Gospel reflection for Feb. 8, 2026, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Although Constantine allowed the Christian religion to be openly practiced in the Roman Empire, there was one later Emperor, Julian (the Apostate) who desired to see the old cults return and flourish. Yet, he was frustrated as he wrote to Priscus: “Why do we [pagan] leaders not observe that it is [the Christians’] benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead, and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase [their religion]?” The Church flourishes when in the face of opposition, she works to bring light to the darkness of the world.
There is no doubt that the world, certainly as we draw it from the focus of our own national struggles, is experiencing (again) a period of darkness. War, terrorism, violence, rioting and the vitriol of speech leading to disrespect and the condemnation of others, rages through every aspect of our lives. Families are being torn apart, friends no longer speak to each other, the workplace carries an underlying tension, even rectories and houses of professed religious are being dragged into this mire of darkness.
What to the world is a challenge should be for the Christian an opportunity. While there are those whose proper place is in the courts arguing for justice, or on the streets calling attention to the need for justice or taking to various media platforms to appeal to the masses, the more proper place for the Christian is in the trenches.
Jesus calls us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. What we heard in the protestations of the Emperor Julian has been often repeated by others who could not understand the Christian in the world. It is foundational to our lives to love one another and to work for the welfare of others – friend and foe alike – providing them with dignity and confounding them with mercy.
This is not easy.
We all have opinions and we like to share them. Some of those opinions are well-informed and we are passionate about them, sometimes we are just passionate, and sometimes we are neither. Yet, we can easily get caught up in the moment, react to a situation of which we only know the headlines, and brush broadly where a narrow reality looms.
To be the salt of the earth and the light of the world requires and demands that we change hearts and minds, call others to conversion, and work for justice through the acts of mercy. The Christians, persecuted and under the threat of martyrdom in the Roman world, not only fed and cared for other Christians but remarkably did the same for those who were persecuting them and sending them to the executioner. This rattled the Romans and caused them to reflect deeply on who these Christians were.
If the question is what can I do now, then of course the first answer is always prayer. We pray, though, not just for the oppressed but for the oppressor, not for one side of a war and not for the other; not just for my friend, but for my enemy.
This is true first, always on the personal level. One of the most difficult things to reconcile in our Christian life is the carrying of a grudge, the inability to forgive, and the tendency towards vengeance. Such is always contrary to the Gospel and inconsistent with our Catholic faith.
We who are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world work not only to lift up the lowly and the downtrodden, but to challenge those who trample down their neighbors with the call to conversion and to see in one another the presence of Jesus Christ.
It calls us to listen without arguing and loving and accepting one another where they are. Our societal values have run amok and we walk on eggshells in certain situations.
In his fourth inaugural address, President Franklin Roosevelt stated: “We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear.”
As the Bishops have called us to pray for peace, let us become, in the words of the great Franciscan prayer: “instruments of [God’s] peace.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.