Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - Tuesday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 1:18-22 and Matt 5:13-16]"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and tampled underfoot." [Matthew]
Salt gets into everything. Ask anyone who has to be on a low sodium diet! Read the wonderful book, SALT, by Mark Kurkansky, and learn that entire civilizations could rise or fall depending on the availability of salt! Ask any athlete who has had to take salt tablets. Consider your own experience with food. Too much salt and the flavor of the food itself disappears. Too little salt and something seems missing or the food seems "flat." Jesus' image is one that touches experience. If those who are supposed to be making a difference fail to do so, who can make a difference at all? If salt loses its taste what can supply it?
When we speak of someone as "salt of the earth," we usually mean a person of integrity who shows humility and wisdom. Those are very fine characteristics for a disciple to show. Jesus' challenge is for us ALL to be "salt of the earth." Christian life is meant to attract, but if there is no difference, how will anyone know about Jesus? I once saw a poster that said, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Would you be "salty" enough to notice? There is no need to put the Body of Christ on a low sodium diet! AMEN