Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Feb. 9, 2014

Written by Fr. Fitz Tuesday, 04 February 2014 16:14

"You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?" MT 5:13

When my grandfather died after a lifetime of work in the Union Stock Yards, the editor of the local South Omaha paper described him as "the salt of the earth!" 

What an accolade! Why? Because salt gives to our lives verve, flavor, spice, and revival in the heat of the day.  This weekend I remember another salt giver, Betty Fitzgerald. To be around Betty was to absorb a love of life, a constantly searching, and probing mind, a gracious hospitality mixed with verve and zest.
Someone recently described depression as a loss of vibrancy. True enough. 

Each week I take Holy Communion to a vibrant woman filled with state 4 cancer. Cassie comes to the door wearing a jaunty hat, and with a smile on her face. Her vibrant attitude just seems to keep her going. 

In the midst of our winter dark, we need to be awake. We are not bears in hibernation. Pope Francis urges us to share the the JOY of the Gospel.  Be salt! Be light! And the first reading shows us how:

...remove from your midst opression, false accusation, and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfiy the afflicted; then light shall rise in you in the darkness,and the gloom shall become for you like the midday."

Breakfast Question: Am I salty?

Personal Reflection: How do I become more vibrant?