27 February 1992
Léon, Nicaragua

My dear Sisters,

The presence of Mary, the Mother of God, in the pages of the Gospels can sometimes be evoked and felt in a way that is not immediately apparent. The passage of the Gospel to which we have just listened is one such. Our Lord speaks about salt. In the home of Nazareth as a young boy, He would have watched His mother using salt as a preservative of food. Now, in His adult years, Jesus finds a new and metaphorical use for salt. His followers are to be the salt of the earth. His disciples are to act as preservatives of the values that Jesus proposes.

Today we do not need salt to preserve food. We have frigidaires and deep freezes, common at least in first world countries. In a spiritual sense, however, we have to give much importance today to the idea of preservation. How often do we not say that we are living in an age of change? In an age of change, therefore, preservation assumes a new importance, for although change is often a sign of the movement of the Spirit of God, we must not forget that there are values which do not change and which we must strive to preserve. Change is like a river. In its movement a river can irrigate and make fertile the country through which it passes. A river at once renews and conserves. A river, however, can become swollen and become a flood. It is then a destructive force as it carries away with it trees and houses and people.

Every Christian in the world is, or should be, a preservative. A Christian is called to preserve the truths revealed by God and Jesus Christ and proposed to us by His Church. A Christian is called to be a preservative of the joy that comes with the conviction that we are called to happiness in and through Jesus Christ. A Christian is called to be a preservative of that love which is unselfish, is patient, is kind, but is not envious. A Daughter of Charity for her part is called to be a preservative of those values which shone clearly in the person and in the life of Jesus Christ, namely, His poverty, His chastity, His virginity, His obedience and His service and love of the poor.

So much for the closing sentence of today's Gospel. Let us reflect for a moment now on the opening sentence. "Jesus said to His disciples, `Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose the reward.'" (Mk 9:41). Last December I was in Madagascar, where the poverty of the people is great. During my visit I heard of a Daughter of Charity who was working in a hospital where a very poor boy of eight years was brought in as a dying patient. The little boy had remarkable faith. He received Holy Communion and spoke to the Sister about going to heaven. After a little pause he said to the Sister: "And, Sister, in heaven there will be clear water to drink." It would seem that the child's idea of heaven was a place where there would be limitless quantities of clear water to drink. For that child a cup of clear water was heaven itself.

In a certain sense it can be said that to give a cup of water to a person who is really thirsty is to give that person heaven. In doing such a small act of kindness to a person in need, we are bringing heaven down to earth. More important still, as all are reminded in today's Gospel, Christ becomes more present in our lives and in the world by the smallest act of kindness we do to anyone inside or outside the Community. I say inside the Community, because we can at times be so intent on serving the needy outside the Community that we can overlook offering to the members of our own Community those little services which can do so much to make life easier, and can do so much to make Christ more present in our Community.