5A23.   Isaiah 58:7-10.   God tells his people that he will be with them when they act toward others with the love that God himself has given them as the heart of their life.  “Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.”

Matthew 5:13-16.  The beatitudes that precede this Sunday’s Gospel call us to be people who are filled with the presence of God and a life, that is thoroughly spiritual and not of this world’s ways.  Then we are the salt that is God’s goodness and strength, and the presence of God’s brilliance shines from within us.  When we live out of the life of God’s presence within us, we live a life that is far beyond that of the life that is lived as just another animal of this world.  That life cannot help but shine from within us.  Just by being who we are in the Lord, our everyday life gives glory to the God who is the source of our life.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5.    “I did not come with sublimity of words or wisdom,” “except Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” “so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”  Our ‘original sin’ or natural human compulsion is to live out of ourselves or our natural human instincts, that is to be self-centered or centered in what comes to us naturally.  Our divine calling is to be God-centered, that is finding our lives and living our lives in the God who lives and dwells within us.  At our baptism we received the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit “remains with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:17d)  Jesus himself said of himself: “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”  (John15:4a)