Recently, a national newspaper featured a review of a book that addresses the challenges of transitioning from an active career to the reduced activity associated with retirement.  The book’s author acknowledged that concerns about health and income feature prominently in the planning process for retirement but added that there is another major issue to address, namely, the need to maintain a sense of purpose in one’s life. 

The author said that those planning to retire don’t always think about their need to feel significant, appreciated, and valued by others.  Employment automatically imparts responsibilities and expectations to workers; all those cease when employment ceases.  The book’s author wrote that maintaining relationships that affirm one’s experience of being valued is a necessity in retirement. 

I understand, and value, the author’s observation that feeling valued by others is necessary, but I think the author failed to perceive a crucial aspect of maintaining healthy relationships. 

The experience of being valued by others is much like the virtue called humility.  As the old adage says, humility is a badge you lose as soon as you put it on.  The adage states the obvious, namely, that if you draw public attention to your acts of humility, you are not engaged in acts of humility but rather, acts of attention-getting.   

Valuing others and feeling valued by others is much the same as behaving with humility: if it’s done for the sake of being recognized as valuable, it is only about oneself and not at all about others.  If one’s sense of self-worth is dependent entirely on other people, then it is neither self-worth nor does it value others.  Today’s Gospel reading provides a helpful perspective on this issue. 

Jesus posed a rhetorical question to the crowds, “You are the salt of the earth.  But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?” (Mt 5:13)  This is a rather strange metaphor, as salt does not lose its flavor.  The Scripture commentator John Pilch, SJ explains this unusual metaphor by referring to a practice common even today in middle eastern cultures.   

Many pre-industrial cultures use communal ovens made of clay for daily cooking tasks.  In the ancient middle east, these ovens used salt blocks as catalysts to make low-quality fuels burn hotter.  After long-term exposure to high heat, the salt blocks lost their catalytic capacity and needed to be replaced.  Pilch suggests that this saying by Jesus should be translated, “You are like the salt block in an earthen oven.  But if the salt loses its effectiveness, how can it be restored?  It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Mt 5:13) 

Even in the absence of the helpful cultural insight, however, the meaning of the saying is easy to understand.  When something becomes useless, there is little else to do but replace the useless thing with a useful one.   

Please note how Jesus defined the quality of “usefulness” in people. He said, “your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5:16)  Jesus’ definition of usefulness is based not on drawing attention to oneself but on drawing attention to God’s goodness.  The aspect of interpersonal relationships absent from the book mentioned above is that self-serving behavior never rises above the moral level of selfishness.  That is to say, if you want to be valued solely so that you can feel good about yourself, other people are unlikely to value you as a person. 

As no reasonable, decent person wants to be valued on the basis of their selfishness or self-concern, it is sensible to look for a basis for being good and doing good that is beyond oneself.  Jesus’ teaching provides that basis, and it applies to all people regardless of age, ability, or employment status. 

Jesus’ teaching, and Catholic moral theology, say that actions are truly good only when done rightly and for the right reason.  This teaching denies the presumed value of good intentions as well as the common practice of using less-than-good means to accomplish a presumed good end.  A common adage expresses this same thought: “The end does not justify the means.” 

Perhaps, an example will illustrate the point.  The national government of Iran says it wants to promote law and order, but it pursues its goal by killing adults and jailing children.  Law and order are good goals for every government but using violence or injustice to achieve that goal negates any goodness in the goal. 

Everyone considers themselves and their behavior to be good; for this judgment to be true, however, an objective requirement must be met. Being good and doing good is possible only on the foundation of ultimate good, who is God.  This is true regardless of one’s age or social status.  Being good and doing good for one’s personal benefit falls far short of true goodness because true goodness is pursued for its own sake. 

Do you want to be valued appropriately for your talents and accomplishments?  Jesus says this happens when one’s actions focus attention on God’s goodness.