February 5, 2023
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 5, 2023 – Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16
Whenever Rachel Ray is cooking, she throws a little bit of salt over her shoulder for good luck. I wonder if you know how that custom began. It’s actually a reference to the story of Lot in the Old Testament. Where Lot and his wife, having escaped from the destruction of Sodom, are looking down the mountain and Lot’s wife turns her head, looks over her left shoulder, so to speak, to see what is going on down in the city they just left, and, as punishment she is turned into a pillar of salt. That’s where it comes from. The idea is that the devil is on your left shoulder and your guardian angel is on your right shoulder. And so, you want to throw salt in the devil’s eye.
But there are two things that Rachel says about using salt when you are cooking, and they are very important. The first one is that you always salt your pasta water because it is your only chance to give flavor to the pasta. And, when you are cooking with vegetables to sauté them, a mirepoix, you salt the vegetables while they are sautéing, because salt draws the juices out of the vegetables. And that’s what you want in the bottom of your pan is those juices to work with. So, basically, for her, salt gives flavor to things, and it draws flavor out of things. But that’s not what Jesus was thinking, primarily, when He used the metaphor “you are the salt of the earth.”
Archaeologists have discovered that the use of salt goes back over six thousand years. That’s a long, long time. They found evidence of salt mines all the way back that far. If you want to place that in the history we think we know, the Exodus from Egypt was probably around two-and-a-half to three thousand years ago, and maybe the family of Abraham began three-and-a-half to four thousand years ago. We’re talking about six thousand years ago. And archaeologists and historians have also discovered that salt was so important that it was used as a form of barter. There’s a legend that Roman soldiers were not paid in dinari, they were paid in salt. That’s not really true. What probably is true is that each soldier was assigned or allotted a small packet of salt to salt their food when they were on the road. From that legend comes the English word salary, from the Latin word sal, for salt. So, all of you get salted three or four times a month.
Another thing that we probably don't know about salt is that it was used for worship. They’ve discovered that almost every ancient religion, no matter how farfetched or how genuine, they all sacrificed to God or to their gods using salt. So, when Jesus uses the image, He means a lot of things. He means that we are so precious that we are like the commodity of salt, which people bartered. We are seasoning, like the seasoning for food. We are worship of God. All of those things together.
Who is He talking to? It says, at the beginning of our reading, “Jesus said to His disciples.” Disciples are people who are learning, in order to teach. A very interesting position to be in. All of us, at some point in our lives, have been learning, in order to teach. Not just grown-ups, but kids too. If you have ever been a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout, at some point you become someone who teaches the new Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts stuff. So, learning, in order to teach. On sports teams, the more seasoned members of your squad or your team, show you stuff to do. But, at one point, they had to learn it. So, they were learning stuff to teach. On our jobs, many of us have authority over some other people and we’re under somebody else’s authority, so we’re expected to break in the newbie. Learning, in order to teach. That’s the role of the disciple.
At the time that Jesus preached this particular message, there was no Church. There were just a few followers, clinging to His every word. But He meant it for His whole Church. And, twice during our life as a Church, famous saints have said famous things about learning, in order to teach.
St. Irenaeus of Lyon, a French town, but it wasn’t called Lyon when he lived there. He died before the year 200, at the very beginning of the Church’s life. He said, “The glory of God is man, living at his very best.” The glory of God is man, living at his very best. What did Jesus say at the end of this morning’s gospel? “Let your light shine, that others may see the good that you do.” And what? “Give glory to God.” The glory of God is a man, living at his very best.
St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel always” - a form of teaching – “but use words only when you have to.” What he meant was that it is our lives that teach, not our words that teach.
Across the two-thousand-year history of the Church, there are many times when the Church, as an institution, has not let its light shine. But all during that time, individual Christians, like you and me - unknown, unsung, not famous - went on day by day trying to let their light shine.
But there is another half to what Jesus said this morning about salt. He said this, “But if salt loses its flavor” - then what is going to happen to it – “it has to be thrown out because it is no good anymore.” Sometimes you and I begin to lose our flavor. What’s the remedy? Christ provided a salt that never loses its flavor. We call it the Sacraments. We call it Holy Communion. We call it Confession. We call it the Rosary. There are bunches and bunches of things that we have that help to restore our tang where we’ve lost it.
So, the next time you are cooking, throw a little salt over your shoulder, right in the devil’s eye. And be the salt of the earth.