5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico City
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting
February 5, 2023
“By Their Works”
In 2006, the Knights of Columbus published a coffee-table book entitled, By Their Works: Profiles of Men of Faith Who Made a Difference. This attractive book describes how brother Knights of Columbus— as diverse as Babe Ruth and Father McGivney himself – made a critical difference, and all because they looked beyond themselves to a greater good, or strove to meet needs greater than their own. In 1895, Babe Ruth was born in a section of Baltimore known to this day as “Pigtown”. After a troubled and impoverished childhood, with the help of the Xaverian brothers at St. Mary’s Industrial School, he became an iconic baseball legend who did more than most to revitalize the game. What is less known about Babe Ruth is his charity. In 1919, he became a Knight of Columbus (Marquette Council #271 near Boston), and whatever failings he had, he lived the principle charity on a grand scale – funding the American Legion Children’s Hospital for Crippled Children in Florida, making innumerable and often unreported hospital visits to comfort sick children, and visiting many military hospitals during World War II. As for Father McGivney, we know his story well. Ordained in Baltimore, his priesthood was a living icon of the charity of Christ. By his works we know him as we continue to carry forward the mission that he entrusted to the Knights of Columbus 141 years ago.
That wonderful book which profiles the work of famous brother knights came to mind as I read and reflected on Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew: “You are the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” Salt and light: two images Jesus uses to describe what we should be like as his disciples. We can readily see why Babe Ruth, in spite of his flaws, was salt and light for he lived his outsized life with a larger-than-life charity, and it is superabundantly clear that Father McGivney was “salt and light”. But how do Jesus’ words apply to us? How are we as 21st C disciples of Jesus and as the family of Knights of Columbus – how are we to understand our vocation – our baptismal vocation – to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? Let me give you hint: These images are more than moral imperatives, an imperative to “do good”. Rather, they invite us to share deeply in the mystery of Christ so that we might manifest his truth, goodness, and love in the world today.
Salt of the Earth
First, recall that Jesus addressed these words to fishermen in an obscure village, unlettered fishermen who would become his disciples and his apostles. What must they have thought: “salt of the whole earth”; “light of the whole world”. Did they think this was beyond their abilities? Or just figures of speech? What do we think? Can a newly inducted knight be salt and light for the whole world? Can we, as leaders of a fraternity that stretches across continents and oceans? My answer is “yes” but only if we understand properly what Jesus is talking about.
So, what does Jesus say? “You are the salt of the earth.” But then he warns: “What if salt loses its taste?” – what if becomes insipid? As Christians, we “are not only to be virtuous” – important as that is, but to be “salt”, that is to say, we “are to raise the level of flavor of every human activity and thus transform it.” The daily routine can be insipid until it is flavored by the Gospel, flavored by those who live that routine differently and better, after encountering Christ and sharing in his love. How many saints have lived ordinary lives with extraordinary love? So too, what is authentically true, good, and beautiful can be preserved unto eternity, saved from oblivion in a world that seems intent on forgetting the wisdom of the past, by those who “salt” these traces of God’s presence with joy and devotion. None of this is beyond us. None of this lies beyond any brother knight and his family.
But what about Jesus’ warning about salt becoming insipid? How does that happen? Salt becomes insipid when it is no longer itself, when it loses its tang. I won’t attempt to describe how salt deteriorates chemically, but I will say this: We can be the salt of the earth only to the extent that we are true to who we are: …neither angels nor animals but human beings created in God’s image. …adopted sons and daughters of God the Father – adopted because we have been baptized into his Son, Christ Jesus. …disciples because we are to follow Jesus by lives of holiness, joy, and evangelical vigor. …the family of the Knights of Columbus bound together in the charity of Christ. But we lose our “flavor” when we veer from our vocation as disciple and knights by conforming too closely to secular culture, or by “toning down” our witness to the faith for fear of ridicule, or simply grow weary of engaging in what seems like a losing battle – When we do this, then we lose the flavor the salt placed on our tongue at baptism, and thus lose our ability to transform the world about us and to preserve what is good. In the grace of the Holy Spirit, let us strive always to be “the salt of the earth”!
The Light of the World
The Word made flesh, John tells, is “the light that enlightens every person”, for in becoming one of us, Christ in some way united himself to every person. Jesus seeks to shine the light of his divine glory in the recesses of each heart, and the proper response is one of faith, as the light overtakes our darkness. This light we do not harbor for ourselves, but must reflect and share it, as individuals and collectively as the Body of Christ. In our daily life and work, Christ’s light must radiate through us to others. The Church is to be that city on the mountain through which Christ’s light shines onto a world darkened by disbelief and sin. Like a moveable lamp that can illuminate different parts of the house, so too Christ’s light is to shine through the Church onto those places, people, and situations most darkened by the reign of death. Thus, as Knights, we are always at the ready to bring the charity of Christ where the need is greatest and most pressing, such as in war-torn Ukraine. As we often say, “Where there is a need, there’s a knight!”
The light that flows through us is not our own creation. It is neither our own goodness nor our eloquence that we are called to reflect. Rather, the light with which we shine is the light of Christ crucified, he who is “our wisdom, our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). Yet, we have our part to play, for as Jesus says, “Light your light shine before all.” The good works, the charity, in which the Knights of Columbus engages are to be like “beams of light that manifest the goodness of [our heavenly Father].” Taking the Word of God to heart and nourished by the Church’s sacraments, we are called to re-present the charity of Christ crucified in our daily encounters, and in the charitable works of the Order that shine in the midst of human need. We see this don’t we, whenever we help a needy young person try on a winter coat or present a disabled person with a wheelchair, or rejoice with a husband and father who has found his faith anew, because of us.
When we are who we are called to be – “the salt of the earth and the light of the world”, then does the prophecy of Isaiah find fulfillment in us: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn… your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard…” May we have the grace and courage always to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”. Vivat Jesus!