People talk a lot these days about “making a difference.” I sometimes think about what Catholics ought to mean when we say this. I hope we all agree that we don’t want to make just any kind of difference.

Let's take a silly, everyday example. If you were in the middle of preparing a certain food in the kitchen and had within arm’s reach a jar of hot fudge, a bottle of hot sauce, and a clove of garlic, each of those ingredients is definitely going to make a difference in whatever you’re preparing. But it’s doubtful all three of them are going to make a difference for the good in the same dish, no matter what that dish is!

On the other hand, maybe this isn't such a silly example, since Jesus in this weekend's Gospel uses a very similar one: We are to be the “salt” of the earth. As we know, salt enlivens food by giving it flavor, and was also an important preservative in the days before refrigeration. So, we are supposed to “enliven” the world and preserve what is good, protecting it against corruption.

At the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto, I heard a bishop from the Caribbean say we are supposed to be “salty” Christians. That gives us a good image as we consider the difference we need to make in the world.

At the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto, I heard a bishop from the Caribbean say we are supposed to be “salty” Christians. That gives us a good image as we consider the difference we need to make in the world.

So, how do we “enliven” the world and give it flavor? To get right to the point, we can only do this if we bring Jesus to people and to our culture. Jesus told His disciples at the Last Supper, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6; emphasis added). He is the life. And Jesus is the only one who gives true joy and peace and meaning — what we might call “flavor” — to life.

Jesus is the only One Who delivers us from death and gives us life. Or, as St. Peter puts it in the Acts of the Apostles, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” Or, as St. Paul says in this Sunday’s second reading, there is nothing that is important to him except Jesus, and no power he has to help anyone except the power of God working through him. 

If we bring only ourselves when we go out and try to “make a difference” in the world, we can cause at least two problems:

• First, the difference we make is always doomed to be incomplete. Even if we do good things for people, those good things will eventually die, fade away, or run out. Money given to the poor, helping a friend advance in his or her career, or even raising your children all are good things but are temporary and perishable if they have nothing to do with Jesus.

• Second, we run the risk of doing damage when we offer only ourselves, our own resources, our own ideas. I think, for example, of the many charitable organizations that, while they surely do many good things, “poison the water” of their activities by promoting evils such as abortion.

Having said all of this, what are we to make of this Sunday’s first reading, which tells us clearly that we are to “share (our) bread with the hungry,” to “shelter the homeless,” and to “clothe the naked?” Aren’t bread and shelter and clothing all temporary?

Here we need to remember two things:

• Everything we do, without exception, is about Jesus. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a great example of this. The society’s mission is first to give spiritual aid to those it serves, and then financial aid where it is needed and the resources are available.

• Second, in the Catholic approach to life, there is always a balance, or what you might call a “both/and” between the spiritual and the physical, the heavenly and the earthly, the supernatural and the natural. Jesus is God, yet He took human flesh to save us. God created us as humans, not angels. Even our sacraments remind us that the spiritual is given to us in and through the physical. So for Catholics, these kinds of outreach are not less important, but rather more important, precisely because the stakes are much higher for us.

It is a tremendous thing that we help the poor. I don’t know why we even need to work hard to recruit people to help with ministries to the poor, the sick, and the needy of all kinds, when they should be flooded with volunteers! It is tremendous that Catholics work hard to be good parents, good neighbors, good citizens, good professionals, and to help people in all kinds of ways. But we must never forget the reason we do these things, the reason we do everything.

It is tremendous that Catholics work hard to be good parents, good neighbors, good citizens, good professionals, and to help people in all kinds of ways. But we must never forget the reason we do these things, the reason we do everything.

In a 2012 address to a synod of bishops in Rome, the superior general of the Missionaries of Charity (St. Teresa of Calcutta's order) told the bishops the purpose of their order is “to bring souls to God and God to souls.” Of course, no one works harder to give the poor the material things they need than the Missionaries of Charity. But they see with absolute clarity that nothing we can do for the poor is as crucial as bringing God closer to them and them closer to God.

I know a priest who worked for a few years in downtown Detroit, where he saw lots of poor and homeless people as he walked from his car to the office every day. This priest was in the habit of calling each man “sir” and each woman “ma’am.” He didn’t think much of it until one day he walked by a man, who appeared to be homeless, and said, “Hello, sir, how are you today?” The priest usually just said this as he walked by, but this time he stopped and turned around as he heard the man say behind him, “I’m doing great. You called me sir!” His words and the smile on his face told the priest that this was a big deal to him. And the priest was really moved, and felt a little sad at seeing that such a simple courtesy would be for this man a badge of honor.

How much more difference we can make in the world when we help people understand their dignity as men and women and children who have been created by God and are loved by Him more than they can possibly imagine! How much of a difference we could make if we let them know God has died for them, and wants them to live with Him forever! 

The biggest difference we can make is not by doing what will cause people to thank us, but when, instead, as Jesus says, “they…see (our) good deeds, and glorify (our) heavenly Father.”