5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Isaiah 58:7-10 | Psalm 111(112):4-9 | 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 | Matthew 5:13-16
Yesterday, I answered an online question about cooking to a recipe. I recounted my experience at a famous congee shop in Taiwan to illustrate my point about everyone’s taste buds reacting differently. While everyone else around me slurped happily at their fish congee, I took two spoonfuls from my bowl, found it over-salted for my taste, and pushed it away. (I think I caught the chef looking very shocked, but I never followed up on it.)
Today, we revisit Jesus’ familiar exhortation to be “salt of the earth” and “light for the world”. In today’s gospel, He talks about tasteless salt and hidden light, but that got me thinking: What might “too much salt and light” signify?
In my mind, I link salt and light to our words and deeds respectively, especially those related to our common faith. In the context of today’s gospel, “tasteless salt” would then relate to our failure to spread the Good News, and “hidden light” the failure to performs works of love and mercy.
In this vein, “extreme salt” would point to aggressive in-your-face evangelism, the kind often parodied as the over-enthusiastic Protestant, accosting each person in the street and yelling in their faces, “BROTHER! HAVE YOU BEEN SAVED?!?!”
Intrusive, annoying and not likely to convert anyone.
“Blinding light” in turn would refer to a sort of “posturing charity”, doing good deeds while blatantly calling attention to them, “HEY LOOK HERE, I’M HELPING PEOPLE!”
Nobody likes a searchlight beam full in the face.
Clearly, “too much” isn’t much better than “none at all”, but there’s a middle ground.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
Brothers and sisters, I present to you…Salted Light.
This “product” is inspired by salted caramel, a delectable confection that takes ordinary caramelized sugar and, with a touch of salt, enhances its flavour to irresistible levels.
Similarly, with salted light, we start with the “light” of good deeds done discreetly, not calling attention to ourselves in any particular way.
But when others do notice, and compliment us for our actions, we then sprinkle on a little “salt” of evangelisation: “Thanks be to God, He’s given me so much in my life, that it’s only right that I should share it.”
I said roughly those words yesterday, after my friend watched me give an old man selling tissues double his asking price and exclaimed, “Wah, so generous!”
He was silent for a while, then rambled on about him not necessarily disbelieving in God, that he acknowledged that there was probably some supreme being responsible indirectly for our existence, that…
I can’t recall how that train of thought ended, but I think he’s now tentatively nibbling at the hook of Jesus.
Salted Light…delicious!