To understand what Jesus means by calling his disciples “the salt of the earth,” St. Augustine said that we should keep in mind the two immediately preceding verses about being reviled and persecuted, and about being slandered for the sake of Jesus.

“Rejoice and be glad,” Jesus said, “for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5:11-12). That’s what we should recall while reading these words about salt and light, St. Augustine wrote. We should remember Jesus’ strange words about joy and persecution.

That is, if through fear of persecution, you shrink from bearing witness — shortsightedly forsaking eternal goods for temporal goods — how afterwards can you be of any use to God or to his kingdom? Why, that is, if you lack the courage of your convictions, would anyone believe anything you say? “But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?” Jesus asks (Mt 5:13).

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He is talking about the strength of a disciple’s faith, his or her courage in face of the world’s persecuting hatred and violence. Does the Christian have any courage? Will he or she run away from persecution? Deny the truth? Deny Christ? 

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father,” Jesus will later say (Mt 10:33). That’s what He’s talking about when He talks about the “salt of the earth.”

St. Augustine similarly interprets Jesus’ talk of light and the bushel basket. He thinks about it in terms of preaching. When a preacher, for instance, cares more about bodily comforts than “preaching the truth,” that is, when he worries too much about suffering “annoyances in things physical and temporal,” then that’s exactly what he’s doing, he choosing to be cowardly and unenlightening; he’s hiding the light of truth. He’s doing exactly the opposite of what he was called to do by the light of the world Himself (Jn 8:12).

But, of course, this isn’t merely a temptation for preachers, is it? Among friends, in the family, or at work, each of us often hides the light of Christ, don’t we? Again, remember he’s talking about courage under persecution. Most of us buckle in silence under far less stress than that. We too are often, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, like those who prefer darkness to light (Jn 3:19).

By the measure of salt and light, we all fail at times. The history of Christians is as much a history of valiant holiness and martyrdom as it is also a history of sin and cowardice.

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In that ancient age of persecution, in the third century, they were called the lapsi, the lapsed. These were they who cowered before the threat of violence, offering sacrifice to the Capitoline gods and the other false gods of Rome. These were they who, if they didn’t outrightly deny Christ, thought that they could perhaps at least accommodate Rome’s apostate demands, offering a little pinch of incense for the sake of saving themselves. For what could be the harm in that? For who wants more bloodshed? For why wouldn’t you want to save yourself?

Again, we know these internal negotiations still today. The lapsi remain among us still. Are we the lapsed? What about you? What about me? What I’m trying to say is that these words of Jesus about salt and light are still urgent, relevant even today. Still, it’s a question of conviction, of courage. Do we have any? And if we don’t, what good are we? Why would the world believe us?

Before he was pope, in the book “Salt of the Earth,” then-Cardinal Ratzinger called this “a big temptation.” 

“People would sooner put up with false, impure, untruthful, and evil things than cause or have problems,” he said. “There is a willingness to purchase well-being, success, public regard, and approval from the reigning opinion by dispensing with the truth.” 

What I’m trying to stress is just how universally relevant these words of Jesus still are. I mean, if a future pope identifies this as a “temptation,” then so should we.

Are we light? That is, are we willing to preach the fulness of truth? And are we salt? That is, are we willing to suffer it? These, of course, are not simply questions about whether we’re courageous Christians but whether we’re Christians at all.

Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas, Texas.

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Distributed by OSV News.