Word to the Wise
Thursday, February 24, 2022 - Thursday in the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jas 5:1-6 and Mark 9:41-50]"Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor. Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another." [Mark]
Salt gets into everything, including the gospels. The evangelist Mark seems to have put three different sayings about salt in one place. We might recall in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel According to Matthew that Jesus tells us to be "salt of the earth." [Matt. 5:13] That expression is used broadly in our culture to mean a good-hearted and dependable, non-pretentious kind of person. But wars have been fought over salt. The animal body (including ours) cannot function without a certain level of salt (which our doctors are constantly warning us about exceeding). In Jesus' time, salt was used for medicinal purposes as well as a preservative. Peter and the sons of Zebedee would have needed it to preserve the fish they caught! Salt was also pounded into animal dung to burn as fuel. Sailors have been called "old salts." The list could go on and on.
Perhaps the general idea is for the gospel to become like salt and permeate all of life. I don't think doctors will tell us not to have too much of this kind in our diets. The American bishops, some years ago, published a document on parish life entitled, "Communities of Salt and Light" (cf. Matt. 5:13-14) which urged parish communities to bring the gospel to bear on the ordinary challenges of everyday living.
Perhaps today's gospel passage will make us pause for a moment with the salt-shaker and consider it with respect and reflect on how keeping salt in ourselves will bring about peace with one another. AMEN