Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 8th, 2026

On the feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple, (February 2) we reflected upon our lofty call to be the light of the world; a light which is expected to shine amid the darkness all around it. 

Today, we reflect also on the other lofty call: the call to be the salt of the earth, giving flavor to this world of ours. 

Be sure of this, either we give taste and meaning to the world around us or we, too, become flat, aloof, thus, part of the tasteless mess. (Mat. 5:13-16) 

Without a doubt, our calls to let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father, as well as of giving flavor to this world, are both effective ways of being engaged in preaching the Gospel with our life. 

We shall not forget that we are in a fierce war against the forces of darkness and evil which managed to push our world to be in desperate need of light and inspiring purposes. 

But how could these sinister forces succeed in turning our world into a tasteless mess? 

They did it by replacing Jesus Christ and his Gospel with a misguided concept of fairness, proposing a spirit of mediocrity, inclusiveness at all costs, perverse ideologies, and their brand of one-way tolerance. They tolerate only those who agree with them. 

Or, to put it in a different way, they did it by ignoring God and his laws, thus, doing completely away with sin, which is the breaking of God’s laws, including natural law, the set of laws that is observable in the way nature operates. 

They did it also by pushing relativism, that hazy driving force adopted in the attempt at erasing the concept of sin, and replacing it with whatever is convenient, fluid and quickly changeable.  Relativism holds that there are no absolutes; no unmovable truths; all opinions, all trends, all choices are good and okay. 

Well, our effort to give taste to this world can begin by pointing out the undeniable fact that, even if many people do away with sin, they are still powerless and clueless as to how to deal with the inevitable consequences caused by the very sins they try to dismiss. 

Driven by the new commandment of loving each other as Jesus loved us on the cross, we can restore some of the original taste that God gave to this world by identifying the tragedy and the devastation unleashed by sin—any sin. 

The way one looks at sin makes all the difference. So very shockingly (Luke 12:51-53) Jesus states that he and his message, inevitably, bring about clear divisions: 

As Truth, he causes division between light and darkness; good and evil; right and wrong; just and unjust.  

As we attempt to restore taste to this world we have, therefore, to tell everyone that the consequences of sin prove the need for a Savior, the need for Jesus Christ, for his mercy and for his Gospel to save us and lead us into his Kingdom of Truth and Light. 

Furthermore, sincere love for the victims of relativism and forced inclusiveness, compels us to check the list of those who, because of their fundamental choice, exclude themselves from the Kingdom of God.  

This list is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. It is unequivocable and so unsettling that, in some “liberal countries,” believers who dared to quote it, are accused of hate speech, and must suffer greatly, including incarceration and crippling fines.  

It is natural for us, frail human beings, to be torn between our love for Jesus and tepid willingness to be fully engaged in being salt and light. 

Perhaps, we have tried it before with spotty results, because our love for Jesus was far for making us proud, while forceful images of real sufferings overwhelmed our good intention. 

Our full engagement as light of the world will undoubtedly shed light on places people prefer to keep out of the spotlight, and our efforts to be salt of the earth might challenge people’s worldly ways of seeking happiness.  

Yet any hesitation and fear on our part should be replaced by a sense of heartfelt humility and gratitude and be firmly convinced that, if we have chosen to live by Jesus and his Gospel, it is due to his love and grace and almost nothing to our skills and goodwill. 

Hence, as we stoke the flame of our love for Jesus, we hear an inner voice telling us to be utterly bold, totally fearless because the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4) 

Undoubtedly, the flavor that our world so desperately needs is the flavor of genuine love which is displayed so eloquently in our crucified Lord who remains always our inspiration, our model and our point of reference. I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me. Philippians 4:13