So who among us here is positively thrilled to be referred to today as salt? I'm not sure about you, but I would have preferred a more glamorous member of the food pyramid. But yet Jesus is intent today on calling you. I'm calling me disciples of the Lord. Salt. Light is sort of a glamorous, triumphant image. We are the light of the world shining forth in those corners of darkness. I can get on board with that, but salt? I think I have kind of the peculiar task this morning of dispossessing us, of the notion that salt is something that we want to distance ourselves from.

In fact, the reality is, in the ancient context, salt was one of the most prized commodities in the world. And so, yes, we should be positively thrilled that Jesus calls us today. Salt, literally kingdoms and nations and empires rose and fell. Sounds crazy because of salt. Let's go back in time a bit. Fourteen ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in large part in search of salt, and even so many centuries before that, the ancient Romans choose to locate their capital, the Eternal City, on a major salt route we still call it today, the Via Salaria that runs through Rome. The ancient Romans would go deeper here. At times they even paid their soldiers in salt. That's where we get the word salary, actually. And if a soldier wasn't really up to snuff, then they said, as we say today, he wasn't worth his weight in salt. There are even some etymologists who claim that the word for salvation in Latin salus, is associated with, or perhaps even derives from, the word for salt. Literally, salt was salvation.

Which again sounds rather strange to us today. Why was salt so important? The ancients didn't just use it to season their food as we do, but they use it also to preserve all kinds of food vegetables, meat, fish, salt allowed empires to expand. Salt allowed families to get through those difficult moments of the winter that we're experiencing now, more so than even preserved food. What does salt do? It. Purified. Purified wounds. Purified food of bacteria, contaminants, even disease. Salt was a primitive form of medicine. So again, salt was salvation.

It should be no surprise that the great ancient writer Pliny the Elder, writing right around the time when Jesus was walking the earth, right around the time when he pronounces this wonderful teaching in the sermon on the Mount, Pliny the Elder writes in Latin, summarizing all of the tradition of the ancient world, the Greeks and the Latins. He writes Nil Atilius Soli et al. Which means nothing. Nothing is more useful than sun, light and salt.

So, turning back to ourselves today, brothers and sisters, we should be positively thrilled that Jesus calls us salt. What is he saying? He's saying that you, that I. That all of us. We are the most prized commodity. in the world, that we are indispensable, that each one of us is invaluable. I bet when you woke up this morning, you didn't think that you'd be hearing no less than the Lord Jesus call you salt today. But think about what he's actually saying to you as you come to mass today, especially if you've had some dark moments where you forget your value and your importance to God and to the world. What is Jesus saying to you, to me, to each of us today? You individually are invaluable, are indispensable. You have an important perspective to bring that no one else can bring. God reminds us today of our inestimable value.

And notice also what he says he doesn't say, you may be are salt and light. Kind of our salt and light. Maybe you will be salt and light. You were salt and light. If you want to be salt and light, you can be salt and light. No, he says, you are salt. You are light now. And we don't have a choice otherwise. Because this community, because the world needs what we, the disciples of the Lord, have to bring. And notice also what he says. He doesn't simply say we're salt and light of the church of this community. He says, we are the salt and the light of the earth, of the world. In other words, we are indispensable not just to this community, but to the world.

Disciples of the Lord are as nations and kingdoms, and empires rose and fell because of salt. So too Jesus is saying, imagine this Nations and empires and kingdoms will rise and fall because of us. Which again, sounds ridiculous. Back in that day, Jesus is speaking to kind of a band of misfits who are gathered together around him on the Mount of Beatitudes. But what would happen just a few really matter of decades later, about two centuries? What would happen, this ragtag group of apostles and their followers who were persecuted again and again, would grow and grow and grow in spite of everything. And pretty soon the mighty empire of Rome, built on salt in many ways, would be overturned by the salt and the light of the Christian disciples.

What is the message for us that we, living as salt and light in the world, are called to overturn kingdoms and empires for Christ? And how did they do it? Salt and light back in the day in those early centuries. Not by armed resistance, not by zealotry, but by witnessing to the world as salts and as lights.

So, friends, what is the message of the Lord to us today? Each one of us is invaluable. Indispensable. Each one of us has a message that needs to be brought to the world. And that message, our witness can and will transform everything out there.

So how do we do it? How do we be salt in the world? Well, again, what does salt do? Salt purifies. We are called to purify the wounds of the world through the salt of our words and our witness, through a kind word, through a helping hand, through our prayers, through our advocacy. What else does salt do? Not simply purify, but also preserve the message that we have to bring. The message of the gospel that we proclaim has the power we believe to keep our bodies safe, not simply in this life, but to preserve them even into eternity. We have the message of the gospel that we believe brings eternal preservation to our body and our soul. So we must proclaim that message of salvation to the world. Where is a place in our world that seems like a dark corner, where the gospel, perhaps in the eyes of the world, doesn't seem to belong? We are called as salt and light to go, and to bring the light of our message there, so as to preserve soul and body, ours and that of others, into eternity.

And finally, what does salt do Not simply purify and preserve, but also salt brings flavor. Taste, salt. Seasons. What is the message of Jesus today? If we are bringing this purification through our word and our witness, if we are proclaiming the message, and so bringing preservation to spirit, soul and body, then we will bring flavor to the blandness of the world out there. Let's face it, the world is kind of bland if you think about it. For all its glitz and glam, it's kind of bland. The gospel is alive with flavor and taste, and we must bring that through our witness, our words and our proclamation to the world.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, this day, we hope, hopefully each one of us, we rejoice that the Lord proclaims that we are salt and light, and we pray that he might send us forth this day to live and act in accordance.