‘EATING SALT TOGETHER’
- Feb 4
- 1 min read
200 Words: Ancient Promises, Risen Fulfilment
Jesus says:
You are salt of the earth and light of the world (Matthew 5).
Salt preserves and gives flavour. Light penetrates darkness.
Interestingly enough, Luke speaks of Jesus’ resurrection with the image of salt:
Jesus presented himself as alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, for forty days being seen by them and speaking about the kingdom of God and eating salt with them (Acts 1).
So, Jesus appears to the disciples, he speaks with them and he eats with them in his resurrection:
For a correct understanding of the third element, which like the first two extends over the ‘forty days,’ the word used by Luke – synalizómenos – is of great significance.
Literally translated, it means ‘eating salt with them.’ Luke must have chosen this word deliberately. Yet what is it supposed to mean?
In the Old Testament, the shared enjoyment of bread and salt, or of salt alone, served to establish lasting covenants (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, 271).
Can we sense the true meaning of the Eucharist?
It is the covenant whereby Jesus appears to us, speaks to us and dines with us.
We can be ‘salt’ and ‘light.’
AMEN.
