This Sunday’s Gospel extends the Beatitudes and leads us to two decisive images: salt and light. In this commentary, Friar Luciano Audisio invites us to discover that Jesus does not propose unattainable goals, but reveals what we already are in Him: a life called to give flavor, preserve hope, and be light for others, not for display, but to make communion with the Father transparent.
We already are: the identity that Jesus reveals
This Sunday’s Gospel is situated as an immediate extension of the Beatitudes. Jesus continues speaking from the same profound key: He does not offer moral norms or unattainable ideals, but reveals His identity, His relationship with the Father, and, at the same time, the deepest truth of our own humanity. His words open a window to heaven for us, because they allow us to look out at the living communion that He has with the Father and to which we are also called.
To understand what Jesus says – and, above all, what He does – it is necessary to follow the path of the prophets of Israel. The New Testament cannot be read separately from the Old. Jesus does not invent new symbols: He takes elements deeply known by His listeners, realities of daily life charged with biblical resonances. In this passage, He chooses two: salt and light. And what is truly surprising is that He does not present them as a goal to be reached, but as a reality already given. He does not say: “strive to become”, but “you are”. Here and now. We are already the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Salt: the taste of God that is communicated
The first image, salt, leads us directly to taste. And the question that opens up is inevitable: what flavor has the Lord given to my life? Salt exists to give flavor, and God has given us the capacity to perceive the meaning of things. Therefore, the first interior movement that this word provokes is not effort, but gratitude. To be grateful for the flavor of our life, even when everything is not easy. Because “flavor” is deeply united to “knowing”: discovering the taste of our existence is discovering the very taste of God. Finding God is not an idea or a theory; it is an experience with a unique, unmistakable flavor.
From there, we understand something very important: we are already instruments of God’s flavor for others. For those who live with us, for those who cross our path. That flavor does not come from something abstract or distant, it does not fall from the sky as something foreign to our condition. It is communicated through our concrete humanity. Our flesh, our history, our wounds, and also our joys become the place where God lets His taste be felt.
In antiquity, moreover, salt not only served to give flavor, but to preserve food. That is why it was so valuable. And here a decisive dimension appears: giving. Salt fulfills its mission only when it is given, when it disappears. It cannot be kept for itself. It is made to dissolve in favor of others. This image leads us directly to Jesus. He is the salt par excellence, the one that gives flavor to our life. In the incarnation, in His abasement, Jesus “disappears” entering completely into our humanity, even assuming our death. His love is a love that is lost so that others may live.
Light: chosen to serve and make the Father transparent
The second metaphor, light, takes us even further back, to the very roots of religious experience. Ancient man perceived God as a totally distinct reality, not as one more thing within the world, but as the One who makes it possible to see all things and give them meaning. That is why the Bible can say without fear: God is light. And, at the same time, affirm something surprising: Israel is “light of the nations”.
Here the heart of the biblical election is revealed. In Scripture, being chosen is never a closed privilege or an end in itself. The election is always for service. Israel was not called to look at itself, but to help the other nations discover that they too were called to a living relationship with the Creator. To be light means to exist so that others can see.
This mission, which in the Old Testament belongs to the people, is then concentrated in the figure of the Messiah. Isaiah announces him as “light of the nations”. In Jesus, the vocation of Israel is fully fulfilled. He is the revealer par excellence. He not only tells us who God is; He reveals who we are. Outside of Him, we do not understand our life, our desires, our relationships. Jesus, as light, illuminates everything: our deepest identity, our searches, our shadows. He gives clarity and meaning to existence.
And yet, here a very fruitful tension appears. The risen Jesus is the Church, His Body, which crosses history in a continuous process of resurrection. We celebrate this mystery fully in the Eucharist, where we participate in His life and His mission. But at the same time, Jesus remains the Other. He is not confused with us. He remains in front of us as light. He inhabits us, but does not dilute; He unites us to Him, but continues guiding us.
This double dynamic appears strongly in the images of salt and light. Salt is lost, it disappears in others. Light, on the other hand, is given while remaining distinct. Jesus is both things at once: the salt that is given to the extreme and the light that always remains transcendent. And in Him we too are called to live this paradox.
All this introduces us, finally, into a living relationship with the Father. “So that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”. The works of the Christian do not seek to be exhibited or affirmed in themselves. They are transparency. They let God pass through. When life becomes salt and light, others can discover the Father, not because we are extraordinary, but because God becomes visible through our humanity.
Thus, all peoples are invited to enter into this filial relationship. And we, following the path opened by Jesus, already participate in this communion. To be salt and to be light is not a burden or one more moral demand. It is accepting with gratitude what we already are in Christ and letting God, through our concrete life, continue giving flavor and light to the world.
