Word to the Wise
Thursday, May 23, 2024 - 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]
The evangelist Mark has put a collection of Jesus' sayings in one place. They begin with extending a cup of water to someone who belongs to Christ, continue with statements about millstones around the neck, cutting off offending parts of the body and ending up with salt and its usefulness. This last one always catches my attention because every trip to a grocery store presents products that are "low sodium." How much salt is too much and how much is too little?
Wars have been fought over salt deposits in the days when armies depended on animal transport. Salt was added to animal dung for cooking fires!! "Older" athletes remember the necessity of taking salt tablets in the days before Gatorade!!! But millions have fought interior battles when commanded to go on a low salt diet!
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges us to be "salt of the earth." We use that expression to describe a really good person. The American bishops wrote a letter on the mission of a parish called: Communities of Salt and Light.
With all this, I simply find the image as one that challenges us to let faith be such a part of our life that life really has no meaning without it. When faith motivates us always in the direction of love of neighbor, then we do become salt of the earth. AMEN