Co-Workers of the Truth 8/12

Luke tell us (Acts 1:1-3) that in the forty days after his Ressurection Jesus manifested himself to the eyes and ears of the apostles and explained to them the things that pertained to the Kingdom of God.  In describing the companionship of those days, Luke employs a phrase – a somewhat unusual one – that the ecumenical translation renders as “a meal in common”.

Literally, however, the words mean that the Lord “ate salt with them”.  Salt was the most precious gift by which a host could express his hospitality.  For that reason, it was also an expression of the concept of hospitality as such.  A better translation would: He bestowed this hospitality on them – not simply an external gesture of hospitality, but a hospitality that meant participation in his own life. 

Salt is a symbol of the Passion.  It is also a spice, a preservative, that counteracts death and decay.  Whatever this mysterious word may mean its purport here is relatively clear: Jesus makes the mystery perceptible to the sense and heart of the apostles.  It is no longer just a concept, it incorporates very little of what can be known by the intellect, but their very bodies are affected by its essential content.  They no longer know Jesus and his message solely from without; rather, that message lives in them. 

Another comment of the evangelist seems important to me.  He says that Jesus stretched our his hands and blessed the apostles.  He blesses them as he departs from them.  But the reverese is also true: he blesses them as he remains with them.  That is perhaps the ultimate nature of his relationship with the world and with each of us.  He blesses, and he has himself become a blessing for us.

From Bavarian radio broadcast, 05/16/1985