Bishop Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 9, 2014
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
“You are the salt of the earth.” Matthew 5:13
In Southwest Louisiana we know how important salt is to cooking. Let us leave aside considerations for health and whether or not we use too much salt. The fact is that the correct amount of salt, used judiciously, can make all the difference. Making a difference is what Jesus is talking about when he uses the comparison in the Gospel today. “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Let us delve more deeply into the meaning of salt in the Bible.
As a symbol, the Bible speaks of salt in three different ways. First, we see it being used in punishment. The most notable example deals with Lot’s wife. Lot with his family is escaping Sodom and Gomorrah, and God orders them not to look back. Unfortunately the curiosity of Lot’s wife gets the best of her, and she looks back and is “turned into a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). Salt is seen as a final act, as when salt is thrown on the ruins of a defeated city. We read of this symbolic action when Abimelech defeats Shechem in the Book of Judges. It reads, “He then killed its inhabitants and demolished the city, sowing the site with salt” (Judges 9:45). Salt then is a symbol of finality. Salt effectively says what is done is done.
The second use of salt was purification. Many instances could be cited, but let us turn to Elisha, the prophet. The Second Book of Kings reads as follows:
Once the inhabitants of the city complained to Elisha, ‘The site of the city
is fine indeed, as my lord can see, but the water is bad and the land unfruitful.’
‘Bring me a new bowl,’ Elisha said, ‘and put salt into.’ When they had
brought it to him, he went out to the spring and threw salt into it, saying,
‘Thus says the Lord, “I have purified this water. Never again shall death
or miscarriage spring from it.” And the water has stayed pure even to this
day … (II Kings 2:19-22).
Here salt is seen as making something pleasing for God. Even in our Catholic rituals, salt can be added to holy water for the same purpose.
Salt not only flavors, but it preserves. And this is our third way salt is used in the Scriptures. For the Jews their relationship with God was assured in the Covenant—the pact made between God and the Chosen People at Sinai. Every act, every deed, every sacrifice was to confirm this Covenant to which they were to be absolutely faithful. The Book of Leviticus contains the law concerning the ritual sacrifices the Jews must observe. When speaking of the cereal offerings, Leviticus reads, “Every cereal offering that you present to the Lord shall be seasoned with salt. Do not let the salt of the covenant of your God be lacking from your cereal offering” (Leviticus 2:13). Salt comes to signify in the Mosaic Law the quality of endurance. The Book of Numbers, speaking of how the priest shares in the Covenant sacrifices, reads as follows: “By perpetual ordinance I have assigned to you and to your sons and daughters all the contributions from the sacred gifts which the Israelites make to the Lord; this is an inviolable covenant” (Numbers 18:19). In Hebrew “an inviolable covenant” means literally “a covenant of salt.” The ancient Hebrews had a custom when making a contract. The two people making the agreement would share salt in common. This was a sign that the contract was unbreakable.
All of this helps us to understand to what Jesus is referring. We must remember that the Covenant was made with the people. Only once does God deal with an individual, and that is Abraham, the father of the Chosen People. But the agreement and covenant God makes is made with a people. Jesus addresses the words “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” to His disciples, not any individual. It is a new People that He is addressing.
The true disciples of the Lord Jesus are salt of the earth because they preserve the new Covenant bond between God and His new People. God has formed a New People, a New Israel, which the early Christians understood as the Body of Christ, the Church. Using all images from the Old Testament, the First Letter of St. Peter speaks to the early Christians reminding them of this truth. “You, however, are a ‘chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people he claims for his own …. Once you were no people, but now you are God’s people” (I Peter 2:9-10). The disciples of Jesus are to preserve the New Covenant. They are to make a difference, because they are different. They should be different.
Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount for His Church. We are the salt of the earth because we are the salt of the New Covenant sealed with the Blood of Christ. As with the story of Lot there is finality to this covenant. As with Elisha, the People are purified. And as salt, we, the members of the Church, reflect the enduring quality of faithfulness to which we are all called in Christ to this New Covenant. The salt dare not lose it taste. The salt dare not be trampled underfoot. Jesus intended a Church, and Jesus calls that Church to the salt of enduring fidelity.