Father Deacon Dave Etters
Watch the Homily Short
Listen to the Homily Short
A powerful reflection by Deacon Dave on Jesus’ call to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This message challenges believers to live the Beatitudes authentically, embrace radical transformation in Christ, and shine God’s light into a world in need of hope.
Read the Homily Short
You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world, said Jesus to his disciples. This passage follows immediately after the Beatitudes, the teaching of how to achieve pure and perfect happiness.
But there is an amazing power in the radical giving of ourselves to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We actually become living Beatitudes, a joy that this world cannot provide.
The way is very clear. Blessed are they who are poor in spirit. I thought we were supposed to be rich. No, we are to admit that we are poor on our own. We need God to fill our lives with purpose and life. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
As we hunger for God and for righteousness and right living, our lives are filled with His joy and with happiness. The opportunity, the calling to be transformed by Christ, a radical transformation, it’s almost overwhelming at times.
But if we want to enter through the narrow gate, this is the way to true joy and true happiness. Our Church must live and be the light of Christ to the world. Because Jesus said, then they will see your works. They will see what you do, they will see your life, and they will come and believe.
And so we have this challenge before us, as Jesus has called us to be salt of the earth that seasons and preserves the life and the goodness of this world that He has created. Light to bring those from darkness, those that live in darkness.
As St. Paul said to the Philippians, that you are blameless, innocent, and that you shine like light in the midst of the darkness of a crooked and perverse generation. Are we shining like that light into the darkness of our age?
It’s not unlike the question that there are two coaches that will go to their locker rooms today hoping to have a Super Bowl championship. They will talk to their players, they will fire them up, and they will tell them to give it all and go for it, and then they might say the same thing that I think God would say to me: leave it all on the field.