In the book Robinson, there is this scene: Robinson teaches Friday that salt is needed. He takes a piece of unsalted meat and spits it out. Friday puts salt on his tongue and spits it out. Both are trying to prove their truth. Robinson, the need for salt, Friday the unpleasantness of salt.
Today we heard: You are the salt of the earth. How? There is only one person in the Bible who could say about himself: “I am salt!” It was Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt as she fled from the burning Sodom and Gomorrah. Lord Jesus certainly did not mean it that way. How is that salt? Who can eat salt alone? Even in times of hunger, no one eats it. Even in times of thirst, no one drinks it. People on a ship without drinking water would die of thirst, salty sea water is undrinkable. Salt by itself is not good. Salt changes the composition of the soil; kills life, raises blood pressure…
Salt becomes useful when it is used for seasoning or preservation. That is: when it is mixed with other things. So we are not salt, but we should be the salt of the earth. As we heard in the Gospel when Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth”. That is: we should be mixed with the earth; – that is, with what is around us, with what and with whom we live. Why? To make the environment “tasty”, that is, to make life better and protect it from spoiling.
The right amount of salt adds flavor to things. Italians have a saying about seasoning salads. They say they use three ingredients for this: oil, vinegar, and salt. And they also have this comment: “Let the spendthrift pour oil – that means the more the better.” Give the vinegar to the miser, that means the less the better. Well, give salt to the philosopher! This means to a person who knows how to judge the right measure.” It follows that estimating the amount of salt is the most difficult. They are composed of how much we should be in the world and how much we adapt to the world. If we are too “of the world” then our salt of life is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out to be trampled upon by men. If we are “off the world” we can be disgusting fanatics.
