Today's readings for Mass, that is, the Epistle and the Gospel, play a counter-harmony to each other. In the Epistle (Jas. 5.13-20) the Holy Apostle James extols what the dedicated life of the Christian should be, summing it up with a call to confession, repentence, and bringing the wayward back into the fold. In the Gospel (Mk. 9.38-50), Jesus starts out with admonishing His disciples not to drive away any who want to follow Him (which is the negative expression of the close of the Epistle passage), then warning them about the insidious effects of sin in the life of the believer, and that the believer must make every effort to expunge it, summing it up with a statement that if we lose our "salt", that is our credibility, our fire, our relationship with God, then we are good for nothing.
How often do we do that today? How do we throw up roadblocks to those who would otherwise joyfully follow Jesus? How by our wretched and sinful examples do we drive away from God people who might come to know God and in so doing gain eternal life? The more we look at the scandals, the recriminations on social media, the shrill and hypocritical rhetoric, and the plain, unadulterated revelry in hatred and bigotry, the more we see those who may be favourably disposed to the Gospel of Christ be driven far from it.
Our Lord has a very dire warning for us. "It is better," He says, "... a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea." (Mk. 9.42b) That is a horrible fate, but He says that it is better than for what is actually in store for such who drive people away from God. St. James offers the flip side of that coin: "...Whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." (Jas. 5.20) The message is clear, we must do everything in our power not to drive people from salvation by adopting a holy life, not resting on the "promise" of salvation and going on as if a simple one-time prayer were enough.
Salt acts as a preservative, staving off corruption in the food that is salted. So also does the salt of a holy life preserve us from corruption, that is, the separation of ourselves from God, which is the ultimate corruption.
Is it easy? Nothing worthwhile ever is. It entails painfully cutting away those things that lead us astray. Jesus acknowledges that this is painful. St. James states however that the prayers of the righteous can effect much change. Let us therefore pray for each other, that we may be charitable, gracious, living holy lives, and reconciling ourselves with God,
Manual (human or animal powered) millstone as would have been used in the first century AD.