Homily for the Week of February 9, 2014

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

Isaiah 58:7-10,  Psalm 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9,  1 Corinthians 2:1- , Matthew 5:13-16

         You are the salt of the earth.  These are the words of Jesus which I just read.  But I can hear doctors and health care professionals cry out: But don’t get carried away with too much salt.

         Life depends on salt. We cannot function without it. The people of Jesus’ day would not have known it, but even the proper functioning of our nervous system depends on salt — sodium — although too much salt can hurt us. Salt is good for many things. It was once used as currency, thus giving rise to the expression, “He is not worth his salt.”  Because salt was a necessity years ago workers were paid with a number of portions of salt from which we get the term salary. 

          Salt gives flavor to food. Salt is still used as a preservative, and its use as a preservative has given us a taste for various foods. Because the people of Jesus’ day were every bit as dependent on salt as we are, salt made a good image for Him to use. However, the image might not work as well for us today since we are used to salt being crystalline granules in a salt shaker, that is, well, always salty. So you might ask: How, then, could salt lose its taste?

         Table salt was not used at the time of Jesus. The sea is a major source of salt, either the present day seas or ancient sea beds that are now dry. For the people of Jesus’ day, there were two primary sources of salt. One was seaweed. People simply put some seaweed in the pot and cooked the salt out of it. Once the food tasted right, the seaweed was removed. The seaweed could be used several times, but eventually all the salt would be cooked out and thus “lose its taste.”

         The second and more common source of salt was from the Dead Sea, the saltiest sea on earth, but this salt had other minerals and compounds mixed with it. When Dead Sea salt deposits were dissolved for their salt, the remaining minerals would leave a useless, bad-tasting compound. The remains were good for nothing “but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

         Both of these sources for salt gave the experience of having the flavor of the salt go flat. This can be like our experience of certain people. We meet someone and are immediately taken with the person. He or she truly “adds spice to life.” But, sometimes such people prove to be shallow. After a great start with them, we find ourselves being disappointed. They are not worth their salt.

         Jesus’ reference to salt today, however, is not exclusively about salt as part of our diet or about enhancing the flavor of food. His clear meaning was that His followers are to spread His teachings throughout the world and not grow weary in their efforts. Years ago salt was put on an infant's tongue as part of the baptismal ritual as a symbol of everlasting life. As Jesus called his disciples “salt,” they may have understood any of these meanings: they were to season and to purify the world with God’s love, giving witness to divine fidelity that preserves life for all eternity.

         Today Jesus uses both the image of salt and the image of light to tell us how we are to live and act as His followers. Just as you don't turn on a light just to turn it off again, so Jesus is telling us that we his followers must not stop being a light to others who might be in darkness.   Although there are many times in our life when temptations and struggles to be good may threaten to dilute our “saltiness” or dim our light, nothing is ever able to take away our capacity to illumine God’s love for others.

         Like salt we are not called to smother others with our Christianity. But, like salt, we are asked by Jesus to permeate society with his message and to add zest to the lives of others whose salt may have gone flat, or who have not yet found the salt of spirituality. But we are also called to leave no trace of ourselves. We are called to produce the little deed, the unnoticed presence, the unassuming influence. We are invited by Jesus to restored the flavor.

         The same kind of example with wide impact is wrapped up in the example of light.  Scientifically, light is more complicated than salt. To understand light involves such concepts as wave and radiation. We are left to ponder how light can travel at the speed of 186,282 miles per second. For example, as tiny as a candle might be, when placed in a room it fills the room with its presence. Also, we don't try to hide a light which we have turned on. But we place it so that it allows us to see.

          A lamp is meant to be used. A hidden lamp is useless. Such is the gift of our Catholic faith and religion. It is meant to be used. Faith must be shared. It must be seen. Our faith must not be left in the church where it is hidden. It must be put on the lampstand of the world so it aids everyone. In our first reading tody Isaiah put faith on a lampstand.He says: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed, clothe the naked.” These are outward expressions of faith. Isaiah says we must participate in these expressions of our faith, but we are not to do these things for our own glory.

         You and I were first invited to be a light to others at Baptism. We were given a candle lighted from the Easter candle -- the symbol of spiritual life and resurrection --  and our parents and/or godparents were asked to hold it for us.  The Resurrection candle is placed in front of the casket at a funeral in order to remind us that this person who has died was blessed with the light of Jesus, and has now resurrected with Jesus to everlasting life. We light candles at the altar as a symbol of the light of Jesus. However, one isolated candle does not light a community, but it might encourage others to place their light on the table.

         If we go to Mass just to get something, then Mass will go flat for us, and this is the biggest complaint, “I don’t get anything out of it!” The mistake is that we go not to get something, we go to give something. We go to express something. We actually do go to Mass in part to be seen. If my friends see me there, they will gain support from my presence. Certain kinds of faith, like a certain source of salt, can go flat. We can’t let that happen.

         Jesus was a carpenter, not a chemist or scientist.  Yet by using such simple examples as salt and light, he was telling us how important it is for us to live, work and pray together.  One little grain of salt can do nothing by itself. It can only be effective when it joins with grains of salt.