You are Salt of the Earth and Light for the World

In this weekend’s Gospel, Jesus calls His disciples “Salt of the Earth” and “Light for the World”.  This means that we are charged by Jesus to boldly live our faith so that in us others may see Him.  In our time, we have those opposed to Christ, and those who live For Christ, but we have perhaps the greatest number of those who are “In-the-middle”. Those in the middle are those who are unsure, or “somewhat disciples”. This is not an option. C.S. Lewis has a powerful argument; Christianity is either True of False. If it is false it is of no importance. If it is true it is of infinite importance. One thing Christianity is not, is somewhat important.  Jesus is asking us to be bold. In this way we become salt for the world, that is transforming it to be better. If we are not, the world will transform us.

For today’s homily I would like to highlight a quiet miracle happening in our midst. How Jesus is revealing himself through an actor. A while back, Jim Caviezel played Jesus in the Film “The Passion of Christ.” During that film, he encountered near death as he was struck by lightning, endured accidental scourging, constant migraines, pneumonia, separated shoulder, and more as he “joined in the sufferings of Christ”. Jim testifies that during the whole time, he prayed and fasted, and that during that filming he heard Jesus asking him; ‘How much of me do you want the world to see?’ Jim felt the conversation was similar to the Gospel passage where Jesus asked James and John, ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink.’ Jim told Jesus that he wanted to. The suffering Jim experienced almost killed him. The doctors advised him to stop, be he put his life in God’s hands and continued. After the film, Jim had open heart surgeries due to near hypothermia and stress from the filming. Today Jim Caviezel is a witness to what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, and how we are called to respond by giving our lives totally to God, and being warriors for Him in this world, that is we must be Salt and Light for the world.

Here is the video I showed during the homily:

Here is the full presentation at the FOCUS conference:

Here is another video interview with Jim Cavezeil speaking of the spiritual journey he went through during the filming: