Light of the world.

Further on, the Lord states that all His followers who fulfil His directives will be called “salt of the earth” (Mat. 5:13). Salt preserves food from spoilage, makes it sound and pleasant to the taste: similarly, Christians should preserve the world from spiritual spoilage and assist in making it well. Salt communicates its properties to any matter it comes into contact with; similarly, Christians should communicate Christ’s Spirit to all that are not yet Christian. Salt does not change the essence or outward appearance of the substance in which it dissolves, but only adds its taste; similarly, Christianity does not bring about some type of outward fracture in a person or human society, but ennobles the human soul and through it transforms his whole life, giving it a unique, Christian character. “If the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?” (Mat. 5:13). Indeed, in the east, there is a type of salt that loses its taste through the effects of humidity, wind and sun. It is impossible to restore taste to such a salt: similarly, those who once tasted the elevated communion with the Holy Spirit and subsequently fell into unforgivable sin, they are incapable of transforming spiritually without God’s special help.

The Light of the world is essentially our Lord Jesus Christ, and inasmuch as the believers in Him absorb this light and reflect it to the world, they too appear as “light of the world.” Such are the Apostles and their successors — whose appointments were made so as to shine with Christ’s light: pastors of the holy Church. They have to live in such a way, so that in seeing them, people would praise God. Wanting to show His attitude toward the Old Testament, the Lord at the outset calms the Jews’ ardency for the Law, emphasising that He came not to violate but to fulfil it. Indeed, Christ came to earth so that all the Old Testament Word of God would be fulfilled in Him, so as to reveal, actualise and confirm the whole power of the Law and the Prophets, to show the true spirit and meaning of the Old Testament. “How did He fulfil the Law?” — asks the Blessed Theophilactus. “Firstly, that He fulfilled all that was foretold of Him by the Prophets. He fulfilled all the commandments of the Law, inasmuch as He committed no iniquities and there was no flattery in His words. He fulfilled the Law in that He completed it, having fully written that which was only a shadow in the Law.” He gave a full and deep understanding of all OT commandments, preaching on the insufficiency of the outward and formal submissiveness to the Law. “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot (the smallest letter in the Jewish alphabet) or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Mat 5:18) — says the Lord, emphasising that even the smallest in God’s law shall not remain unfulfilled. The Pharisees used to group the commandments into major and “minor” categories — and did not regard the violation of the latter (which included commandments regarding love, charity and fairness) as a sin. “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.” By the nature of the Greek terminology, shall be called the least , means — will be rejected and will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees is characterised by their outward fulfilment of the demands and instructions of the Law, and with that, mainly the trivial ones: consequently, this righteousness co-existed in their hearts with their conceit, arrogance, without the spirit of humility and meek love, and was outward and hypocritical; behind this mask, there could have been various vices and passions nesting in their hearts, for which Christ accused them of repeatedly and vigorously. It is against this righteous exhibitionism that the Lord warned His successors about.