5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Salt for the Earth)

Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth”. That might sound odd. I’m salt? We know things about mineral salt—scientific knowledge—that people of Jesus’ time wouldn’t have known. But conversely, they understood it and used it in ways that we no longer do. Salt was of great value, expensive. It was traded, as one traded gems or gold. The Romans valued it so much that part of a legionnaire’s pay was a ration of salt (where our word ‘salary’ comes from).

In Jesus’ time and culture, people of a village often shared an oven. And since they didn’t have use of electricity or natural gas, the most abundant and economical form of fuel was……animal manure. And so it was the privileged duty for a young girl to collect manure, mix salt into it and form it into patties (Definitely wash those hands before dinner!). Then the patties were left in the sun to dry.

          When it was time to cook, salt was sprinkled over the base of the oven and the salted manure patty (sounds like state fair food!) was placed upon it. The salt acted as a catalyst, causing the manure to burn and create heat in the oven. But eventually, the salt slab would lose its ability to serve as a spark and became useless. As Jesus said, “It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”.

“You are the salt of the earth.” What Jesus means is that we are to be a spark, which gives way to igniting others.

But are we a spark that helps us others to know Jesus? I suspect many of us would say we wouldn't mind being like that, except that it might interfere with the things we regard as important: I don’t have time to really roll up my sleeves and dig into it because of other stuff in my life: work, sports, weekend travel, fantasy football league, my fitness routine, posting on social media, etc. By the way, none of those are necessarily bad things, but ask yourself: How many activities get more time on your schedule than time spent with Jesus or learning about Jesus? Are you afraid that Jesus will kill your fun….or that he might not be enough to make you truly happy? You might.

Maybe you’re thinking: He's never been introduced to me in a meaningful enough way that I would be willing to dial down those other things. And because I never learned about him or why he gives meaning to my life, I remain stuck in this half-hearted approach to life in Christ.

It's too easy and too common that he’s kept at arm’s length and thus we remain stuck. And it’s so easy to lose this faith when we are disengaged and ignorant. I found myself thinking of two “former” Catholic celebrities, describing how preposterous the faith of their childhood is.

One said, “Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky, who watches everything you do. The invisible man has a list of 10 things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you forever to a place of burning and torture, to suffer and scream…But he loves you.”

The second celebrity said, “I’ve already heard all the stories. The dude still hasn’t come back and we’re just covering the same material over and over”. The same person described the faith as belief “that a woman who never (participated in what makes for pregnancy, yet) had a baby who walked on water, who died and came back three days later.” And of course, the sycophants in the audience applaud at how clearly stupid Christianity is.

The problem is that too many of us aren’t equipped to identify what’s wrong these explanations and to untwist this nonsense into what we actually believe, and it leaves us wondering, is Christianity really that stupid?

There are some of us who know those presentations of the faith are nonsense, and wouldn’t mind being a spark, but I don't feel like I can be. I get it. I can imagine what it's like for high schoolers, perhaps fearful to admit they actually appreciate their Catholic faith. Why?, they would be asked. So, you hate….(fill in the blank: transgender people, gay people, native cultures, women, etc.)? And that, by the way, is not necessarily coming from their fellow students, but too often, teachers, who boldly speak half-truths or distortions of what our faith really is, and we don’t know how to counter their assertions.

We live in a culture that is at the very least, passively hostile to the teachings of Jesus and to those who find meaning in them. For sure, part of it is due to our own misgivings and ways we've hurt our credibility as a Church, and as a collective Body of Christ.

Let’s be clear: What Jesus came to establish not only bears beauty and meaning, and he established a Church to make it known. Further, the world and its people would be sorely lacking without it. It's like the 15-year-old who believes life would be so much better if he didn’t have to live under the care of his parents.

You and I must come to understand Jesus for ourselves so that we can reveal him in truth, and thus help the world to draw from his beauty and meaning. We as a parish have a responsibility to put these resources before you to help you, and to walk with you. But too many of us continue to keep it all at arm’s length and are perhaps likely, hanging on by the slenderest of threads. Jesus is calling you to more. He wants you (your family) to be salt that gives flavor and creates a spark; to be light for the world, bearing light for others.