Salt of the earth - A reflection


SALT OF THE EARTH – A REFLECTION

Mario D’Couto

            When it comes to food, salt is like the universal ingredient that is present in almost every dish that you can think of and what’s interesting is that it is present in practically all types of cuisines around the world. We may just say that it is like the King or the Queen of all spices. It’s hard to imagine a dish without salt and yet when the salt loses its saltiness, it’s of no use.

            Salt is that which adds flavour to the food that we eat. To an extent, it also holds medicinal value because our bodies need salt besides, salt is also a good preservative. Our Blessed Lord said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savour, wherewith shall it be shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men” (Matthew 5:13). It is said that the ocean salt is actually made from rocks on the land. I will not go too much into the details as to how it is made but the fact that they come from rocks on dry land says something.

          What strikes me about this is that just as salt is generated from the rock on dry land, this is something that, perhaps, each of us can relate to. All of us have some difficulty or struggle or may have gone through some bad experience but here’s the point that I am trying to drive at: just as the hardness of the rock erodes due to the rain that falls on it which has some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air, so is it the same with us. All the ‘not so good’ experiences which at prima facie can seem to break us down, can actually help us become better people where through our experience, some one else can benefit from it.

            We are called to be the ‘salt of the earth’. Just as salt, when broken and dissolved adds flavours to the food, through the ‘not so good’ experiences, we can actually use them in a positive way. When that happens, we begin to bring in the flavour of hope into the lives of others who probably are going through a similar negative experience if not a negative experience of a different kind. But no matter what, if we use it positively, in a constructive way rather than sulk and become bitter, there’s a lot of good that can be done, as someone said it beautifully, “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”. And were we to become bitter and sulk, if we are going to ‘loose our saltiness’, we may as well be trampled. Forget about helping others, if such a thing happens, you may not even be able to control of your own life.

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