Gospel & Reflection for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends, in April of 1963, not for the first time, Martin Luther King Jr found himself languishing in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. He was sent there for organising and partaking in a protest march against racism and racial segregation. He was met with unusually harsh conditions in that jail, however one friend managed to smuggle him a paper to read. In that paper there was an article written against King and his methods of demonstration. The article irked King and he began to write a response to it on the edges of the paper itself, and this response became famously known as ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’. In his response, King

basically states that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action, rather than waiting potentially forever, for justice. He wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere.”

But in that letter, King referred to two types of people; people who are like Thermometers and those like Thermostats. Thermometer people are those who like mercury rising and falling with the prevailing temperature, go along with the crowd. They are fearful of being different, of not being accepted by others. Like chameleons, they just want to blend

in! Thermostats, on the other hand, determine the temperature. They work for change when life summons them, even if people find that change challenging and unpopular.

In his book ‘Strength To Love’ published that same year, King imagined what someone like St. Paul would have to say, were he to write a letter to contemporary Christians? King imagined St. Paul saying: “There are many

in America…who are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted

socially. They live by the principle: ’Everyone is doing it, so it must be alright.’ But you must be willing to challenge unjust mores, to champion unpopular causes, and to buck the status quo. You are called to be salt of the earth. You are to be the light of the world.”

King was re-echoing, living, and asking people to live by the words spoken by Jesus in our Gospel for this weekend. Jesus was the first to challenge people to be ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light to the world.

That call from Christ is a summons to all people of faith to be courageous in living our faith and not to allow our beliefs and ourselves to be silenced, no matter how loud the calls for us to be so, are. Jesus challenges us all to be thermostats, not thermometers. Now more than ever, to live by that call is so important.

For example:

• In a world that dismisses the sacredness and preciousness of life so easily, we are asked to determine, to regulate, to define, what that

sacredness should mean and how it should be witnessed to.

• In a world that treats the gift of creation and the environment so badly, we are asked to treasure and protect it.

• In a world that inflicts the suffering of war, poverty, and homelessness upon so many, we are asked to support those who suffer the most.

• In a world where a person’s feelings are given greater consideration and acceptance than are basic natural, biological and defined truths, we are asked to give light to the real truth despite the fear of been branded as phobic.

• In a world that seeks to annihilate the voice, presence, and commands of God, we are asked to proclaim His Word and love like

never before.

“You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.”

Together, let us be both, without fear, in God’s name.

Fr Richard