TO BE A LIGHT WITH THE EXAMPLE The Christians we must be salt and light in the middle of the world. The example has to go ahead. Exemplary nature in the family, professional life, etc. specimens in the charity and in the temperance. For nothing it serves the insipid salt. There speaks to us the Master of our responsibility before the world: " You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world ". And he us says it to each one, to whom we want to be his disciples. The salt gives flavor to the food, makes them agreeable, preserves of the corruption and it was a symbol of the divine wisdom. In the Former Testament there was prescribed that everything what was offering iGod was taking salt, meaning the will of the offerer of which it was agreeable. The light is the God's first work in the creation, and is a symbol of the same Lord, of the Sky and of the Life. The glooms, on the contrary, mean the death, the hell, the disorder and the evil. The disciples of Christ are the salt of the earth: they give a higher sense to all the human values, avoid the corruption, bring with his words the wisdom to the men. They are also a light of the world, which orientates and indicates the way in the middle of the darkness. When they live according to his faith, with his irreproachable and simple behavior, they shine as Venus in the world, in the middle of the work and his housekeeping, in his current life. On the other hand, how it is obvious when the Christian does not act in the family, in the society, in the public life of the peoples! When the Christian does not take Christ's doctrine there where his life develops, the same human values become insipid, without any transcendency, and often corrupe. When we look to ours around it seems to us as if, in many occasions, the men had lost the salt and Christ's light. " The civil life is marked by the consequences of the secularized ideologies, which go, from the God's denial or the limitation of the religious freedom, to the preponderant importance attributed to the economic success with regard to the human values of the work and of the production; from the materialism and the hedonism, which there attack the values of the prolific and united family, those of the life newly concepted and the moral guardianship of the youth, to a "nihilism" that disarms the will to confront crucial problems as those of the new poor, emigrants, ethnic and religious minorities, straight use of the means of information, while it assembles the hands of the terrorism " (JOHN PAUL II). There are many males that stem of " the defection of baptized and believers of the deep reasons of his faith and of the doctrinal and moral vigor of this Christian vision of the life, which guarantees the balance to persons and communities " (Paul to the Corint)).
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X Se ha llegado a esta situación -en la que es preciso evangelizar de nuevo a Europa y al mundo (Concilio Vaticano)- por el cúmulo de omisiones de tantos cristianos que no han sido sal y luz, como el Señor les pedía. Cristo nos dejó su doctrina y su vida para que los hombres encuentren sentido a su existencia y hallen la felicidad y la salvación. “No puede ocultarse una ciudad situada en lo alto de un monte; ni se enciende una luz para ponerla debajo del celemín, sino sobre un candelero a fin de que alumbre a todos los de la casa”, nos sigue diciendo el Señor. “Alumbre así vuestra luz ante los hombres para que vean vuestras buenas obras y glorifiquen a vuestro Padre que está en los cielos”. Y para eso es necesario, en primer lugar, el ejemplo de una vida recta, la limpieza de conducta, el ejercicio de las virtudes humanas y cristianas en la vida sencilla de todos los días. La luz, el buen ejemplo, ha de ir por delante. . Frente a esa marea de materialismo y de sensualidad que ahoga a los hombres, el Señor «quiere que de nuestras almas salga otra oleada -blanca y poderosa, como la diestra del Señor-, que anegue, con su pureza, la podredumbre de todo materialismo y neutralice la corrupción, que ha inundado el Orbe: a eso vienen -y a más- los hijos de Dios» (Forja 23), a llevar a Cristo a tantos que conviven con nosotros, a que Dios no sea un extraño en la sociedad. Transformaremos de verdad el mundo -comenzando por ese mundo quizá pequeño en el que se lleva a cabo nuestra actividad y en el que se despiertan nuestras ilusiones- si la enseñanza comienza con el testimonio de la vida personal: si somos ejemplares, competentes y honrados en el trabajo profesional; en la familia, dedicando a los hijos, a los padres, el tiempo que necesitan; si nos ven alegres, también en medio de la contradicción y del dolor; si somos cordiales..., «creerán a nuestras obras más que a cualquier otro discurso» (S.JUAN CRISOSTOMO) y se sentirán atraídos a la vida que muestran nuestras acciones. El ejemplo prepara la tierra en la que fructificará la palabra. Sin nada que no sea propio de cristianos corrientes, podemos mostrar lo que significa seguir de verdad al Señor en el quehacer cotidiano, como hicieron los primeros cristianos. San Pablo lo urgía así a los fieles “os conjuro a que os portéis de una manera digna de la vocación a la que habéis sido llamados (Pablo a los de Efeso). Nos han de conocer como hombres y mujeres leales, sencillos, veraces, alegres, trabajadores, optimistas; nos hemos de comportar como personas que cumplen con rectitud sus deberes y que saben actuar en todo momento como hijos de Dios, que no se dejan arrastrar por cualquier corriente. La vida del cristiano
constituirá entonces una señal por la que conocerán el espíritu de Cristo. Por eso, debemos preguntarnos con frecuencia en nuestra oración personal si nuestros compañeros de trabajo, nuestros familiares y amigos, al presenciar nuestras acciones, se ven movidos a glorificar a Dios, porque It(He,She) has come near to this situation - in which it is necessary to evangelize again to Europe and to the world (I Reconcile Vatican) - for the heap of omissions of so many Christians who have not been salt and light, as the Gentleman he(she) was asking them. Christ left his(her,your) doctrine and his(her,your) life us in order that the men are felt to his(her,your) existence and find the happiness and the salvation. " One cannot conceal a city placed in the high of a mount; a light is not even ignited to put it under the celemín, but on a candlestick so that it(he,she) lights to all those of the house ", continues saying to us the Gentleman. " Alum like that your light before the men in order that they see your good works and praise your Father who is in the skies ". And for it there is necessary, first, the example of a straight life, the cleanliness of conduct, the exercise(fiscal year) of the human and Christian virtues in the simple life of every day. The light, the good example, has to go ahead.. Opposite to this tide of materialism and of sensuality that drowns(suffocates) the men, the Lord" wants that of our souls another big wave goes out - white and powerful, as the right-hand side of the Gentleman-, that anegue, with his(her,your) purity, the rottenness of any materialism and it(he,she) neutralizes the corruption, which has flooded the Orb: to it they come - and to more - the children of God " (It(He,She) Forges 23), to taking Christ to so many people that coexist with us, to whom God is not a stranger in the company(society). We will transform indeed the world - beginning for this world probably small in that our activity is carried out and in that our illusions wake up - if the education begins with the testimony of the personal life: if we are exemplary, competent and honored in the professional work; in the family, dedicating the children, the parents, the time that they need; if they see us make happy, also in the middle of the contradiction and the pain; if we are cordial ..., " they will believe to our works more that to any other speech " (S.JOHN CRISOSTOM) and they will feel attracted to the life that our actions show. The example prepares the land in which the word will come to fruition. Without anything that is not proper of current Christians, we can show what means to follow(continue) indeed the Lord in the daily occupation, since the first Christians did. San Paul it was urging this way the public inspectors " I conspire you to that you behave yourself in a worthy way of the vocation to which you have been called (Paul to those of Ephesus). They have to know us as men, simple, veracious, happy, hard-working, optimistic and loyal women; we have to behave as persons who fulfill with honor our homework) and who can act at all time as children of God, who are not left to drag for any current. The life of the Christian will constitute then a sign for which they will know Christ's spirit. Because of it, we must ask ourselves often in our personal prayer if our companions of work, our relatives and friends, on having attended our actions, meet moved to praise God, because Of that there is light in us and not darkness, love to God and not lukewarmness. " He(It) needs of you... Somehow you give him(her) your face, your heart, all your person, convinced, dedicated to the good of the others, faithful servants of the Gospel. Then he will be Jesus
himself the one that stays well; but if you were sluggish(weak) and vile, you would get dark his(her,your) authentic identity and would not do honor to him(her) " (S.John Paul II). Let's never lose of sight this reality: the others have to see Christ in our simple and serene daily behavior: in the work, in the rest, on having received good or bad news, when we speak or remain silently... And for this it is necessary to follow very closely the Teacher. The Prophet Isaias enumerates a series of works of mercy, which will give to the Christian the possibility of demonstrating the charity of his heart, and that consist of loving the others as us the Lord loves: to share the bread and the ceiling, to dress to the nude, to exile the menacing gestures and the slanders. Then - he sings the third Psalm – it will break your light as the dawn (...), your light will shine in the glooms, your darkness will become midday. The charity exercised to ours around, in the most different circumstances, will be a testimony that will attract many people to Christ's faith, since He itself said: "In this they will know that you are my disciples". The same current procedure of the conviviality, which for many persons remain in something exterior and only they practise them because they make the social deal easier, for the Christians must be a fruit also of the charity - of thei union with God, who fills with supernatural content these gestures-, external manifestation of appreciation and of interest. " Now I guess that the real charity consists of supporting all the faults of the neighbor, of not surprising his weaknesses, of being built by his minor virtues; but I have learned specially that the charity must not remain enclosed at the back of the heart, since " a light is not ignited to put it under a vase, but on a candlestick so that it lights to all those of the house "). It seems to me that this torch represents the charity that it must illuminate and to make happy not only those that more I want, but all those who are in the house " (S. Teresa de Lisieux), to the whole family, to each of that shares our work... Charity that will demonstrate in many cases across the usual forms of the education and of the comity. Another important aspect, in which the Christians we have to be this salt and light of which the Gentleman speaks to us, is the temperance and the sobriety. Our epoch " is characterized by the search of the material well-being to any cost, and for the corresponding oblivion - better it would be to say fear, authentic fear - of everything what could cause suffering. With this perspective, words as God, sin, cross, mortification, eternal life ..., they turn out to be incomprehensible for persons' great quantity, which his(her,your) meaning and his(her,your) content do not know " (Alvaro del Portillo). For it, it is particularly urgent to give generous testimony of temperance and of sobriety, which they demonstrate the dominion of the children of God, using the goods " according to the needs and duties, with the moderation of the one that uses them. We ask today the Virgin to be able to be a salt, which prevents the corruption of the persons and of the society, and light, which not only it lights but it warms, with the life and with the word; that we are ignited always in the love, not extinguished; that our conduct reflects with clarity the nice face of Jesus Christ. With the confidence that She inspires us, let's ask in the intimacy of our heart: our Lord God, you that you did of so many saints a lamp that simultaneously illuminates and gives heat in the middle of the men, grant us to
walk with this lighthening of spirit, as children of the light (s, Bernardo).