Real happiness can be found in being salt and light
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Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor
“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” — Desiderius Erasmus.
Ask a person with high blood pressure who has recently been told by their doctor to “Remove the salt from your diet.”
Some simply use a substitute. Some say they do not miss it. Some say: “Without it my food has no taste.”
Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth.”
A woman, as a result of a serious accident, was blind for four months. After the final surgery and accompanying recuperation, the bandages were removed and she was able to see.
She was later quoted as saying: “It’s the light, the light; the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!”
Isaiah calls it the “light.” He could equally refer to it as “salt.”
In this respect, his writings could almost be called another “Gospel”; he certainly speaks the heart of Jesus’ message, at least as it refers to love and care for the vulnerable and the poor.
Speaking for God, Isaiah calls us to: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own.”
“Then,” he says, “your light shall break forth like the dawn.”
Becoming light and salt is a dual thing. We do it because it seasons and brightens the lives of others. But we also do it because in the becoming of light and salt, our own lives are changed.
We discover the power and grace of God in our own lives and actions.
The 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner and theologian, organist, philosopher, physician and medical missionary Albert Schweitzer once said: “Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid.”
This is one quote out of literally hundreds, for he wrote a famous book and philosophy: “Reverence for Life.”
Schweitzer got it! He realized that the Gospel is absolutely true. Exemplifying the Gospel is not so that we can do good. Exemplifying the Gospel is so we can be and find good.
We are changed. We discover. We become light and salt.
Schweitzer said: “One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”
Serving, giving, sharing and forgiving are the fruits of Gospel living.
The philosopher saw it so clearly. Jesus truly is concerned with our happiness. Jesus knows it gets awfully lonely being stuck in ourselves.
Real happiness happens when we go out of ourselves for others.
Money cannot buy it. Power can make it happen but often does not. Prestige and position could multiply it and does for the few.
But real happiness can be found in being salt and being light.
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 14th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at perry.leiker@gmail.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
