Salt of the Earth

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?”

Salt is one of the most valuable minerals in all of human history. It has been used from everything from seasoning and preserving food, to trade, and even used as currency. Slaves in the ancient world could be bought with salt and it is from this practice we get the phrase “worth one’s salt”. Roman soldiers were often paid with salt money and this is where we get the word “salary”. Salt also has deep cultural and religious significance. In Jewish tradition it represented a covenant with God. Catholics use blessed salt as a sacramental for protection and purification. It is used in the blessing of holy water.

Salt had yet another use in the ancient world. It was used as an ingredient in antidotes for poison. It is from this use that we get the phrase “take it with a grain of salt”. It is thought that salt could help negate the effects of poison. Few things on this planet are more ordinary than salt. Salt is everywhere and is used in so many everyday things. Salt is essential for life.

Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth. We are ordinary and everywhere. We are not to lose the flavor of our creator, which is sacrificial love. We are to enhance and improve life everywhere we go and we are to be the antidote to the poison in the world. The phrase “salt of the earth” has come to refer to someone who is good and honest, humble and reliable. It signifies the importance of being genuine, and preserving goodness in the world.

We preserve and promote goodness in the world when we follow Jesus’s second commandment to love our neighbors as God has loved us. As we read in Isaiah, we love our neighbors when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the oppressed and the homeless. If those things sound familiar it is because they make up the corporal works of mercy Jesus spells out in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31. Jesus affirms what is said in Isaiah; those who care for others will be rewarded in heaven and those who love themselves over others will find themselves in the place created for the devil and his demons. The choice on where we will spend eternity has been given to us.

Our world is deeply poisoned by hate, injustice, violence, and evil of every kind. We are called to be the antidote to this poison. We are not called to do this in a grandiose fashion, matching hate for hate, violence for violence. We are called to love in the ordinary moments of life. We are called to see every person we meet the same way God sees them and then love them regardless of who they are. We are to care for those in need. The reality is that everyone is in need of something. Everyone has a story we can learn from and a struggle we can have compassion for. Everyone has the need for kindness, patience, and understanding. Be Christ to others and you will truly be the salt of the earth.