Shortly before Jesus’ ascending to God in the presence of his disciples, St. Luke at the end of Chapter 24 records him as still struggling to open up their minds and hearts to grasp more fully the meaning of his life, death and resurrection. “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). In reminding them of what they have seen and heard as his companions, Jesus stresses that his message must be announced to all people everywhere. Imbedded in Jesus’ own life and teachings is the intimate relationship between literally risking all that one is and has in publicly proclaiming what one has personally experienced. St. Matthew’s recollection of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount further elaborates upon this command through Jesus’ defining clearly the witness to which he calls his followers: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world!”

This month’s Maryknoll magazine invites us to reflect upon Christian witness and to feel the urgency that Jesus so deeply desired in his followers for proclaiming the Good News. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, after having experienced his own personal “conversion,” openly proclaimed in word and deed Jesus’ message of liberation for all. As a result, he publicly paid the price of that witness through his murder. Maryknoll Father Doug Venne has for many years also been “salt” and “light” in his “dialogue of life” ministry amid the Muslim community in Bangladesh. Not permitted to publicly proclaim in word Jesus’ Good News, Father Venne literally lives out daily Jesus’ care and compassion for the poor and marginalized.

Many of us can perhaps name Christian witnesses whom we know personally and who remind us that we too are called by God to a “dialogue with life” by proclaiming in our own unique way what we believe and what we have seen and heard. May Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount message touch our hearts and compel us to live out daily what it means to be created in God’s image: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world!”

Robert Jalbert, M.M.