Lighthouses In The Storm

No one will argue that the state of the world appears to be unraveling. There are many things happening today that even the most seasoned news aficionados shake their heads in disbelief over. As one of them cautions, James Wilson: "When the news is freakier than a Hollywood horror flick, you've got trouble."

Surely we could all sit around the campfire and tell our tales and woes, the problems being evident to all. But what is the solution?  We know what's wrong, so how do we fix it? The answer has never changed, and Jesus said it best when He told us to be as "salt and light" in the world. What did our Lord mean by that?

Much of the Earth's salt is contained in its various seas.  When there is too much salt, it can kill everything and produce bodies of water like the Dead Sea in Israel. Though the salt and minerals can be extracted for cosmetic and medicinal use, the sea itself cannot support life. The ratio of salt to water is unfavorable. 

What else do we know about salt?  It is a preservative, holds water and have solubility, conducts electricity, can heal, but also be caustic and corroding, and it enhances the flavor of food, to name some.  And there are many different types of salt, coming in all the colors of the rainbow and more.  These different salts are mixtures of different elements and are formed in varying ways, some being acidic, others more alkaline. 

And yes, all of these characteristics are purposeful and meaningful. I could write a whole book just on salt and it's Biblical significance. But for our study today, we want to recognize that in this verse, Jesus was correlating salt to LOVE, because it has the same properties.  

Now if salt is LOVE, then what is light?  Of course, you know..., it is TRUTH, the light of truth which illuminates the darkness. So Jesus was telling us that through LOVE and TRUTH, we would change the world, preserve everything in it and guide it along to safety through every storm.

Light has many properties too: it has been show to cure diseases, burn, cut, warm, delight in spectacle, travel at a certain speed, enable us to see clearly, color the world, reveal beauty, act as a shield, and indicate the presence of spiritual life.

The answer for how to make the world a better place has always been the same, but the difficulty is in carrying it out in a generation becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel. For this reason we must never separate love and truth, they must always be presented together in balanced proportions. If not, too much love, whether caustic or comforting, can produce a spiritual "Dead Sea", and truth without love can also destroy, why the Apostle St. Paul told us to: "speak the truth in love."

In these darkening days, our only true hope are the efforts wrought by God's love and truth working through us. And the indelible wisdom of His Word. Regardless of the challenges we face, we are "the salt of the Earth" and Christ is still the "light of hope", our Blessed Lighthouse who makes us little lighthouses planted on the shores of our calling to illume the travelers home.