"Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."
Jesus uses an odd expression in today's Gospel. How is one salted with fire? If I would make peace with others and be desirable in God's sight, how can I be salted with fire?
Certainly, we usually salt our food, especially meat, before cooking it to make it both palatable and desirable. Processed foods are made tastier with salt, and restaurant diners insist upon lots of flavor in their food. And most dining tables feature one or more shakers should anyone want even more salt on their food.
And I suppose there are evolutionary reasons for that. We like sapid, salty food because
"sodium chloride (NaCl), is an essential nutrient that helps the body maintain fluid and electrolyte balance, blood pressure, and cellular homeostasis. It also helps muscles contract and relax, and nerves conduct impulses. The body needs about 500 milligrams of sodium per day to perform these functions." (Google AI)
However, "Adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day (around 1 level teaspoon). This includes the salt that's already in our food and the salt added during and after cooking. Babies should not have much salt, because their kidneys are not fully developed and cannot process it." (Google AI)
For that very reason, many people have to avoid restaurants and processed foods:
"The primary health effect associated with diets high in sodium is raised blood pressure, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, gastric cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, Meniere’s disease, and kidney disease." (World Health Organization)
Pity the poor wife who desperately tries to keep her husband healthy while he complains incessantly about her unsalted, insipid food.
The Lord's salted with fire apparently alludes to that dual process of preparing food with fire and salt to make it desirable and enjoyable.
But we have a similar ambivalent relationship with fire. Naked creatures that we are, unless we live in equatorial zones, we need fire to keep warm against the cold. It's more of a necessity than a luxury. But we can't get too close to the flame. And everyone has been burned.
We know burnout; we know the burning heat of shame. We may be once burned, and twice shy after disappointment or humiliation, but grace teaches us to desire love and be loved again. We also hear of that burning desire of the mystics who describe their burning desire for God's love and God's insatiable love for us.
Jesus's expression, "be salted with fire," speaks of intense love with its longing, fearfulness, and occasional betrayals. I used to say to the Veterans in the Substance Abuse Program, "If you turn forty and haven't screwed up yet, you ain't even trying!" Everyone needs to be burned, and will be burned, on our way to salvation. And we may even need salt poured on our wounds to heal them.
We learn the full dimension of the cross and it's Bearer as fiery salt teaches us, "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.