I remember as a kid, my dad telling stories about working in
the salt mines under Lake Erie when he was a younger man. Morton Salt has about 3 miles of salt mines
2000 feet underneath our great lake. . This
salt is an important source of revenue for the State of Ohio, and the salt is
utilized in a number of ways: particularly as a seasoning for our food and on
our roads during the winter. With 3 miles of salt mines, it kind of makes you wonder why we supposedly have a
winter salt shortage this year. But I degress.
Immediately following the Lord’s teaching on the beatitudes,
which we heard last Sunday, the Lord says that his disciples must become like
salt. Talk about bringing us down to earth. In order to attain heaven, you must
become like salt.
Salt was used in a number of ways in Jesus’ time, just as it
is for us. And those different ways salt is used can certainly help us to
understand what Our Lord meant when he told us to become like salt.
First salt
is used as a seasoning. So, too, Christians are to be a sort of seasoning to an otherwise bland
world. There is nothing more interesting—no
one more full of life than a true Christian saint filled with the life of
Christ. The saints are the best season we can imagine, and we must
become like them. Do you know the names of any famous athletes, actors,
businessmen, or politicians from the 13th century? But we certainly
remember names like Francis, Clare, Dominic, Anthony of Padua, Elizabeth of Hungary,
Hedwig, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Raymond of Penafort, Albert the Great. So
why would we want to be like athletes and actors? Strive to be truly remembered
for your holiness, for seasoning people’s lives with the goodness of God.
How else is salt used? Salt is necessary for life. Even the
most stringent nutritionists have to admit that salt is a necessary component
of the human diet. The ancients, too, understood, salt was necessary for good
health. Similarly, Christians need to be
salt in this way. The health, the survival of a society depends on
Christians—doing what Christians do, infusing societal life with the life and
goodness and truth and beauty of God. Our mission isn’t just to come to Church
and leave our faith at the door. Our mission is to infuse this neighborhood
with the saltiness—the life—of Christ because without the life of Christ it
will die.
Salt is also
a Preservative: In the days before refrigeration, salt made preserving food.
Salt keeps food from decay. So Christians, have the task of preserving our
world from spiritual decay. Seeing many of the strong Christian values
in our country begin to fade, Christians need to take up again this call to
preserve. Christians must preserve our world—and protect our children—from spiritual
rot.
Salt is also a Purifier: The salt in the oceans of the world
act as a natural cleaning agent, and most water purification systems use salt
as a "purifier." Christians are to be the world’s purifiers: opposing
the corrupting powers of malice and perversion and greed. Each of us too needs
to seek the constant purifying of our minds from the world’s corrupting
influence. In his second New Testament Letter, St. Peter writes, “make every
effort to be found without stain or defilement.” So, we must constantly purify
our minds through study of God’s word, interiorizing the doctrines of our
faith, imitating the example of the saints.
Salt also has a destructive power. As a kid, I’d run to the kitchen to get a
salt shaker when I found a slug in the garden.
In the ancient world, when an army would conquer their enemy, they’d
knock down the walls, raise the city to the ground, then really to rub it in
sometimes they would cast salt upon the earth so that nothing would ever grow
there again. Are Christians to be a destructive power in society? In a sense we
are! We are to be a an opposing force against the powers of evil and the
manifestations of the Antichrist.
Satan is like that slug, a garden slug, and he is diminished
when Christians really get salty with the life of Christ. We are meant to
disrupt the work of the antichrist to deface the dignity of the human person.
Satan seeks to pervert life, lead souls away from God, and we must get salty in
this battle. We need to take back territory and claim it for Christ.
Another use for salt: as we know all too well, living here
in Cleveland—Salt is used for the melting of ice. Salt makes things flow that
are frozen. The Church’s task is to
loosen up a world frozen in its own self-regard, frozen in violence and
selfishness, frozen in habits of “oppression, false accusation and malicious
speech” to quote our first reading. When
we are faithful to Christ, we have a melting influence.
Think of the power of one saint. Saints melt hearts frozen
against Christ. Hardened atheists have come to Christ by finding about the
goodness of Francis, the piety of Padre Pio, the selfless charity of Mother
Theresa and Elizabeth Ann Seton. Many souls have been converted to Christ
because they saw Christians selflessly engaged in acts of charity. When the
Church is faithful, we have that melting influence to get cold hearts flowing
in the right direction again.
Finally, just like it’s used on our roads, in ancient times
salt was also used to prevent people from slipping on slippery paths. Christians are called to help souls from
slipping into damnation—promoting the teachings of Christ on a societal level
which give stability to civilization, pointing out when fellow Christians begin
down slippery paths away from God. We call them fallen Catholics because they
have slipped. The reason why we are to take Catechesis and strong moral
formation is to help people from slipping and falling
You and I are called to be salt. But the Lord warns that
salt can lose its flavor. Perhaps maybe you have lost a bit of enthusiasm for the
Christian life. Perhaps Christ is not the vital force in your marriage that he
should be. Maybe you don’t feel like you
are having a positive influence on your neighbors, or the fallen away members
of your family.
The solution: Pray, pray, pray. You cannot be salt without constant
prayer. A priest who does not pray is
worthless, husbands and wives who do not pray will not have the strength and
power to faithfully live out the Christian responsibilities of the marriage
sacrament. Young people who do not pray
will not have the strength to withstand the nearly unending torrent of evil
from our culture.
Salt: an ordinary substance with tremendous potential, which
is why the Lord tells us to be salt: ordinary people with tremendous potential,
many uses, vital to life and civilization. We must become salt by bringing
Christ into our workplaces, into our conversations, into our civic life, in our
family life. Be salt, my friends, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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