From witness to faith - You are the salt of the earth

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot." Matthew 5:13

We belong to a Church that suffers from verbiage when its founder was an incarnate Word. It is symptomatic that Jesus had compared his disciples to salt and light, whose action takes place in silence. Francis of Assisi understood this when he said, "Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words”.

The incarnated gospel does a better job of evangelizing than the proclaimed gospel, because works replace words; in contrast, not only do words not replace works, but they are worthless in the absence of works, or by works contrary to words; works may not need words, but words always need works.

We could unload tons of bibles in the middle of a well populated continent, and not a single person would convert to Christianity because of them. We could also preach the Word of God to the four winds and achieve little else, because "words are carried away by the wind". The Word of God itself, after being spoken by so many prophets, had to become incarnate in order to be credible.

Christianity spreads through human contact, through the witness of life. "See how they love one another", said the Romans in observing the individual and social aptitudes of the early Christians. It is said that the education of children is aerial; what is educational is not so much the advice or even the works the parents do for the children, but their daily behaviour and the environment they create at home; the way they react to situations. The same is true of evangelization, what awakens faith is the silent witness of our daily lives, which is why Jesus exhorted his disciples to be salt and light.

Salt melts snow – In cities where snow is a constant during winter, it is salt that allows the roads to remain open to traffic. The Christian who is salt helps to re-establish communication between people whose relationships have been severed; he is the peacemaker in conflicts. Let us recall the Titanic’s collision with an iceberg, the snow avalanches that buried people alive; that is to say, water in its solid state is more at the service of evil and death than of life. 

Only in its liquid state is water a source of life, because only in this state can it be absorbed by living beings and form an integral part of them. Salt melts ice that causes people to slip, and keeps water in a liquid state; the Christian, who is salt, undoes the traps, the snares, the intrigues, and the plans that the evildoers weave to bring down their fellow human beings.

Salt fixes water in the body – Water and salt go together; the sea is the great reservoir of both. Without salt our bodies would quickly become dehydrated; in fact, little sachets of rehydration salts were the first thing we gave in Africa to people who were easily dehydrated by the high fevers that malaria causes. Just as water is the principle of physical life, the water of Baptism is the principle of Christian life; a Christian who is salt stays faithful to the baptismal promises. In the ancient baptismal rite salt was used; with baptism, we become part of the redeemed, those who possess the water that gushes forth to eternal life.  Without salt, this water escapes us.

Salt conserves and preserves – Salt preserves meat and fish; in the days when there was no refrigeration, this was the way to avoid corruption. Christians, who are salt, prevent corruption in the social fabric of families, institutions, companies, organizations, governments, clubs etc. In institutions where there are authentic Christians, there are no degradation or corruption.

In biology, when a wound opens, the body can be invaded by viruses, germs and bacteria that are harmful to health; salt has the power to kill many of these harmful agents. Similarly, in the fabric of society, in institutions, companies and clubs, there are situations that can cause someone to stumble. Thieves are not born as such, as the saying goes, "the situation makes the thief". The presence of Christians in these places has the same deterrent effect as sentencing in the judicial system.

Salt gives flavour – Just as salt gives flavour to food, the Christian gives meaning to human life. Only Christ can logically answer the three questions that all human beings who come into this world would at some point ask themselves: Where do I come from, where am I going, and what is the meaning of life? Without Christ, human life is meaningless, tasteless and purposeless.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC