Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Josep Martinez-Cubero, OHC
Epiphany 5 A - Sunday, February 5, 2023
And what makes a really great bowl of popcorn is the right amount of salt. Now, I will tell you my secret, but following my mother’s cooking tradition, I will not give you exact proportions. You have to taste and see. You have to check for salt. What I do is to mix salt with nutritional yeast in a coffee grinder, making the mix really fine so that it really sticks to the popcorn. Putting just the right amount of this salty mix can make popcorn delicious and a delight to eat. But too much of it can make it stingy, bitter, overwhelming to eat, and an unpleasant experience.
Last week, we heard the soaring overture of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus begins his sermon by saying, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Now, first of all, what is this business about salt losing its taste? Is that actually possible (you might ask, as did I)? Yes, it turns out! The chemical impurities of salt from the Dead Sea, which was the likely source for most salt in Galilee, could cause it to decompose and, indeed, "lose its taste". “You are the salt of the earth.” Being part of our twenty-first century American culture of plenty where a household good such as salt is taken for granted, it can be difficult to grasp what Jesus is really getting at with such a statement.
Salt has been used since at least 6000 BC, and until just about one hundred years ago, it was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history. Before refrigeration was invented, salt was essential for food preservation. In the ancient world it was believed that salt could ward off evil spirits. Salt was used for medicinal purposes- to disinfect wounds, check bleeding, and treat skin diseases. Our word “salary” is derived from the fact that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt. And did you know that Romans salted their vegetables just as we do in modern times?
And salt is still used today for all sorts of purposes. In cooking salt can help bring out all the flavors. We use salt to melt icy roads, to soften water, or to make it boil faster. As a singer, I can tell you that one of the best remedies to soothe a sore throat is hot water with lemon, honey, and salt. Salt can be used to rinse sinuses, or ease swelling. But salt can also sting, or burn, or irritate.
So, when Jesus calls his listeners “the salt of the earth,” he is saying something quite profound. Imagine what Jesus’s first followers would have heard when he called them “the salt of the earth.” Remember who he is addressing in his famous Sermon on the Mount- the poor, the mournful, the meek, the persecuted, the hungry, the sick, the crippled. “You,” he told the outcast, the misfit, the disreputable, “you are the salt of the earth.” You who have been rejected, wounded, unloved, and forgotten. And he says it to all of us here in this church today.
It’s not a question of striving to become what we are not. It’s a question of living into the precious fullness of who we truly are. Jesus doesn’t tell us that we are supposed to be the salt of the earth. He doesn’t encourage us to become the salt of the earth. He doesn’t promise that, if we become the salt of the earth, God will love us more. No, no! Jesus’ language is fully descriptive of our identity. You are the salt of the earth. You are essential. You are treasured. And I am commissioning you, to bring forth, to promote, to live the Reign on God here and now.
How is this to be done? With our whole heart and the totality of our life in Christ. The call is for us to surrender everything. So why would anyone say yes? Well, because Jesus knows the cure for our anxiety that is born of self-preservation, self-reliance and self-service. Jesus knows our deep desire for a life of purpose, a life of meaning, a life we can pour out in love. Jesus knows our hearts cry out for transformation, renewal, and resurrection. This transformation, renewal, and resurrection rests “not on human wisdom but on the power of God” (1 Cor 2:5). True purpose, meaning and perfect freedom can only be achieved by surrendering our will to God’s will.
Living for Christ means living for one another. It demands that we place the good of others before our own to the point of giving our life completely in love- “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. To share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house, and to clothe the naked.”
. It requires humility, obedience, surrender, the cross. As Jesus did, we die, but are also raised to new life. At the end of his poem “Oda a la Sal” (Ode to Salt), the great twentieth century Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, declared:
la minúscula
ola del salero
nos enseña
no sólo su doméstica blancura,
sino el sabor central del infinito.
the smallest
wave from the saltshaker
reveals to us
not just its domestic whiteness
but also the central taste of the infinite.
Each of us is as small in the universe as a grain of salt is to us, and yet, are meant to bring forth the central taste of the infinite. To do so, like salt, we must be poured out and scattered. Like salt, we must dissolve into what is around us. Like salt, we are meant to share our flavor to bring out the best in all that surrounds us. Like salt, we exist, not to preserve ourselves, but to preserve what is not ourselves. Jesus calls us to die to self so that we may live. Salt at its best sustains and enriches life. It pours itself out so that God’s reign can be known on the earth. We are that which will enhance or embitter, soothe or irritate, melt or sting. We are the salt of the earth, for better or for worse. May it be for better. May our pouring out be for the life of the world. ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo! ~Amen+
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