Blessed are those who have heart. Blessed are those who love, who build up unity everywhere. Blessed are those who stand with the poor; blessed are those who themselves are poor as beggars. Blessed are those who know themselves as beggars before the Spirit. Blessed are those who are so poor that they hunger and thirst. Blessed are those who feel this hunger and thirst for justice, for the justice of the heart, of love, for the establishment of peace in unity. For they are the people who carry the pain of the world on their hearts, who carry the suffering of the world in their innermost being. They do not think of themselves, for their whole heart is turned toward others.
Yet they are the people who are misunderstood and persecuted because they love justice and do not take part in injustice. This is why they are the salt of the earth. They do not take part in the injustice of mammon. They have no wealth, no savings account, nothing in the bank, nothing invested in houses or land; they have nowhere to go when need comes to them. Jesus tells us not to gather riches on this earth, but to gather the fortune found in love. Let your whole fortune be love, so that wherever you go hearts will open to you. You will be met with hatred because you bring justice, and you will be persecuted and hounded to death for not taking part in injustice. But you will be received with great love in huts which are open for you, and you will be taken in because you bring love.
This is your treasure and your wealth. It will free you of all care. You will be close to nature. You will live with the flowers and the birds, and you will not worry about your clothes or food. You will be one with the birds that find their food, and in harmony with the flowers that are clothed more beautifully than any vain men or women.
This is the new character of salt; this is light. Light makes everything bright and clear. The light meant here is not a cold light. It is the glowing light of hearth and lamp, the light that shines from a ring of torches or that streams from the windows of houses where community is alive. It is the light of truth that exists in love, and the love that rejoices in truth, justice, and purity. It is not the sultry, gloomy love of emotional passion; this brings injustice. It is the love that lightens up faith, that brings clarity to everything. Light is like salt because salt consumes itself, just as a candle burns itself down.
In the Sermon on the Mount, which is a proclamation of love, Jesus speaks of adultery, which can also consist of thoughts and feelings of the heart. Adultery breaks a relationship of faithfulness, truthfulness, and responsible love. But light and salt overcome such things. The same is true when people swear oaths and make vows in order to be believed. Jesus says, “Just by this you prove that no one can believe you. Say simply yes or no. Be completely true.”
People think they should love their friends, who show love to them. But Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” This means that you can never kill anyone. You can never hurt or kill souls, for you must live in absolute love. This love will become so complete that you cannot go to law against another. If someone wants to take your cloak, take off your jacket and give that as well. If someone demands of you one hour’s work, give two. It must be like this with everything. Your life will have a kind of perfection, although you will not be a saint. The perfection will consist in this: you will be very weak and you will make many mistakes; you will be awkward, for you will be poor in spirit and hunger and thirst for justice. You will not be perfect, but you will love. This is the gate and the way. Whatever you desire for yourself, wish the same for others. If you expect something from people, give the same to them.
There is nothing greater than love. There is nothing more holy than love. There is nothing more true than love, nothing more real. So let us hand our lives over to love and seal the bond of love.
■ Spoken at the Rhön Bruderhof, September 22, 1935, in response to visitors’ questions.
Salt and Light
Chapter Three
The nature of salt is salt, or it is nothing. The essence of salt is its action. By itself it has no purpose. Salt is there for the sake of the whole.
Whoever receives God’s life and grasps the nature of his future has taken on the character of salt. What is important to God is genuineness. He does not expect a person to adopt an attitude that is not in accord with his inner self and feelings. Christ sees in his friends those who have his spirit, who breathe his life. The powers of the future world are at work in them, revealing unconditional love, righteousness, and purity. The coming kingdom, which will encompass the whole earth, belongs to God. It opposes all decay; it resists death and all that is insipid, flabby, and weak.
Salt can delay death. We know that doctors postpone death and revive or maintain the regenerative power of an organ by injecting salt. The injustice of the world – sin itself – is the disease of the world’s soul that leads to death. Our mission on behalf of the kingdom is to be the salt of the earth: to stem its injustice, prevent its decay, and hinder its death.
The world must perish in order to be born again. But as long as salt remains salt, it restrains the fulfillment of evil in the world and acts as the power that will one day renew the earth. If the church were no longer to act as salt, it would no longer be the church – it would succumb to death and have to be stamped out. If salt becomes tasteless, how shall it be salted? It is fit for nothing but to be trodden underfoot. Salt by its nature is entirely different from the food it makes palatable. So the salt of the earth should not expect the present age to turn into salt. But the presence of Jesus in the kingdom is a constant warning to the world that without salt it will die. As food is unpalatable without salt, so is the world without the church. And while humankind cannot attempt to act as its own salt, it can recognize the character of death and decay and how it must be combated. A corrective is placed before humanity as a goal to live up to.
Salt can have power only as long as it is different from the surrounding mass and does not fall into decay itself. If it becomes tasteless, it must be spat out. The salt of the earth is where God is, where the justice of the future kingdom is lived out and the powers of the coming order promote organic life and growth. In other words, salt is present where the victorious energy of God’s love is at work. God himself is the creative spirit who overcomes corruption, the living spirit who wakens the dead. He is the God of miracles who can bring forth new birth out of corruption and degeneration, replacing nausea and disgust with joy and well-being.
God’s power, welling up from the depths to flood all of life, surpasses everything that rotten morality and hypocritical social conventions can achieve. God’s word has the strength of salt: the manliness and austere courage that do not swim with the stream and are not infected with corruption. There is simple and concise speech and an unvarnished truthfulness (which, if it lacks love however, is deadly to both the speaker and the one spoken to). There is love that cannot harm, let alone kill, another human being, love that resolves rather to pluck out the evil eye than have it corrupt the whole body. There is loyalty and integrity that never changes, whose word and love stand forever. Finally, there is freedom from everything outward and unessential, a freedom that is ready to sacrifice all possessions and any amount of time, for it is love, love to enemies as well as to friends and brothers and sisters. It is freedom from earthly treasure, freedom from the cares and worries of possessions, a childlike joy in light and color, in God himself and all that he is and gives.
Only this God-given life is the salt that counteracts the spirit of the world, the salt that is death’s mortal enemy. But salt can be nothing else but salt. Whoever has the spirit of Jesus acts spontaneously as salt. Anyone who wants to become salt without being salt from the source, from God, is a fool. When Christ said, “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world,” he was not demanding the impossible but expressing his deepest insight into the very nature of things.
This salt, this life, is the light that can be kindled only in fire. Without fire one cannot expect light. The dark planet Neptune cannot turn into a brilliant sun; neither can the cold light of the moon change into midday heat. Black coal can be ignited and turned into warmth-giving fire, but in order to give off the heat and light it must be burned and reduced to ashes.
A light on a candlestick consumes itself to give light to all in the house. It serves the intimate unity of the household because its