(Mt 5:13-16)
«Beautiful Works» [which express fullness] are good works, enriched by the splendour of disinterest, listening, hospitality, prayer and humble dialogue, cordial fraternity.
The plural term (v.16) indicates our vocation to reinterpret in a personal way the Self-Portrait of Christ imprinted in the Beatitudes just proclaimed (vv.1-12).
We each have an irreplaceable role in the moments of equilibrium break and Exodus.
We are legitimized unconditionally.
God has respect for the shortcomings and the functions that are lacking: who knows what blissful novelties they hide and are preparing.
The Beatitudes have their own fragrance, but all personal. Their «salt» fights the insignificant of fatuous hopes.
And sons look far away, but they are with the "pasta"... remaining a living call: between God and man [who is himself even in fraternity] there is an inviolable bond.
In fact, «Light» is what doesn’t mix with things, but distinguishes them.
The Israelites considered themselves «Light of the world» for their devotion and impeccable religious practice.
For Jesus, the faithful and the Community are «Light» because they walk in the friendly glory of the Master.
The disciple and the Assembly are «Salt» because they appear in the world under any circumstance as those who give it meaning, Wisdom [from the Latin «sapĕre», to have flavour].
We are called to be a sign of a new Pact, because the unexpected Relation of the Mount that the Son proposes could no longer be contained in the First Covenant.
To the ancient needs of purification Christ replaces those of full fraternity, which in the enhancement of each person gives taste and (precisely) flavor, and becomes a lamp to our steps.
This "second Pact" doesn’t crush the believing people. Sign of a Father who recovers and infuses orientations to the individual path and to the Churches - not from the outside, but from our roots and as a leaven.
We become a living Beauty thanks to an activity that is imperfect but that has its influence on flowering, from within.
Thus preserving people from the unraveling of dehumanization and corruption - like «salt» with food.
«Salt and Light» are every little divine element that has its own Mystery and Appeal.
Our little candles can continue to thin out the darkness, but only until we put them under a «bushel» (v.15), that is, under a pedissee «measure» - wich is not the different, propulsive and always unprecedent one of the Beatitudes.
In Christ we are led to an evolutionary leap: we are Sapidity though minute of things, and limited Lights, yes - but not inhibited.
The life of Faith guides and stimulates the building of a realm of personal Taste and Love, without hysteria or intimate dissociations.
This adventure is configured as a New Alliance between soul, reality, global and local world, signs of time and Mystery.
Light of Freedom that coincides with our Vocation by Name. Intelligent energy that knows how to draw alternative life even from the wounds inflicted.
[5th Sunday in O.T. (year A) February 8, 2026]
