5th Sunday Year A: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: You are the salt of the earth

Readings: Is 58: 7–10; 1Cor 2:1–5; Mt 5:13–16

Dear friends in Christ, for many Sundays, the readings have been dwelling on the theme of Christ as the light of the world and on the vocation of Christians to reflect the light of Christ in all parts of the world. The first reading and the gospel of today also continued this theme of light, but the gospel added another substance to the ‘light sayings’ of Christ; it added the element of salt. It said, ‘you are the light of the world and you are the salt of the earth.’ Since we have talked so much about light in the past four Sundays, let us dwell on the theme of salt this Sunday.

Let us try to understand what Christ meant when he told his disciples that they are the salt of the earth. When Matthew wrote that Christ told his disciples that they are the salt of the earth, he assumed that the disciples already knew what being the salt of the earth implied, so, he made no explanations. But when Luke (14:34–35) and Mark (9:50) recorded the same ‘salt saying’ of Christ, they made explanations about salt, to help the audience understand what Christ wanted from them. Two of them started by positing that salt is good and added what Christ wanted his disciples to do as salt of the earth.

So, it is good that we say what salt does in order to understand what Christ meant when he called us the salt of the earth. Let us make a survey of some usages of salt in the Old Testament and the ancient world.

Salt as a preservative: Salt is the earliest and commonest of all preservatives. To keep things from decaying, people added salt to them before storing them because salt keeps bacteria, ants, and insects away. In the ancient times, cereals and other seeds were preserved with salt. For the ancient Greek, salt acts as a new soul into dead things; without it, a thing corrupts/decomposes, but with it, freshness is retained. So, salt defeats corruption/decay/decomposition anywhere or in anything it is introduced.

So, when Christ said we are salt of the earth, he was telling us that just as salt preserves a thing from decaying, Christians are supposed to preserve the world from every form of decay. Christians are to protect the world from ideologies and practices that will lead to moral and spiritual decadence. Dear friends, we are preservers of the good things of the society. Just as salt preserves the freshness of things, we Christians are to make our society fresh with love, peace, charity and fraternal correction. We are to preserve the good moral standards of the society.

Just as salt defeats corruption or decomposition anywhere it is introduced, Christians are to fight and defeat corruption wherever they are, Christians are to swim against the currents of corruption already implicit or imminent in any institution they are introduced or in any society they live.

To defeat corruption or decay and preserve the freshness of things, salt mixes well with what it is meant to preserve and allows itself to be absorbed. In the same way, Christian are not to isolate themselves from the society and from social life. Christians are to get involved in the social, economic and political life of the society, so that they can heal the society from within. In mixing with things, salt does not allow itself to be corrupted by the corruption/decay already present in things, it rather fights and defeats corruption. In the same way, we should not allow the corruption in the society to defeat us as we get involved in the life of the society.

Salt as seasoning/condiment: the book of Job 6:6 says, “but no one can eat tasteless, unsalted food.” Salt is a substance that is found in every kitchen. It is used to add flavor to food, to season a tasteless food. If salt is not added to a food, that food will become insipid and sickening, no matter how rich the food is.

Dear friends, salt lends flavor to food. Without salt, a well prepared dish will become tasteless. In the same manner, the world will be tasteless without the flavor of Christianity. Christians have the duty to restore the divine flavor, the divine taste which the world lost through sin. To those who have lost the taste and joy of life, Christians are to be their joy and hope restorers. Christian are supposed to be restorers and diffusers of joy to our depressed world. God has sent us to restore the flavor of joy, love, compassion, peace, happiness, tolerance, and mercy to the world, families and relationships that have been torn apart by hatred, war, selfishness and intolerance.

One of the things that salt does very well in a food is to leave an indelible mark, it doesn’t lose its identity in a food. You don’t need science to tell a food that is salted, the taste is always evident. In the same way, Christians are not to lose their identity in the world. We are Christ’s disciples and restorers of divine taste. This identity must to be visible to everyone who encounters us. If we fail to live according to our identity, we will lose our taste in the world. Let us ask ourselves today the kind of flavor we are adding in to the lives of our friends. Is it a positive flavor or a poisoning flavor? Are we adding a positive taste to the society or a negative one? Are we making the lives of others sweet or are we making them bitter? Salt does not lose its saltiness, let us not lose our saltiness.

Medically, deficiency of salt/sodium in the body leads to depression, weakness, nausea, vomiting, cramps, headache, irritability, confusion, seizures, coma and even to death. During the Nigerian and Biafran War, deficiency of salt in people’s food caused Kwashiorkor to many people. So, salt is essential to human health. In the same way, Christians are essential to the goodness of the world. Christ is telling us that without our good works, the world will suffer terrible deficiencies that will lead to sad consequences. He is telling us that if we lose focus on the good things he has sent us to do on earth, there will be terrible consequences.

Salt as purifier: the prophet Elisha used salt to purify the river of Jericho (2 Kg 2:19–22). Salt is used to purify materials from germs. Salt is connected to purity; its glittering whiteness makes this connection easy. The ancient Greeks called salt divine, while the ancient Romans saw salt as the purest of all things because it comes from the purest of all things: the sun and the sea. In the Old Testament, salt is sprinkled on temple offerings to make them clean before they are offered to God (Lev. 2:13).

Dear friends, just as salt purifies whatever it comes in contact with, all disciples of Christ are to be purifying agents in the world. We are to purify the world of sin by our good works, by our admonitions to friends, by not supporting evil and by not compromising our Christian identity. In fact, Christians are to have a cleansing antiseptic character wherever they find themselves. But friends, if we do not cleanse ourselves of our own sins, we will not be able to cleanse the world of its sins. So, let us repent of our own sins, ask God for pardon and, then, extend the same act of cleansing to others.

Just as salt makes a positive difference wherever it is, wherever a Christian is, there should be a positive difference: light should defeat darkness, love should defeat hate, mercy should defeat cruelty, charity should defeat selfishness, peace should rule over conflict, meekness should rule over arrogance, humility should defeat pride. This is our vocation as the salt of the earth.

Peace be with you.

Rev. Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima