We close our 2025 Daily Meditations reflecting on what “being salt and light” means for Christians and all people of good will. Father Richard Rohr writes:
Have you ever noticed that the expression “the light of the world” is used to describe the Christ (John 8:12), while Jesus also applies the same phrase to us? (Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world.”)
Apparently, light is less something we see directly, and more something by which we see all other things. In other words, we have faith in Christ so we can have the faith of Christ. That is the goal. Jesus Christ seems quite happy to serve as a conduit, rather than a provable conclusion. (If the latter was the case, the incarnation of Jesus would have happened after the invention of the camera and the video recorder!) We need to look at Jesus until we can look out at the world with his kind of eyes. The world no longer trusts Christians who “love Jesus” but do not seem to love anything else. In Jesus Christ, God’s own broad, deep, and all-inclusive worldview is made available to us.
That might just be the whole point of the Gospels. We have to trust the messenger before we can trust the message, and that seems to be Jesus’s strategy. Too often, we have substituted the messenger for the message. As a result, we spent a great deal of time worshiping the messenger and trying to get other people to do the same. Too often this obsession became a pious substitute for actually following what Jesus taught—he asked us several times to follow him, and never once to worship him.
If we pay attention to the text, we’ll see that John’s Gospel offers a very evolutionary notion of the Christ message. Note the active verb that is used here: “The true light that enlightens every person was coming (erxomenon) into the world” (John 1:9). In other words, we’re not talking about a one-time Big Bang in nature or a one-time incarnation in Jesus, but an ongoing, progressive movement continuing in the ever-unfolding creation. Incarnation did not just happen two thousand years ago. It has been working throughout the entire arc of time and will continue. This is expressed in the common phrase the “second coming of Christ,” which was unfortunately read as a threat (“Wait till your dad gets home!”), whereas it should more accurately be spoken of as the “forever coming of Christ,” which is anything but a threat. In fact, it is the ongoing promise of eternal resurrection.
Christ is the light that allows people to see things in their fullness. The precise and intended effect of such a light is to see Christ everywhere else. In fact, that is my definition of a true Christian. A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail us, always demand more of us, and give us no reasons to fight, exclude, or reject anyone.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent Books, 2021), 31–33.
Image credit and inspiration: Zach Lucero, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like this flame ignites another, contemplative action spreads quietly yet powerfully, igniting hearts to brighten the world with love.
Story from Our Community:
I’ve read countless spiritual books, but sometimes I feel lost. Now, I realize that the answers I seek are within me and in the love, mercy, light, and wisdom that already exist. I’m ready to join forces with fellow seekers and trust that, together, we’ll find our way. I’m committed to becoming a source of love, salt, and light. I’m grateful for the journey, and with an open heart, I’ll follow my path with confidence, knowing that is the way for me.
—B.C.
