The salt of the earth

June 11, 2019Tuesday
10th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its strength, how can it be made salty again? It has become useless. It can only be thrown away and people will trample on it.“You are the light of the world. A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and covers it; instead it is put on a lamp stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before others, so that they may see the good you do and praise your Father in heaven.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
When salt granules were bigger and unrefined, there was a point in history when a housewife would wrap salt with a piece of white cloth and dip the bundle into boiling soup for seasoning. The salt’s power to give taste would diminish after several use until it would become flat and useless. The housewife would then throw the salt away. There was no way to make the bundle salty again. For all practical purposes it was “dead”. Nonetheless it served its purpose. It did not “die” a useless death. If “death” was the necessary consequence of its purposeful existence, the salt had “died” a purposeful death.
The life story of salt in the housewife’s bundle inspires purposeful living in all of us. “You are the salt of the earth” was spoken to define life’s purpose. If we die making this world more befitting of the dignity of humanity adopted as children of God, we fulfill the sacred purpose of life.
When the Lord asked, “What if salt loses its taste”, he was referring to people’s lives spent without reference to life’s real purpose. We define our existence by giving taste to our communities. Yet it seems that many are reluctant to give of themselves because they are afraid to lose. But has giving taste to the world ever taken away a chunk of life from the giver? Constant giving even adds value to one’s life because in constant giving one dies to self and grows in the art of love.
To give taste to the world means to heal the world. If all share a part of themselves the world will heal itself of its wounds of division. Add taste to the life of others instead of making their lives miserable. If you cannot help others, at least don’t make their situation worse. Love tenderly by acting justly and serving others generously. One person trying to improve the world may not see results in his lifetime. But one thing is sure: on Judgment Day, the Lord will measure him not by any big wave he may have done or may have failed to do in his lifetime but by his efforts in trying to become the salt of the earth. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.