June 10, 2014 Tuesday: 10th Week in Ordinary Time A
Salt and Life
Salt was of vital importance in Jesus’ time, imperative to enhancing flavor and to preserve food in a desert climate with no refrigeration. Still today salt is of utter importance. Recently thawed by the warmth of June we recall the intense cold that gripped most of our country, freezing our communities and leading to widespread closures. Our streets still glimmer with salt residue, which equipped us with the means to carry on with our daily tasks.
Just how are we called to be salt that melts the ice and opens the pathway? In today’s culture we see many forms of ice that isolate us and require melting. Instead of seeking ‘Easy Street’ we are called as faithful Christians to take the higher road by examining our behavior, melting the ice of self -seeking narcissism, empty promises of immediate gratification, and contentment with the status quo.
Jesus calls each of us to this higher road by finding the unique flavor of our salt. To go out to be the salt of humility that melts resentment and leads to reconciliation, the salt of justice that melts oppression and brings peace, and the salt that of love that melts the coldness of indifference.
— Matthew Lieser, S.J.
Salt was of vital importance in Jesus’ time, imperative to enhancing flavor and to preserve food in a desert climate with no refrigeration. Still today salt is of utter importance. Recently thawed by the warmth of June we recall the intense cold that gripped most of our country, freezing our communities and leading to widespread closures. Our streets still glimmer with salt residue, which equipped us with the means to carry on with our daily tasks.
Just how are we called to be salt that melts the ice and opens the pathway? In today’s culture we see many forms of ice that isolate us and require melting. Instead of seeking ‘Easy Street’ we are called as faithful Christians to take the higher road by examining our behavior, melting the ice of self -seeking narcissism, empty promises of immediate gratification, and contentment with the status quo.
Jesus calls each of us to this higher road by finding the unique flavor of our salt. To go out to be the salt of humility that melts resentment and leads to reconciliation, the salt of justice that melts oppression and brings peace, and the salt that of love that melts the coldness of indifference.
— Matthew Lieser, S.J.
