Confession: I salt everything. Well, not everything. I don't salt sweet foods or the like, but pretty much most if not all lunch or dinner fare that is placed in front of me I will salt. Once, a graduate school classmate and housemate of mine cooked pork chops for our house that were so salted as to be rendered just about inedible by everyone (else) in our house. To me, they were perfect!

Salt has an essence that is both irreplaceable and irreplicable. It is immediately recognizable when present. Likewise, its absence is conspicuous. It is, then, no wonder why Jesus drives home his proclamation of the Beatitudes with this metaphor. Unlike some of Jesus' other metaphors and parables found elsewhere throughout the gospels, this one is anything but cryptic. What is the essence of the Christian life? Its flavor? The Beatitudes. 

As I imagine myself in this gospel scene, I would like to think of myself at Jesus' feet, well within earshot of his voice. I would have heard him preach before, such that I would be hanging on every word of his. It would land with immediate, transformative effect on my life with all clarity. It would be energizing and illuminating. It is tempting to think this, at least. 

In reality, I think the truth of it is that I would have been all too self-absorbed in the moment to really think much at all of what he was saying, if I were even lucky enough to stumble upon this hill and this crowd. Perhaps my heart would have been hardened by the realities of life in first century Palestine under Roman occupation. Instead of being meek, righteous and merciful, maybe I would have been the opposite of these, unable to see any virtue in their supposed value. What nonsense coming from the mouth of this itinerant preacher (I may have thought). 

Lucky for us, these words of Jesus have endured in scripture so we can receive and contemplate them in our time. In them, our belovedness shines through. In being the salt of the earth, Jesus proclaims that we, ourselves are that prized possession - that essence - that will animate the world with the Holy Spirit. In living the Beatitudes, we bring the very Spirit of God to our neighbors and our communities, making the countenance of God visible in our works. This is faith alive. This is the faith we share. It is to this active, shared faith that we are called.