FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

In Jesus’ day, salt was often connected with purity. The Romans believed that salt was the purest of all things because it came from pure things: the sun and the sea. It was used by the Jews to purify their offerings to God. If we modern Christians are to be the salt of the earth, we must accept a pure and high standard in speech, thought, and behaviour keeping ourselves unspotted by the worlds self-centeredness. Jesus calls us to be a cleansing presence, constantly witnessing to the good that is found in God and the values of God’s realm.

In ancient times, salt was valued as a basic ingredient of a good life. As salt in the world, we can serve as a basic nutrient for others. We can become nurturing agents for those around us, caring, helping, enriching, teaching, and bringing them to Christ. Salt was also used to aid healing. As salt in the world, we can promote healing through prayer, caring for others, and supporting the least, the lost, and the lonely. Relationships can be melted by applying the warmth of Christian love. We can take that love and wear down the indifference or lack of feeling that often overtakes human beings.

Salt has, for centuries, served as a preservative to prevent food from spoiling. If we, as salt in the world, become preservatives of God’s goodness, we can help prevent spoiling and corruption wherever we find it. As followers of Jesus, we are committed to preserving Christian principles that keep ourselves and others from going bad.

It might be instructive to note something Jesus did not say. He did not tell his disciples to become the pepper of the earth. Pepper calls attention to itself, as opposed to salt that, when properly used, only highlights what it flavours. Jesus does not expect us to call attention to ourselves in our salting efforts. Rather, we are to make others more acceptable, more meaningful, more loving.

We focus on the immediate context of Jesus’ charge for the disciples to become his salty followers. It came immediately after his expression of the beatitudes. So, the seasoning takes on the character of the values he exhorted.

Salt is found in boxes in our pantries or shakers on our dining-room tables. For the salt to become effective, to do its work, however, it must be released from its container. God can release us from what entraps us so we can truly salt the people of the earth.

Like the salt in the packet or container, God can release us to do the work Jesus commands us to do, to make a difference in the world: giving hope where there is no hope; forgiving where there is sin; embracing where there is loneliness and despair; tolerating where there is prejudice; reconciling where there is conflict; bringing justice where there is wrong; providing food where there is hunger; giving comfort where there is distress or disease.

Jesus empowers us to purify, to heal, to nurture, to thaw the frozen, to preserve, and to season the people of the earth. The power of God supports and sustains us and stands with us if we risk whatever it takes to become salt to the world. And when we fail in this effort, God will raise us up and renew us and give us strength to persevere, again and again.

 The liturgy shows us this week that the Church, and every Christian, is called to fulfill Israel’s mission.

By our faith and good works, we are to make the light of God’s life break forth in the darkness, as we sing in this week’s Psalm.

This week’s readings remind us that our faith can never be a private affair, something we can hide as if under a basket. We are meant to be salt for the earth and light for the world

We are to pour ourselves out for the afflicted, for all who are poor, hungry, naked, and enslaved.as Isaiah tells us in the First Reading. We are to be a ray of God’s mercy

So let us pray that we, like St. Paul in the Epistle, might proclaim with our whole lives “Christ, and him crucified.”