At some point around middle adulthood, many people begin to feel the itch of new/old questions about life. A man may realize that having been a star at football or chemistry has lost its luster. A middle-aged woman figures out that looks don't count for much at all.

As achievements are losing their luster, niggling questions arise: What are we doing here? What's the difference between satisfaction and joy? Between achievement and meaning? Between career and vocation?

Those questions, all the same in the long run, are the thread that weaves through today's readings.

Isaiah, or whoever wrote chapters 40-66 of the Book of Isaiah, wanted his readers to think critically about what they considered a good, meaningful life. He used practical examples to describe the path to personal fulfillment and the way to offer genuine light to the world. For Isaiah, as for the author of Psalm 112, the just person possesses a light that leads them through dark periods even as it shines for others to see.

Paul will tell the Corinthians that being light has nothing to do with fancy words or intellectual showmanship. It's as simple and as countercultural as Christ crucified, as unpretentious and as challenging as was Jesus' life for others.

Paul's reflection leads into Jesus' description of disciples as light and salt for the world.

This week, our readings from the Hebrew Scriptures give the most detailed description of what is entailed in being living lights.

Isaiah's instructions are quite striking when we ponder them. He tells us to share our bread with the hungry, to shelter and clothe those who are vulnerable in any way and to never turn our backs on our own. Isaiah's subtext comes down to saying that we need to treat everyone in need as one of our own, as our clan, as the people to whom we owe first allegiance.

Psalm 112 continues that theme, emphasizing that the just person is a light in the darkness of an unjust and cruel world. Those who treat needy others as members of their family are people whose experience of goodness and trust in God has freed them from fear of want, from the need to accumulate what others need for survival.

These people can lend in such a way that they create an honest and trusting society. They shall not be moved from their unshakeable trust in God. Their heart is firm in the conviction that all are one. Because they know that what happens to one happens to all, they can share and trust that they will never go hungry if another has something to share.

It takes little to realize that these messages apply to communities, not just to individuals. The community Isaiah wants to build, the community that we, too, are called to build, will bring a new dawn to the world.

Isaiah tells us that when we treat another's need as our own, we create the kind of society that reflects the very glory of God. In such a society, no cry for help goes unanswered — not because God swoops in, but because the people of God live their vocation to reflect and effect God's love.

This is exactly what Jesus, the Jewish preacher, was talking about when he called his listeners to be salt of the earth and light for the world. Jesus knew Isaiah's teaching and he prayed the psalms. He realized that neither salt nor light exist for themselves, but to call attention to something else.

As salt and light, the people of God do not simply note the needs of others; they prove by their activities that such needs can be addressed and alleviated. Their light demonstrates that the reign of God is a real and growing phenomenon in our world.

This brings us back to our questions about our own lives. Isaiah, Paul and Jesus want their people to live in joy and to know meaning. In short, they want people to understand and find the fulfillment of living their vocation — of discovering what they were made for and how they can best use the gifts they have been given for the good of the world.

That is the simple and countercultural truth about why we were created.

The Sunday readings we will hear from now until Lent invite us to keep asking about the good life — about the reign of God in our midst.

We can begin today by asking ourselves when we have experienced real joy and depth. When we look at those moments, it may surprise us to see how closely they align with the type of activities Isaiah suggested, how much they are actually experiences of the reign of God in our midst. Remembering and contemplating that will be enough for this week.

This fifth Sunday in January marks the last days of the first month of the new year. With every new year comes new possibilities, new opportunities, new dreams and new hopes and desires for a more equitable and just world for all creation.

Despite the dawn of a new year, competition and conflict continue to weaken, and sometimes even destroy, the bonds of human relationships. Technofeudal lords jockey for position in the global market as oligarchs bankroll private interests, all for the sake of creating economic empires of power, prestige and control that leave many people disenfranchised and distanced from what is really going on behind the scenes.

This Sunday's readings offer encouragement to the disenfranchised, define the interests of the divine one, and present a way forward for those seeking to live alternatively to the dominant social model of power, prestige, status, control and the colonization of others.

The reading from the book of Zephaniah is a clarion call to the humble of the earth, to those among us who are disenfranchised. They are not to embrace humiliation and the feeling of powerlessness. Rather they need to seek justice and truth while remaining rooted in the divine presence who is the source of virtue and peace.

The reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians reinforces this message. Divine favor rests with and empowers those having no status and prestige, who live a life of humility, acknowledging that all is a divine gift.

The responsorial psalm presents a portrait of the divine and an implied description of holiness and godliness. The divine one favors the oppressed, those in need and those who suffer. This one actively acts on their behalf to break the bonds of captivity while "waking" others to an understanding of the root causes of their disenfranchisement and suffering. This one safeguards the "other" and sustains unprotected classes.

Holiness and godliness, then, entails standing with the margins while working toward their justice. Holiness can never be separated from mission.

Finally, as part of the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospel reading from the book of Matthew showcases a narrative that presents a way to live alternatively.

This reading, also known as the Beatitudes, features Jesus as having an agenda he wants to put forward during a time of great ideological variety, when Jews, Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes competed for followers. Each sect had its own approach to Judaism and vied for allegiance. While they all believed in the Torah, they disagreed about details of observance.

Aside from the Jewish population, various representatives of the Roman government strived for power. Priests collected tithes and, as representatives of the Roman government, collected taxes. Zealots wanted to throw off the yoke of Rome.

Clearly, Jesus was not the only voice speaking against the status quo. The Sermon on the Mount, however, was tantamount to a mission statement for the religious organization Jesus inspired.

At one level, the Sermon on the Mount appears to be a talk in which Jesus inspires his listeners to do good deeds, to live simply, and to behave honorably. When we view the oration in the context of its first-century times, however, we can understand how it also is part of social conflict.

Political and economic conditions were oppressive; resources were scarce; power imbalances existed; values were challenged; several sects tried to win the hearts, minds and loyalties of the people as many Jewish leaders cooperated with Roman rulers; and a variety of Jewish sects rivaled others for power and influence. These conditions are all situations that contributed to social conflict.

Many of these conditions and similar ones exist today. The Beatitudes provide a vision for life lived alternatively to power, prestige, status and the resultant competition and conflict. They showcase a way to handle social conflict that preserves the dignity and well-being of all while establishing and sustaining peace.

The entire Sermon on the Mount, and especially the Beatitudes, functions as a polemic against the ways and attitudes of the Roman Empire. As such, the Gospel is also, however, an invitation to personal and communal transformation for all, where differences are honored and the true exercise of power leads not to conflict and division but to unity and peace.

In sum, will we who struggle, like the rest of humanity, with the crisis of identities, choose self-serving power, prestige and status, or will we set foot on a different, alternative path characterized by humility and blueprinted by the Beatitudes?

This alternative path and the divine one's choice for those on the margins offer us much needed hope.