Is. 58:7]
Through those good works, the light of the people would break forth like the dawn. Sadness would turn to joy, their oppressors withdrawing before them. And the glory of the Lord would be their rear guard, protecting them from
Today's Gospel Reading [Mt. 5:13-16] tells us that we are the salt of the earth. If salt has lost its taste, its saltiness cannot be restored. It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot. [Mt. 5:13] In other words, when we stop doing good works, our souls are worthless to God.
Using a second example, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." [Mt. 5:14- 6]
A magazine once carried a series of pictures, and that series of pictures depicted one of the saddest stories imaginable. The first picture was a picture of a vast wheat field in Kansas. It was a farm in Western Kansas, and from horizon to horizon, all you could see was the wheat waving in the wind. The second picture was of a mother in distress inside her farmhouse in the middle of that wheat field. She had a small boy who had somehow wandered away from the house into that wheat field, and the little fellow was so small that he couldn’t be seen; she couldn’t find him. She had called for her husband, and the two of them had searched all day long for that little fellow; and they finally decided that they should call the neighbors, who began to search frantically all over the wheat field with no success. And they knew the boy was too little to see above the wheat and find his own way out, and so the picture showed her in great distress.
The third picture depicted all the people who had heard of the little boy being lost, gathered in the morning, joining their hands, hand-to-hand, and in a great, long line of humanity, linked only by their hands, sweeping from one end of that wheat field to the next. The last picture was a heartbreaker. The last picture was a picture of the father standing over the body of his little son. They had finally found him, but he was dead, and it was too late. The cold, cold night had claimed its victim. And underneath the final picture of a weeping father were these words: “O God, if we had only joined hands sooner.”
There are hundreds of ordinary who made a difference in the world with their little contributions and timely actions. One of the greatest services that a man can do in his lifetime is rendering service to mankind. It is said that service to mankind is service to God. Men come and go, but it is always their great deeds that are remembered and have a long-lasting impression on others’ minds. Thankfully, our nation is truly blessed with some great men and women, who are known for their services to humanity: Mahatma Gandhi, Iswar Chandra Vidysagar, Mother Teresa and Baba Amte are just to name a few. In modern India, too, we have many people who have dedicated their lives to serve others.
Rajendra Singh, Waterman of India is a hero in the state of Rajasthan. A water conservationist from Alwar district in Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh is known to have revived five rivers that had been dried up for years. In the 1940s, at a very young age, he observed that the population of his district was reducing as most villagers had moved over to other areas after the local Arvari River dried up. This gave him a strong desire to help his people in the village and the only way this could be done was to bring back water to those villages. It was his pure intelligence that helped him to devise a strategy. He introduced the concept of ‘johads’. These are rainwater storage tanks built with any materials available such as stones, dirt and concrete.
Jadav Payeng: Forest Man of Assam has done a great service to humanity in an altogether different way. It is an indirect service to mankind that he does by working towards saving the environment. This man, single-handedly has grown a huge forest on a 550-hectare sandbar in the middle of the river Brahmaputra.
God could turn around a whole nation, He could turn around a whole world by using simple people and mundane, every day, routine, common things for the most amazing purposes. When He made man, He didn’t use gold, He didn’t use silver, He didn’t use any precious metal; He used only mud.
When He called David to deliver Israel from the Philistines, He didn’t want Saul, the great king; and He didn’t want Saul’s massive armor. He used a shepherd and a couple of stones, that’s all. And when He came into the world, He didn’t enter the family of the wealthy and the noble, and He didn’t find Himself born in a castle; He simply chose a peasant girl and a stable.
And when He chose the twelve, He didn’t choose the elite, and the educated, and the affluent; He just chose a group of ignorant Galileans. And the Bible says, “Not many mighty, and not many noble.” And that’s the way it always has been because God gets the greater glory in the humbleness of the one that He uses. So He uses us to influence our world. We are given the mission to be the salt of the Earth and the light of the world.
There was a cartoon of a professor addressing the students. He asked, “who wants change?”
Everyone lifted hands. The he asked, “Who wants to change?” Immediately all hands went down. Today it’s our turn to change. The way to change the world is just to infiltrate it with godliness, and righteousness, and holiness, and affect it from the inside out. Thus, we will become the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Satish