THE SALT OF THE EARTH

SAINT JUSTIN, MARTYR   

1 Cor 1:18-25; Ps 34:2-9; Mt 5:13-19

Letting the Light Shine for Others

The revelation of God as a Trinity of Persons is a very heartwarming and excellent part of the Good News we have received. It emphasizes the fact that we have a communal nature; human nature flourishes in a community, as it is created in the image of God, who is a Trinity of Persons. This means that a community brings out the best in us. Hence, we have come to understand that community is salvation, and salvation is community. The revelation of God is for our perfection and salvation, for it offers us the community of God that illuminates our minds, enlarges our hearts in the warmth of love, and grounds or roots us deeply in the Father of all spirits. We can compare the perfection and goodness of a human community to a pot of well-prepared soup, wherein every ingredient contributes its best as unique to its nature. We can imagine what the taste of the soup would become if the salt, or any of the ingredients, refused to give itself as a unique component in the soup.

The analogy seems weak when compared to what a community actually is. Our Lord draws on some aspect of this analogy in the Gospel when he calls the disciples salt for the earth. “Jesus said to is disciples: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.” By remaining ourselves individually and being as good and effective as we can be, each of us would serve the common course of our coming together or communion in the family, the Church, and the society at large. But sin has vitiated us of our inherent and natural goodness, disfigured our nature, and contaminated us with impurities. Each of us needs deliverance from the overpowering presence of evil within and around us, the overwhelming yoke of sin on our shoulders, and purification from all that makes us give less than we are really worth. For these ends, the Law and the Prophets were given to us, containing the revelation of God, through the Word and the Holy Spirit. The Law is complemented by the Prophetic Spirit in the revelation of God to us. The Law and the Prophets constitute a single trajectory of theophany that ends with the Son of Man and the Holy Spirit. Just as understanding the Law is impossible without the Prophetic Spirit, following the Son of Man in faith is impossible without the Holy Spirit. So, we hear the Lord say: “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.”

The Son of Man appeared among us to deliver us from our shackles and purify us of all our impurities, that we may become the best we are made to be. Only faith in his life, death, and resurrection frees us from slavery to become what God made us to be. Saint Paul urges us to follow the way of the cross Jesus traces for us, as the only way to self-authenticity. “The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save.” Only the man who truly believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives God and others his best. “Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.” The Trinitarian communion is for all who give their best and their all; for God, in three Persons, gives all to us to invite us to the communion. Saint Justin gave his best and all to God and the community through his life and death. He was born in Nablus, Samaria, at the beginning of the second century. He earnestly sought truth, studied many philosophical systems to arrive at the Christian faith through Platonism. He was a lay itinerant preacher. He travelled to Rome from Ephesus, where he founded a philosophical school and wrote many works in defence of Christianity. He was beheaded in the persecution during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in 165 AD. May his prayers aid us to give our best and all to God and others always.

Let us pray: O God, who through the folly of the Cross wondrously taught Saint Justin the Martyr the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, grant us, through his intercession, that, having rejected deception and error, we may become steadfast in the faith. Through our Lord Jesus, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.