Tuesday May 16
The figure of St. Isidore of Seville is best understood from today's text taken from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus uses three eloquent symbols to define the true disciple. He is like salt that gives flavor to every event. The word wisdom is from the verb to know which means to have a taste, flavor, depth ... thus a mere theoretical knowledge is not enough. The Christian must be also be a point of reference for anyone looking for the goal, like the city on top of the hill. Finally, he is called to be the light breaking the darkness and indicating the right path.
Alternative
An elderly German once asked me how we say “Grüss Gott!” (God’s greetings) in English. “We say, ‘Hello!’” I said. She looked at me in disbelief. “That is not a greeting!” she said. “That is something one says into a microphone to see if it is working!” God has to be in our greetings, she said; otherwise they are nothing but empty words.
The Jews of old (and still today) say, “Shalom!”, which means, “Peace!” This fine greeting too can become rather superficial unless we see some depth of God in it. It was not just a vague wish for the other person, “Don’t worry, be happy!” It was a prayer for full harmony with God—for salvation. Here is the original text in which Jews were told to greet and bless one another with “Peace”: “Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Num 6:22-26). This is a wonderful blessing, worth learning by heart, and using bravely on special occasions (instead of “Good luck!”). It is a prayer for “the peace that the world cannot give.”
Alternative
It takes two to make peace,” said J. F. Kennedy. No, it takes two to make war. It takes one to make peace. Two will be watching each other, seeing who will make peace first, and under what conditions: and that is still war. The river has to rise somewhere, peace has to originate somewhere; and where if not inside a human being? It arises in the unconditional will for peace. This peace, according to the Scriptures, is a gift, not a mere external arrangement. It will be given, it will come of itself, if we attend to justice (or what the Scriptures call ‘righteousness’: a right relationship with God); it is a by-product of justice in that broad sense. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33).