In Matthew 5:13-14 Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” and, “You are the light of the world.” So, in this life we are called to be salt and light to one another. Christ doesn’t leave it there, though. He continues, “But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” Salt in that condition is useless, he says, needing to be tossed.
Bad Salt?
Actually, salt does not go bad. It can lose its flavor, however, as Christ states, due to humidity and/or when something is added to it. It becomes no longer pure. So it is with us. At baptism, when Original Sin is washed away from our souls, we are made pure. Jesus uses the element of salt to represent us in this purified state—before sin and any unholy alliances have caused impurities in us. What makes us impure is our attachment to sin and unrepentance. This is how one loses one’s “flavor” and one’s light becomes dim for others to find their way towards true holiness by.
Instead, our goodness and “light,” says Christ, needs to shine as if on a lampstand. And one’s gifts and talents utilized in order to make the world a better place, not kept hidden. Individual holiness is to serve as a “light to all in the house . . . that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5:15-16).
Good Works
What are these good works Christ speaks about? We need look no farther than what Jesus immediately taught his apostles about before his talk of salt and light and what he immediately says thereafter. He had just declared to them the Beautitudes:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus sandwiches his talk of salt and light between the Beautitudes and his words concerning the keeping of the Commandments, anger, adultery, divorce, remarriage, oaths, retaliation and love of one’s enemies. (See the whole of Matthew 5 in this link.) Jesus continues his teaching regarding our behavior throughout Chapters 6 and 7 as well (link here).
Restored Flavor
Thankfully, our God is a God of hope and restoration when we fall, sin, and need forgiveness. Jesus says for us to first “Consider whether the light in you is not darkness” (Lk 11:35). Next, confess the “darkness,” and be made well. To do this he left us the gift of his unfathomable mercy via the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through confession of our sins we reinstate our “saltiness,” so to speak—our flavor—and ability to affect others in a holy way again by our “light”.
Then, when one’s “whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness,” says he, one will again be light to the world (Lk 11:36)
