Jesus came to show us the face of God. Jesus is the face of God. When we contemplate Jesus we contemplate the face of God. Jesus tells us many things about himself which help us to understand him. For example, “I am the good shepherd”, “I am the vine”.

But every word Jesus speaks about himself is also a word about us. Every time he tells us who he is he tells us who we are – “I am the good shepherd - you are the sheep of my flock” and, “I am the vine - you are the branches.”

Today, in the Gospel Jesus tells us two more things that we are - salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt does two things - it preserves and it gives taste.

When Jesus says that we are the salt of the earth this is what he means.

• We must preserve the earth - i.e. save it from corruption.
• We must give taste to it - i.e. improve its flavour - make it acceptable.

We are meant to stop the earth from going bad. We are meant to do what salt does, to inhibit the growth of the those things which cause things to spoil.

Jesus also says we are the light of the world. By itself light is no good. It is only good when it shows us something other than itself. That is what Christians are called to do - to live lives that show the presence of God in the world. If we do not do this there is darkness and, without doubt, the world is today in deep darkness in many ways. We Christians must ask ourselves if we are giving out light.

What good is salt if it has no flavour, or a light which cannot challenge the darkness? Unlike real salt and real light which are dead, material things, we are living salt and living light. We can change. We can regain our flavour and we can rekindle our light.