Memorial of St. Barnabas
Homily for the Memorial of St. Barnabas
Salt shakers are common, ordinary, every-day items in our 21st century lives. We use salt to flavor our food, and we also use it to melt ice on roadways and the sidewalks. However, there were many more uses for salt in the first century of the Middle East. Salt was used to preserve food, particularly meat, which was dried and stored away for future use. It was also used as currency. The wages of Roman soldiers were paid in salt. Armies used salt as a means of destruction by strewing it on the soil so that it could not be used to raise crops. Finally, salt blocks were also used at the base of the communal ovens in Israel as salt is a catalyst for fire. Those of you who have been close to the new fire of the Easter vigil may already know that I use a combination of salt and rubbing alcohol to produce a smokeless flame at the beginning of our vigil.
When Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, he could have meant anyone of the various uses for salt that the people of his time employed. However, I lean toward the notion of salt as a catalyst for fire. I choose this particular use because of what Jesus has to say about salt which has lost its savor. He says that it is good for nothing but to be thrown on a roadway and trampled underfoot. In fact, when the salt block in the communal ovens was no longer able to produce heat in the ovens, this is exactly what people did with it. It was thrown out onto the roads to provide traction for the beasts and the vehicles that used the various roadways.
When I think of calling people the salt of the earth as a catalyst, I am led to believe that Jesus wishes us to set the world on fire with the Good News of the Gospel. At another point in the Gospels, Jesus tells us that he has come to set the world on fire, a baptism of fire. It is in this vein that we remember that fire was also an image for the presence of God. The burning bush on Mount Horeb, the presence of God atop Mount Sinai, and the tongues of fire that appeared above the heads of those gathered in the upper room on Pentecost were all images that drew the imagination to the presence of God.
At the very end of the Gospels, Jesus commissions his disciples to preach the nearness of the kingdom of God and the forgiveness of sins which have been two major themes in his own preaching. We celebrate today the memorial of one of the earliest disciples, St. Barnabas, who was among those who were commissioned to preach the Gospel. We, too, have been given this same commission. Through the example of our lives as Franciscans who have chosen the Gospels as our way of life, let us set the world on fire to draw people to God’s love.
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