Mt 5:13-16
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 13“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. 15Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. 16Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
SALT OF THE EARTH: People in Jesus’ time often cooked in outdoor earthen ovens in the courtyard surrounding the house. These were family ovens shared by large, extended families of the patriarch of the clan. The common fuel for the oven was not wood, which was scarce, but something more plentiful: camel or donkey dung.
One duty a young girl had to learn was to collect the dung, mix salt in it, mould it into patties, and leave the patties in the sun to dry. The dung patties were gathered in heaps to be used as fuel.
A salt plate was then placed at the base of the oven and upon it the salted dung patty. Salt has catalytic properties which cause the dung to burn. Eventually, the salt slab exhausts its catalytic ability and becomes useless. It is then thrown out where it can still provide some sure footing in a muddy road.
When Jesus says that the disciples are the salt of the earth, “earth” does not primarily refer to the world of humanity, but to the outdoor earthen oven where dried, salted dung patties are used as fuel. But because one and the same word in Aramaic can mean both “earth” and “clay-oven,” the metaphor easily opens to other symbolisms. The disciples are the salt, that is, catalyst for the earth-oven. Without salt, the oven will not be able to produce fire for cooking and for warmth.
In our situation, we can say that without the catalytic ability of the disciples (of any time), the “earth”—the world of men and women—would not be set on fire. This God-given dignity of the disciples is also their responsibility. If, as disciples, we lose our “saltiness,” we are practically useless.