What if in life we took for granted those good things that we do for others? Would we not care if we did them any more? Would our acts of charity become meaningless? Would the love within us dry up? Would that goodness in us lose its flavor?
In the US we have been conditioned to use salt alternatives, like mixtures of lemon peel and herbs to flavor our foods. Recently a friend hosted a Persian meal at his home. The rice was incredible. His wife had spent six hours or more making it. I'm accustomed to using just steamed rice. The Persian rice was rinsed, soaked for four hours, par boiled, rinsed again, cooked slowly with salt and oil. The salt was "poured in" as she described in a way that she was not originally accustomed to--it took her twenty years to cook this rice. Then the heat was reduced and slow cooked until the rice was tender and a hard shell had formed at the bottom. It was then turned over onto a serving platter so that the hard shell was now on top and the soft rice underneath. Then toasted pomegranate seeds were sprinkled over the dish. The flavor of the rice was amazing.
The salt was what made the dish. Too much would have ruined it. To little and it would not have been memorable. We are called to pop out our faith in the world just like the salt did in the Persian rice giving it that wonderful invigorating quality. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. We cannot hide ourselves, but are called to be that element that brings forth the goodness of those things around us just as salt and light do to those things that it is placed around. In this way, our deeds, our words, will glorify God.
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