Roman Rite – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 8th, 2026
Is 58:7-10; Ps 112; 1 Cor 2: 1-5; Mt 5:13-16
Ambrosian Rite
Is 66:18b-22; Ps 32: Rm4:13-17; Jh 4:46-54
1) To avoid a bland and dull life.
In this Sunda’s Gospel the Redeemer says to his disciples and to us: “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world”. With these comparisons, the Messiah wants to convey to his disciples of all time a sense of mission and testimony. Salt, in Middle Eastern culture, evokes different values such as alliance, solidarity, life and wisdom. Wisdom sums up in itself the beneficial effects of salt and light: in fact, the disciples of the Lord are called to give new “flavor” to the world, and to preserve it from corruption with the wisdom of God, which shines fully on the face of the Son because He is the “true light that illuminates every man” (Jn 1:9). United with Him, Christians can spread amid the darkness of indifference and selfishness the light of God's love, true wisdom that gives meaning to the existence and actions of men.
Therefore, the salt of the earth and the light of the world is Jesus Christ. Because Christ Jesus knows about God, he tastes like God. This very daily, concrete and tasty image is beautiful. Jesus knows about God, he has the strong but also sweet taste of God. And Christ Jesus’ taste is the taste of God, which contrasts the taste of the world. With a development of the image, I would say that here the flavor becomes perfume, fragrance. St. Paul[1] says that there are a fragrance of life and a smell of death that oppose each other and confront each other. The disciple, then, by participating in Christ Jesus and by the gift from Christ Jesus, has this flavor and this savoriness, thanks to which one can give flavor to the whole world.
This is also the invitation that Pope Leo XIV extended to young people in the meeting held on the days dedicated to them in Jubilee 2025: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world” And today your voices, your enthusiasm, your cries, which are all for Jesus Christ, will be heard to the ends of the earth. […] the world needs messages of hope; you are this message, and you must continue to give hope to all”.
With these words, taking up those of Christ, the Holy Father has entrusted above all to young people, but not only to them, a great mission: “Return home bringing light, flavor and hope where you are. ‘You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world’ And today your voices, your enthusiasm, your cries, which are all for Jesus Christ, will be heard to the ends of the earth… The world needs messages of hope; you are this message, and you must continue to give hope to all”. In the path indicated by Jesus the Pope invites us to bring hope, flavor and light to the world.
The light of which Jesus speaks about in the Gospel is that of faith, a gift from God that comes to illuminate the heart and to illuminate the intelligence. “God who said: ‘Let the light shine from the darkness’, also shone in our hearts to make the knowledge of divine glory that shine on the face of Christ[2], glow”. This is why Jesus' words take on extraordinary prominence when he explains his identity and mission: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Our personal encounter with Christ illuminates life with new light, sets us on the right path and commits us to be his witnesses. The new way, which comes to us from Him, of looking at the world and people makes us penetrate more deeply into the mystery of faith, which is not only a set of theoretical statements to be welcomed and ratified with intelligence, but an experience to be assimilated, a truth to be lived, the salt and light of all reality (cf. S. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 88).
2) Martyrs, torches of light and grains of salt.
The Roman Emperors put “on stage” the Christians so that their death would amuse the people, But the Christians entered “on stage” not as actors, but as martyrs knowing that they were being a spectacle to the angels, to the world[3]and to God. Let us not forget: the “eyes [of God] are always on the righteous”[4], so He places His gaze first on the martyrs, whose blood was and is the seed of other Christians[5], an offering of freedom and a sign of hope that becomes a reality.
Indeed, the martyrs are par excellence salt and light of the world. Of course they were heroic, but we too are called to be witnesses (the Greek word “martyr” means witness), without worrying about doing who knows what things. It is not about doing extraordinary things. It is a question of salt, of being salt that seasons. Salt is the ability to suffer, the sign of the Covenant. Salt shows an adult faith, which does not flee before the cross, which has patience in suffering, which understands its meaning, which sees, transfigured in death, resurrection and life.
The method of Christian witness is dictated and illustrated by the heart of Christ which, pierced, responds immediately with blood and water, with a love that goes to the end. For this reason, the paradigm and fulfillment of Christian testimony is martyrdom. Martyrdom contradicts the logic of the world, because the martyr responds to the fear of death that hates life with a love for life that does not fear dying for it. The life of the martyr is the risen Christ, Christ who conquered death and sin. Martyrdom today, as always, is the greatest cultural revolution that can be made. The martyr, in himself, is an eliminated witness, a suppressed witness. But in the logic of the cross, elimination accentuates the power of testimony and the expression of charity. The Christian martyr is precisely an icon of the heart of Christ who, hated and pierced, exceeds in the charity of forgiveness, of the gift of life, and of mercy. The martyr thus becomes a witness not only to the love of Christ, but to the excess of this love, in an overabundance of charity, of gratuitousness, which overflows the limit of death and hatred.
Let us look as constantly as possible to Christ on the Cross, and if we are not standing beside the Cross like Mary and John, “at least” we embrace the feet of the Savior's Cross as the Magdalene did, until we allow ourselves to be transformed into Him, until He lives in us.
Our daily life with the acceptance of the daily cross files, prunes, cuts what in us is an obstacle to our adherence to Him. For this reason, precisely in weaknesses, difficulties, and failures the mission for which we were born is fulfilled in us. Just when we are nothing the power of God explodes in us. Let us then despise nothing of our sufferings, anguish, failures and frailties. It is in those moments that we are salt, light, and leaven. We are because we are who we are: poor clay in God's creative hands. All it takes is a total, constant abandonment to the love of God that works in us so that God can through our small or great sufferings, turn the light for the world.
Jesus speaks simply, starts from everyday experiences that everyone can understand and, therefore, also uses images of salt and light. Salt, in those days, allowed food to be preserved over time; it was a symbol of fidelity and continuity; light made life possible, it was its symbol.
3) Christian identity.
“You are the salt ... you are the light ... “. Jesus first announces the new identity given by God to those who listen to him and follow him. His disciples and all Christians are, and not by their own choice or merit, light and salt for all mankind.
In this identity of Christians, it is written a task, a mission, not as a duty that is added after or from the outside, but as a natural consequence of what we are. As it is for salt and light, so we are for the entire world a sign that God exists and is the Father, and that Christ is the incarnated Light, who gives to man the light of the eyes and the heart.
In saying "You are the salt of the earth," Jesus tells us that the human nature corrupted by sin has become tasteless, but through our ministry of testimony, the grace of the Holy Spirit will regenerate and preserve the world. For this reason, the Savior teaches us the virtues of the Beatitudes, the ones that are the most necessary and the most effective for us who want to look like Him. Those who are meek, humble, merciful do not confine in themselves the good works that they have done. They instead make these beautiful springs gush also for the good of others. Those who have a pure heart, are peacemakers and suffer persecution because of truth; they are the persons who devote their life for the good of all. If we melt like salt, we give flavor to the life of the world and we build a culture of life and a civilization of love.
When salt dissolves in food, it gives it taste. When Christ dies, the humanity is reconciled to God who gives meaning to life that then assumes fullness of meaning and taste along with safe direction.
The Christian who becomes a witness and therefore a martyr, does not rebel in front of the suffering and the injustice that he suffers. From him the world receives a credible sign of eternal life (in fact one cannot accept death if he does not have within him the fullness of life) and every man’s work and action are purified. Christian life becomes a liturgy in which, through it, Christ offers men to God after having enlightened them and purified their actions.
4) Martyr, light who bears witness to the Light.
It is true: it seems that violence, totalitarianism, persecution and blind brutality will prove stronger silencing the voice of the witnesses of faith that can appear as the defeated of history. But the risen Jesus illuminates our fragile testimony and makes us understand the meaning of martyrdom.
In the defeat and in the humiliation of those who suffer because of the Gospel, acts a force that the world does not know: “When I am weak - says the apostle Paul - then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10).
It is the power of love, defenseless and victorious even in defeat. It is the force that challenges and triumphs over death.
“You are the light of the world." Jesus said to his disciples and repeats to us, his disciples of today. One is no light if he is not in love: "He who loves his brother abides in the light” says St. John, and if we are in the light, this light illuminates more the needs of others. Jesus is identified with the poor and for the Christians this gives a new light on the reality of the poor. Jesus who pronounces over the bread the words: “This is my Body,” said these same words also of the poor: “You did it to me." And it is as if He says, "That beggar, in need of a little of bread, the poor man who stretches out his hand, that’s me." Jesus asks us to have this attitude: to help the needy to be the light of the world. In a humanity which is dominated by indifference and selfishness, Jesus asks us to love to be light. He teaches that love is such as to illuminate the lamp on the lamp post. In a humanity mired in a vacuum and that constantly challenges death, salt is needed to give back the flavor and the enjoyment of life. No one eats one tablespoon of salt but puts it in the food to make it tastier. We must not love only ourselves and become selfish and self-centered, but we must put our love in others. It is with mutual love that life acquires taste, meaning and gives joy and happiness.
In the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah reveals the concrete way of being light: through orderly effective and concrete charity that bends toward the poor and the suffering: " If you remove the yoke from among you, the accusing finger, and malicious speech; if you lavish your food on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall become like midday (Isaiah 58: 9-10).
In the friendly light of us Christian men find the true light: the light of true life.
5) Martyrs of light with virginity.
All our lights are turned on in the martyrdom of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross and, of course, in the martyrdom which was its source: the martyrdom of Christ the Light.
Christ calls everyone to be witness of this life. A life in which every moment , even the most hidden, simple and trivial, is a good and beautiful work of God in us so that men, looking at us , can give glory to God and so that blasphemy against the name of God spoken by many in front of death is converted into a blessing .
In this the Consecrated Virgins are of example. By offering their virginity they become a special ostensory of Christ like the Virgin Mary. These women are martyrs on the model of Mary, Virgin and Mother, because virginity is not to give up love but to give oneself completely to Love, to God-Charity in whose heart all are welcome. They show that, by living a virginal vocation, one arrives to the transfiguration of oneself and of the relationships with others lived in the same way as Our Lady lived them. They remind to all the Christians their vocation to be the intact dwelling place of God.
Spiritual Reading
“You are the salt of the Earth… You are the light of the world”
DECREE AD GENTES
ON THE MISSION ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH # 35-36
“Since the whole Church is missionary, and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God, this sacred synod invites all to a deep interior renewal; so that, having a vivid awareness of their own responsibility for spreading the Gospel, they may do their share in missionary work among the nations. As members of the living Christ, incorporated into Him and made like unto Him through baptism and through confirmation and the Eucharist, all the faithful are duty - bound to cooperate in the expansion and spreading out of His Body, to bring it to fullness as soon as may be (Eph. 4:13).
Therefore, all sons of the Church should have a lively awareness of their responsibility to the world; they should foster in themselves a truly catholic spirit; they should spend their forces in the work of evangelization. And yet, let everyone know that their first and most important obligation for the spread of the Faith is this: to lead a profoundly Christian life. For their fervor in the service of God and their charity toward others will cause a new spiritual wind to blow for the whole Church, which will then appear as a sign lifted up among the nations (cf. Is. 11:12), "the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14) and "the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13). This testimony of a good life will more easily have its effect if it is given in unison with other Christian communities, according to the norms of the Decree on Ecumenism”.
[1] 2 Cor 2,14.
[3] For I believe that God has put us, the apostles, in last place, as condemned to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. “ (1 Cor 4, 9).
[4] Ph 33/34, 16
[5] Tertullian writes: “We multiply every time we are reaped by you: the blood of the martyrs is the seed of new Christians” (Apol., 50,13: CCL 1,171).
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