From as long as I can remember, salt was treated as something to limit. To moderate. Heart health, blood pressure, and all those connected concerns — they are always associated with a need to reduce sodium intake. I’ve had to learn that the word “season” in the cooking world means to salt the dish. That salt unlocks flavor. And that salt, remember, is the original preservative. It is why jerky is so salty and also a way to keep meat safe to eat unrefrigerated.
This all makes the metaphor of disciples as the salt of the earth such a strange one. Stranger when Jesus goes into salt losing its saltiness. It makes it sound like a threat — that we could become empty husks, useless.
It is not an existential metaphor, suggesting that this is how humans are to be, but one describing relationship, flavor, joie de vivre! The notion of salt is relative to the Beatitudes that came before it. So, who are we to our neighbors? Do we enhance the world? Make it more livable? Just? Hopeful? Loving? To all of this, make it a yes!