Fr Matthew Reese

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” —Matthew 5:14-16

Dear Friends,

I suspect I am not alone in encountering today’s Gospel passage and having “This Little Light of Mine” playing in my head. This opening section of Matthew 5 is famous for these series of metaphors Jesus uses to describe his disciples, and by extension, all his faithful followers down the ages.

Some (the salt which has not lost its saltness) are more opaque than others (the light of the world). Jesus’s metaphors here emphasize two key elements of Christian discipleship: First, that there is something ontologically different about the Christian.

Jesus’s disciples are so fundamentally, so inextricably linked to Christ, that without that relationship, they would cease to be what they are—they would become something altogether different, like salt without its saltness.

Second, that difference, that distinctiveness of Christian witness must not—indeed cannot—be hidden. We show forth our belief in our lives—in how we treat others, in how we serve, in how we mend, in how we heal the world around us.

To be a “city set on a hill,” to be a “light that gives light to all,” is not easy. Living out our discipleship requires patience, self-examination, sacrifice. Cities on hills are, by their nature, both beacons and targets.

Jesus knows this, though his friends in this scene do not yet.

We might rightly feel that being “the light of the world” is an enormous task—a burden to which none of us is equal.

But we are not really the light. We, like John, are reflections of it, bearing witness to the true light that enlightens us all. (John 1:9).

Can we train our eyes on it? Can we follow that beacon?

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew