Salt of the Earth & Light of the World

In last Sunday’s gospel reading, we heard Jesus’ call to be “salt of the earth and light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). In recent weeks, our United States bishops, at times individually and at times collectively, have taken Jesus’ words to heart by voicing their opposition to the dehumanizing treatment of immigrants, policies of indiscriminate mass deportation, and racism.

At its fall meeting in Baltimore, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a Special Message addressing the bishops’ concern for the evolving situation impacting immigrants in the United States.

Recently, bishops have spoken out against the social media posting of a racially-biased meme by the Trump administration, challenging the administration to accountability and an apology.

Foreign policy has also been on the radar of some of our bishops as three of our U.S. cardinals issued a joint statement on the morality of U.S. foreign policy.

If we have not, perhaps we might take time to communicate with our bishops – to express our support and our gratitude to them for their courage in bringing the voice of the gospel to our times. We might also reflect, as another Lent begins, on how we might use our voice to do the same.