Mt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.”
This is the reason why you must not fail in times of tribulation—as though he were saying: it is fitting that you endure tribulations steadfastly, because you are the salt of the earth, that is, the strength of earthly people. Therefore, your failure would be the failure of others as well, since you are called both the salt and the light of the world.
For two things are necessary for the faithful: illumination of the mind and rightness of action. Indeed, the apostles are light, through whom people are enlightened and cleansed from the darkness of ignorance; and they are called salt, as though salus (salvation), by which those same people are preserved from corruption of mind and body. For just as salt preserves meat from corruption, extinguishes worms within it, and dries up excess moisture, so too the apostles, having enlightened some, ought to preserve them in a good resolve, extinguish the worms of vices, and dry up all carnality.
Hence in the Psalm it is said: “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 26 [27]). For if someone knows God but does not possess firmness of purpose, it profits him nothing. And elsewhere the prophet is told: “I have made you a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49).
Salt also makes land sterile, for land that is salty is barren. For this reason, when cities were destroyed, the victors plowed up the foundations and scattered salt over them, to signify sterility and desolation. The apostles are called salt because their preaching is the seasoning of others. For no preaching is of value unless it is supported by the seasoning of apostolic doctrine.
“But if the salt loses its savor,” that is, if your strength fails in tribulation, “with what shall it be salted?” that is, how will the weaker people be strengthened? “It is good for nothing.” As though he were saying: after those who are the heads and examples of others have failed, they are fit for no use except to be cast out from the office of teaching and trampled underfoot by men—that is, despised by the carnal.
Or otherwise: “If the salt,” that is, those who are called the seasoning, “loses its savor,” meaning if they fail by sinning or by falling into some error, “with what shall it be salted?”—as though he were saying: the apostles are the beginning of doctrine and have no teachers set over them; if, therefore, they themselves fail, who will salt them—that is, who will instruct them?
The same must be said of the pope: once preaching tastes of heresy, it is good for nothing except to be cast out from the Church and despised by men. Properly speaking, those supreme pastors are called salt who cannot be deposed by others. Or if we wish to understand this of other prelates, then it is read thus: “With what shall the earth be salted?”—that is, how shall those earthly subjects under them be seasoned?
Note that any prelate who deviates from the faith must be cast out and accused by men. But if his life is bad while his preaching remains good, he is to be tolerated by men, according to that saying: “Do what they say, but do not do what they do.” But if the life of the shepherd corrupts the life of the sheep, Gregory and other saints have decreed that he must be expelled.
Mt 5:14 “You are likewise the light of the world.” Even if the world is not at some point illuminated by it, it nevertheless remains within it. “A city cannot be hidden…” Someone might say: could they not remain hidden in a corner and still be good? The answer is no, because you are the city fortifying the Church—namely Christ—and therefore it cannot be hidden.
Mt 5:15 “Nor do they light a lamp and place it under a bushel, but on a lampstand.” Here another metaphor is used: the lamp is the light in the vessel of humanity. Christ did not hide it out of fear of those present, nor out of love of concealment; nor did he hide it within the figures of the old Law, as though he wished those rites always to be observed. Likewise, the apostles did not place it under the bushel of fear, or hope of temporal gain, or under Jewish rites, but proclaimed the truth openly to all.
Mt 5:16 The lampstand is the Church; “in the house” means within the Church. “And they glorify your Father…”—that is, the end is not human praise, but that they may glorify God in us, not with the intention that you yourselves be praised.
CONTINUE right side B
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