Sometimes we hear people make comments about others, like,’ she’s so pleasant, she can light up a room full of people just by walking in,’ or ‘he’s so honest and hardworking, he’s just the salt of the earth.’
Because these are used in our day as compliments, sometimes it’s difficult for us to see past the surface of these analogies, ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world’ when we read the particular passage from St. Matthew that is our Gospel reading today. We have to understand that in this context, Jesus, speaking directly to his disciples – anyone who is his follower – is not simply paying a compliment or patting them on the back. He’s giving a command – giving direction; he’s calling on them – and us – to live out fully the potential his followers have; to be a force for good in the world and to continually draw closer to God, and bring others closer to God by a lived example.
In other words, Jesus is saying to anyone who claims to be his follower – be authentic – don’t just say you are my follower; live as one of my followers.
Live an authentic life in witnessing to the Gospel. To be authentic means not to say one thing and do another, but to live out the two greatest commandments; to love God above all else, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
To fulfill the potential we have as sons and daughters of God.
In Palestine, at the time of Jesus, the salt used was a course, large crystalline substance, something like the salt we use to melt ice…and it wasn’t used to season food to taste – it was used to preserve foods like fish and meat – this was long before refrigerators and vacuum sealed plastic packaging.
The trouble with this type of salt, was that if it was left in the open, or exposed to the elements, it could lose its ‘saltiness’ – its ability to preserve fish and meats from spoiling, from becoming corrupted. And once this salt lost its effectiveness, it was tossed outside on the ground; somewhat like crushed gravel that we have in some driveways and walkways. The only thing this salt was good for at this point, was for walking on –‘trampling underfoot’.
While the use of the salt metaphor in this parable may not be quite clear to us today in its context, the meaning was very clear to the disciples of Jesus in first century Palestine. The world is in need of ‘preservation’ – is in need of something to protect it from ‘spoiling’ – from ‘decay’, from ‘corruption’. The absorption with worldly possessions and power, displacing love of God and neighbour, this is the true corruption or spoilage of humanity in the world. Jesus tells his disciples – all of his disciples; from St. Matthew’s audience to us today – that we are to be that ‘salt’ – that ‘preservative’; influencing all people for good, by our lived example in coming to know and love the One True God.
But there’s a caution here in being called ‘salt’; in essence, Jesus is saying, “you are my disciples – go be a sign of my love to others, and don’t give up; persist and persevere. “
Because like salt, if we lose our ‘flavour’, the interior zeal for God that gives us purpose, then we lose our effectiveness. And if we have lost our effectiveness, then, Jesus asks, how can we authentically spread the Gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God?
That can sound rather daunting – but that is why we need to keep these two metaphors of salt and light together in this particular passage.
We may feel at times that it’s almost a lost cause to keep struggling with living the Gospel in our world – in a world that is increasingly hostile to the Church, to Christ, to God Himself. How can we each persevere and persist in trying to participate in Jesus’ mission of salvation for all people, when the world doesn’t seem to want or care about God? How can we be authentic disciples in the midst of this?
Because Jesus tells us that not only are we the salt of the earth…He calls His followers the light of the world; he paints a picture with words of a city on a hill that cannot be hidden; of a lamp lit on a stand giving light to a whole room – those things which give light in the midst of the darkness cannot be contained; their light always shines forth.
The love of God cannot be contained…it will shine forth, whether we want it to or not….it can’t be concealed, but will show itself in all sorts of wondrous ways in our own lives and encounters with others.
All we have to do is think of a time we have been in love. We might deny that there is anything different about us, but those around us, particularly those who know us well, will say there is something different about us; how we react when a ‘certain someone’ comes up in conversation; when we are in the company of that ‘special person’; love always reaches out beyond the one in love.
It is the same when we open ourselves to the love of God; the love we have for God will transform our interior life, which in turn will transform our exterior actions; This transformation will become self-evident in the love we have for those around us: it will increasingly show in our words and actions.
Then we will bring light to the world; we will be the salt of the earth – maybe not in grand, dramatic gestures; but at the very least to those immediately around us in our own small circle – and living as authentic sons and daughters of God, all we have to do is bring that light to just one other person; because that light will spread – it’s the nature of light against the darkness.
One of my favourite saints, St. Catherine of Siena, summed it up quite nicely this way,
“If you are what God intends you to be, you will set the whole world on fire…”
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
Thoughts from Theophilus 