Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time: Called to Live With A Visible Purpose

Sunday, 8 February 2026

In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, God calls us to live our faith authentically, purposefully, and visibly. Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light to illustrate the transformative role that we’re invited to play in the world.

The light part is fairly clear: as Christ is the light of the world, as His followers we’re meant to illuminate the truth and beauty of the Gospel through our words and actions. A hidden light serves no purpose, but by living our lives in a way that reflects God’s love and truth, others are drawn not to us, but to God Himself.

I admit the salt part was a little trickier, until our Priest broke it down into the four elements that salt would have represented to the people hearing this message in Jesus’s time: purity, preservation, seasoning, and healing.

Because salt was white and came from the earth or sea, it was often associated with cleanliness, a fitting analogy for the purity of heart required for temple sacrifices. Salt was also the primary medicine and preservative of the ancient world, rubbed into wounds to prevent infection and used to keep food from decaying, making it a powerful metaphor for healing and endurance.

As the salt of the earth, disciples are called to preserve and bring out the goodness in the world, much like salt preserves food and enhances its flavour. Christians who don’t live out their faith bear empty witness, are followers without impact, like salt that has lost all flavour.

This passage challenges us to reflect on how we’re living out our Christian identity, to check if our presence in our families, workplaces, and communities is actually making a visible difference. Are we enhancing and preserving the good around us, like salt? Are we illuminating our surroundings and pointing towards God, like light?

In losing our Catholic identity, in keeping it so hidden as to show no light whatsoever, by blending too much into a secular culture, we lose our purpose. Because the truth is that we aren’t called to just possess the truth, but to live it and embody it so vividly that the world becomes a little brighter, a little more “seasoned,” just because you’re in it.

Don’t blend in: be the reason someone looks upward today.