Yes meansYes

“Let your Yes mean Yes, and your No mean No.” This was the motto of a boys’ school, to teach the kids to be sincere. They used to ask me, why do we have to say the truth, if with a lie we can get away with things. I used to tell them that Jesus is the Truth and if we want to be closer to Jesus, we need to be truthful. Let what you say reflect what you think. Let your mind express itself. Gulliver in one of his travels comes across an island populated by horses, and tries to explain to them what human beings are. The horses cannot understand creatures that are able to lie: How can they think one thing and say a different one? Scientists say that the difference between computers and human beings is that computers cannot lie; they are programmed to come out with what is right. The day they learn how to deceive others, they will be like us; then we will be in trouble, completely at their mercy.

Society needs the truth to function properly. We live in a relativistic world where people are not interested in the truth. They are only interested in their truth. As long as I am happy in the way I live, I change the truth to suit my life. The internet is full of fake news. We like to access web sites that say things we agree with. The protagonist of the movie “A Few Good Men” has a famous line: “You cannot handle the truth”. It is true: we don’t want to handle it, to live by it, to live our lives according to the Truth, with a capital T. Martyrs used to lay down their lives for what they believed in. We are not ready to do so. We are only ready to die for what give us most pleasure, money, drugs, sex, alcohol or food.

First we need to be sincere with God. It is silly to try to deceive God, because He knows everything. But we don’t want to face him, to acknowledge his presence. We live ignoring him, as if he doesn’t exist; we only go to Him when we are in trouble. How can we love Him if we are afraid of him? Maybe we contact Him once a day, out of duty, just in case, when we pray before going to bed. We need to force ourselves to spend time with Him in silent prayer, to try to see things through His eyes, to look at Him with loving eyes. Somebody said that we should look at Jesus’ eyes at least once a day. Sooner or later we are going to face Him.

In the temple of Apollo at Delphi there was a famous inscription: Nosce te ipsum; know yourself. One of the most difficult things in life is to know ourselves. Because we live inside of ourselves, because we don’t like how we are, we create a different image of ourselves. I’d like to have another inscription: Ama te ipsum: love yourself; love yourself in the way God created you. God doesn’t love a virtual you; he loves you in the way you are. Unless we accept ourselves in the way we are we cannot be sincere with ourselves. How can we love ourselves? How can we get to know ourselves? Open your interior to somebody you love, to somebody who can help you, like in spiritual direction; we all need a sounding board to check who we are and how we are.

Lastly, sincerity with others. It is very important in human relations. If people know that we are not sincere, they cannot trust us. It is not easy to live with a person who is constantly lying to you. Once we start lying, it is not easy to stop. The truth is harder, but will set you free. How can we stop lying? Try to catch the lie before it goes out; bite it. Slowly you can win the battle.

josephpich@gmail.com

Salt and Light

Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel that we Christians are salt and light; salt of the earth and light of the world. Both are related to two senses, seeing and tasting. Without light we cannot see. Without salt the food becomes insipid. Jesus doesn’t say what we should be, but what we are; we are because of our Baptism. Not because we are better, or because we have done well, but because of his will, because he wants it. Christopher West always reminds us: You are a gift, be what you are.

We are precious in the eyes of God, like Gollum with his ring. In the old world salt was very valuable. The Jews made their offerings to God seasoned with salt, to make it pleasant for him. The Greeks considered salt to be divine. The Roman soldiers were some times paid with salt. In the times where there were no fridges, to make the food last, it had to be covered with salt. The human body contains almost a kilo of salt. Comparing us with salt, Jesus is telling us how valuable we are in his eyes.

What does it mean to be salt? It is white and pure; we should live a clean life, different from other people’s tasteless lives. It gives flavour to the food; we should make the world more pleasant, more lovable. It sterilises the wounds, stopping infections; we should preserve society from the effects of sin. It melts the ice when the roads are covered with it; we should melt the coldness of humanity with the warmth of the love of God. It preserves the food from decay; we should be like preservatives, to stop society from disintegrating, keeping things fresh and healthy. It produces thirst, the desire to drink; we should foster our thirst for God, that only his love can quench. But if the salt becomes tasteless what can you do with it? Throw it away. If it becomes contaminated, it becomes useless. When the salt in the underground water comes to the surface, the field becomes barren. It is possible for us to lose our way, our truth and our light.

Light is very important for us. Without the light of the sun it is impossible to live. Our eyes are our most valuable sense. The same happens in the spiritual life: God is the light. The first thing he did when he created the world was to separate light from darkness. When we see God, we see light. The devil is the prince of darkness. Hell is pitch black. When we baptise a baby we light a candle, to signify that his soul is full of light. Jesus came to dispel darkness.

We are the light of the world, not our light, but his light. We need to let his light to shine on us. We need to learn how to reflect his light, not ours. Like the moon, that reflects the light of the sun. We compare Mary with the moon. We should be like a lighthouse: to show people where the rocks are, where the danger is. Jesus is the beacon; we are the lighthouse. We can be a beautiful lighthouse, close to the sea, on the forefront, but if our beacon is out, we are useless. To give light we have to have it. Many times instead of salt we are vinegar; instead of giving light, we give darkness. We ask Mary our mother to remind us what we are: children of the light, pure mineral salt.

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Presentation of Our Lord

Today Jesus is brought for the first time to his temple, to fulfil the duties prescribed by the Jewish Law. He comes in his mother’s arms; he is too little to be able to walk. Joseph brings a pair of pigeons. They were a poor family and couldn’t afford a lamb. A poet says that because God couldn’t find poverty in heaven, he came to find it on earth. After all these centuries waiting for the Messiah, when he arrived, there was no party to welcome him. Only two people recognised him. God normally comes unnoticed; he likes to hide and disappear. We are the ones who need to look for him. We complain that he doesn’t appear to us. He doesn’t like to impose himself; he prefers to respect our freedom. He gives us enough signs for us to notice his presence.

How did Simeon discover Jesus? What did he see? We don’t know; but we know that Simeon in spite of being very old, he had a very young heart. He was looking forward to see the Messiah. And thanks to his hope in his faith he was going to meet him, his heart was full of love, and he had the right vision. His eyes discovered him among the multitude of babies brought by their parents to be rescued. Old people are normally grumpy, complaining about the past and making life unbearable to people around them. Simeon was the opposite; he was a sweet gentle man, of good humour, optimistic, full of life with bright dark eyes. He was looking forward to meeting God. We must have the same attitude. Every day that passes, we are one day closer to meeting him. Our Lord is coming. All we need to do is wait for him, standing up, walking towards him. Every night, before going to bed, when the priest prays the divine office, he repeats Simeon’s words: Nunc dimitis; let me go now in peace to encounter your presence.

We are jealous of Simeon: he took baby Jesus in his arms. Mary let him have the baby. Not many people managed to do so. We too ask her for this privilege. But she will ask us to wash our hands, comb our hair and clean our shoes. Maybe we need to go to confession first, forgive a grudge or to apologise to somebody about something we find difficult to recognise.

Simeon didn’t bring good news to the young couple. Till now all the announcements of the angels were full of joy and hope. After a month of silence, some of the questions they had about the future of this child were answered by Simeon: he was going to be a sign of contradiction. This baby was going to bring mixed feelings, suffering and joy, cross and glory, all at the same time. From now on, people won’t be able to remain indifferent at his passing. You either have to be with him or against him. To follow him is great, but it is going to bring together two extremes: a joy rooted on a wooden cross.

Simeon said something softly, in a low voice, only for Mary to hear: “A sword will pierce through your own soul.” She had sensed it already when the angel asked her to be the mother of God. It is something every mother finds out when they have a baby. Life brings sorrow; love fosters suffering. She began to experience the cross before her son. It was a prophecy that was going to find its consummation at Calvary. In the same way Jesus’ breast was pierced by a lance, opening his heart for us, Mary’s soul was going to be penetrated by a sword, for us to see her motherly love for us.

josephpich@gmail.com