Salt & Light, Homily for Ordinary Time V, 2011

Definitely one of the most misunderstood components of the human condition is the EGO.  Today I want to talk about my EGO and your EGO.  The Dictionary defines it this way…Ego:  the “I” or the “self” of any person; the part of that person that thinks and feels and wills itself upon its environment, distinguishing that person from other persons and other things around it. For most of us the EGO almost always has a negative connotation.  If someone has a big EGO we accuse them of being full of him or herself, arrogant, pushy, over-inflated, self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, conceited, pompous.  And we almost always come to the conclusion that people with big EGOS are really never good and certainly never humble.  

You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.  Let your light shine so that it gives light to the whole house. 

I was reading an article this week from one of my Spiritual Friends, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser,  about the EGO and how it affects Christian spiritualty and the writer of this article suggested that some of the greatest saints of our Church probably had big EGOS.  Mother Theresa was one of the people he suggested need a big EGO.  She was arguably one of the humble people of the last century…the modern model for humility…and she probably had a big EGO…in a good and holy way.  Here’s why…To accomplish what she did with as many people as she did in as overwhelming odds as they were…Mother Theresa had to have a well-developed EGO…a powerful self-image and self-confidence that allowed her to stand before God and the whole world convinced of truth…convinced of her worth…convinced that she had something really important to do for the world.  It takes a powerful EGO to do what Mother Theresa did not a self deprecating person. 
John Paul II…he had to have big EGO.  One of the most saintly…prayerful (it’s said that he prayed 5 hours a day…and hour in the middle of the night…and hour first thing in the morning…an hour in the afternoon…and hour in the evening…and an hour when he went to bed)…definitely one of the most humble popes of all time…had a big EGO.  He needed it…How else could he have possibly stood up in front of a million people in St. Peter’s square that day of his election as Pope and with confidence and holy conviction and say with no apology, “Do not be Afraid!  I Love you!”.  Can you imagine…he told them I Love you.  For a Pope to say that in such a down to earth way was totally fresh and unexpected.  His EGO gave him the ability him to be spiritually intimate with 1 million people.  Mother Theresa and JPII…they were self possessed.  This is an important part of the EGO because you cannot give what you do not have.  The possess yourself is to be able to fully give of yourself.  No Self Possession…no Sainthood!  And no confidence to say and mean I Love you.  ______________ I Love you…______________I Love you ________________ I Love you. 

You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.  Let your light shine so that it gives light to the whole house. 

The Church has been slow to understand the importance of the EGO and the role it plays in greatness, especially spiritual greatness.  A strong EGO is contrary to what often times pervades in Church’s spiritualty.  Sometimes Spirituality is melted down into weak…syrupy sweet…preciously pious platitudes that some people think is humility.  This is the false…self deprecating…humility of…I’m not good enough…I don’t deserve to be happy…and it’s somehow bad or that to enjoy life and to enjoy great food or great music or amazing travel is somehow ungodly. 
When we think of the great “Holy” saints it’s hard to believe that they had Strong EGOS…Francis of Assisi…Theresa of Avila…Thomas Aquinas…Augustine…little Therese of Lisieux.  And with some saints it’s not difficult to imagine big EGOS…St. Paul.  Their Saintliness was bolstered by a powerful self-possession that was able…cooperating with God’s grace of course…to change the world around them.  They were Humble… they were humbly driven…humbly obedient to their most authentic selves…driven…convicted…confident…self-assured…and best of all believable people.  False humility is always un-believable. 

You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.  Let your light shine so that it gives light to the whole house. 

For you and me…we run into problems when our EGOS are too weak.  Our self-image becomes too weak to allow us to do anything really great with God and with other people…when our EGOS aren’t infused with the undeniable truth that we are in fact great and talented and important to God and to His mission then our message falls flat and tasteless.  When our EGOS aren’t strong we become defensive rather than defenseless…we turn inward rather than turning outward to each other…we easily become paranoid and unhealthily vulnerable.  Precisely because we aren’t secure inside our self-worth becomes shaky.  The Great Saints never had to protect themselves.  They were secure enough to be vulnerable.  How else could someone actually accept martyrdom?  St. Thomas More is a great example.  He bravely and without fear walked himself right up to his beheading because His EGO was big enough to do something that at first glance seemed so frightening.  One of my favorite quotes from the great South African Nelson Mandela goes this way…When God gives us a gift…God expects us to use it.  A problem arises though…our deepest fear is actually not that we are inadequate to the gift…our deepest fear is that we are powerful with the gift.  It is our light…not our darkness…that actually frightens us.

Our gospel today is the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount from last week.  Unfortunately we break the scene up between different Sundays.  Really the Sermon on the Mount should be read as one story.  If we did this last week’s Beatitudes would intertwine with this week’s Salt & Light.   Think back on what I said about the Beatitudes last week.  Look at how they are written.  They don’t say “I hope you will be blessed when your are meek.”  They don’t say “You might be blessed when you mourn.”  They say “You ARE blessed when you make peace…you ARE blessed when you thirst for holiness…you ARE blessed right now when you are poor in spirit.”  Now think about Salt and Light.  The one thing they always accomplish when they are brought into the mix…is that they Change whatever it is that they touch.  Salt effects change on what it comes into contact with.  Light changes the hues of color and our vision of everything we see.  The passage doesn’t say “I hope you are Salt of the Earth.”  It says, “You ARE the Salt of the Earth.”  It doesn’t say, “I wish you would be the Light of the world…You ARE the Light of the world.”  Our EGOS aren’t supposed to be arrogant or pompous…that’s a False Ego and just as dangerous as False Humility.  Our EGOS are to be confident…assured…brave…true…eager…generous.  And when we embrace our strongest EGO we will effect God’s change onto everything that we touch.