Bishop calls Christians to be 'salt and light' as Segorbe-Castellón opens pastoral year

The Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón, in eastern Spain, begins a new pastoral year on Saturday, September 19, under the motto "United in Christ, present in the world." The diocese is focusing this year on the public presence of Christians in society, continuing a process of pastoral and missionary renewal begun in previous years. Bishop Casimiro López Llorente said the call is a spiritual process that starts with the personal conversion of each baptized person to Christ.

López Llorente said earlier years focused on first proclamation, which fosters "the personal and transforming encounter or re-encounter with the living Christ," along with support and the integral formation of Christians. The diocese is now moving to a stage in which that personal conversion extends to the renewal of parishes and communities so they become "communities of missionary disciples of the Lord." The plan responds to the mission the risen Lord entrusts: to "take the Gospel to all creation" (cf. Mk 16:15).

Two inseparable dimensions of Christian life

The motto expresses two inseparable dimensions of Christian life and mission, the bishop said: interior union with Christ and a transforming presence in the world. "We must live united in Christ in faith, in listening to his Word, in prayer, in the sacraments and in charity, because our mission is born of Christ's sending," López Llorente said. Citing the Gospel of John, he said that without this vital union, "like the branches to the vine," missionary work loses its source, its nourishment and its goal.

The bishop said this union comes before any apostolic or social commitment. "If we are not united to him," he said, "the presence of Christians in the world loses its meaning." Union with Christ is not one aspect of Christian life among others, he said, but the foundation of all missionary action.

Salt and light in a changing world

The Lord asks Christians to be "salt of the world and light of the earth" (Mt 5:13-16), which López Llorente said involves both the explicit proclamation of the living Christ and the Gospel and an active commitment to building up the Kingdom of God. The image of the leaven that ferments the whole batch of dough (Mt 13:33) shows how Christians should be present in different areas, he said: the family, education, the economy, work, politics, culture and other settings.

"As leaven makes the whole batch of dough rise, so Christians must be present in the world, bringing the transforming power of the Gospel to every setting," the bishop said. He said this presence is not optional but an urgent need and an unavoidable challenge for society.

A challenge posed by society's spiritual deprivation

López Llorente said that where there is no Christian presence, society is left without "the salt and light of the Gospel" and without the salvation offered in Christ. That conviction drives the new pastoral year, he said. It aims to respond to the urgent need for Christians to take their place in the fabric of society, not as a temporal power but as leaven that transforms cultures, structures and institutions on the basis of Gospel values.

The year begins with an opening event that brings the diocesan community together around the shared plan of missionary renewal, which joins prayer, formation and social commitment as inseparable parts of the life of faith.