foolish salt

When I was transferred in the seminary almost a month ago, I acquired for myself the biggest room in the building. After living in the cathedral convent in a room so small I can reach everything I need with three short steps, I was made to live in a room where at least five pairs can tango conveniently. The problem with that room is this. A priest once saw in the middle of the night three men in long robes with hoods covering their heads and faces coming out of the room. Another said that one night he heard golf balls falling down on the wooden floor. In the morning he saw the golf balls on the floor in front of the door of my room now arranged in a perfect triangle like billiard balls. No one admitted doing it.


When Msgr. Joemarie, the holy man and a theologian at that, when Msgr. Joemarie was living in that room they told me he made an altar because he thought it was eerie. And I must admit too that one night while I was praying the rosary in bed, something or somebody pulled my rosary from my hands. Anyway when I came to Carmel I told them about this and they advised me to bless my room every night with holy water just before I sleep. They said that even St. Teresa of Avila would do it to drive away evil spirits from her room. And that’s what I do before I sleep.
But what’s in holy water that drives away evil spirits or evil for that matter? Holy water is not just water made holy. It contains also one of the most useful minerals in the world, the only mineral we take directly from the earth and eat. It is called sodium chloride or what we commonly call salt. We know salt as a seasoning, an important or even essential seasoning. We use salt mostly in our food nowadays and it is said that we consume around 12,000 milligrams of salt everyday. If you want to know how much salt is 12,000 milligrams, you shake the salt shaker 226 times and that how much salt you consume. For Filipinos probably we consume even more considering that one of the best viands we have is uga, lamayo, and ginamos, not counting the chippy, salted peanuts and mang .
But salt is not just a seasoning. In ancient times it was used as money and as preservative. Salt was then rubbed on the body of an infant, and a pinch of it is put in its mouth to symbolize the baby receiving wisdom. Salt was considered too costly there is a superstitious belief that if you spill salt it means bad luck and indeed Leonardo da Vinci would used it in his famous painting of the last supper where you find in front of Judas a spilt salt. In the Old Testament Elijah sprinkled salt on poisoned water to drive out the evil that makes the water poisoned thus making the water potable. And until now the church uses salt, bless it and mix it with holy water. My only prayer is that the holy water with its salt content becomes and remains effective so that I can sleep in peace every night freed from hooded men or whatever.
Christ said you are salt, you are sodium chloride. He did not say you should become salt. He said you are salt. By being disciples of Jesus we are already salt.
But what if salt goes bland? What if it does not give taste? The word used by Jesus is moronos. Moronos is a Greek word where the English word moron came from, moron meaning fool or foolish - a foolish salt. What is to become foolish salt? What is a foolish salt?
Imagine yourself cooking a dish. You have all the ingredients, you have all the meat and vegetables and the seasoning, and of course the salt. You mix all these except the salt. The salt is just there but you don’t mix it. You mix everything except the salt. Then you serve the dish. Beautiful dish with all the ingredients but when the guests taste the dish, it tastes bland. And altogether they ask, where is the salt? And you say, well it’s there in the kitchen. Did you mix salt on the dish, they would ask. And you answer, do I have to? Probably they will altogether say, moron, you’re a moron, foolish. But it’s not just you who is a fool or moron for not mixing the salt. For Jesus the unmixed salt is itself also moronos - a foolish salt. An unmixed salt is foolish salt. To have salt but not use it, to have a shaker of salt sitting next to the stove but never to put any into the pot, is foolish salt, unused salt. What's the sense of having it there, if you're not going to add it to the food? A foolish salt.
Jesus said you are salt. He did not say you should become salt for by being his disciple you are already salt. But if you are not mixed, you become moronos, a foolish salt.
The point is, we exist for mixing up with the world, we exist in order to be mixed. It means that for us to do our task of making this world a better place, we need to be out there, being mixed up into people, being mixed up in culture, being mixed up in business and being mixed up in society. As salt we need to give the world a christian flavor and to give flavor we have to be mixed.
I like to see our religious organizations in uniform. But uniforms are only for masses like these. To be what Christ wants you to be, to be salt of the earth you have to go out there with uniforms or not, mix yourself in the crowd and give it a Christian flavor, influence it with your being a DMI, or a CWL or what.
In our first reading, Isaiah said, to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them. To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. That is salt mixed in the problems of the world.
Today is pro-life Sunday. Do you bring with you your opposition to some of the provisions of the proposed RH Bill? Do you make your opposition heard? Are you salt that influences others or are we moronos, foolish salt, unmixed and useless? Salt has to be mixed in the concerns of the world. Salt has to be mixed to influence the morals of the world.
Holy water has salt. I used it every night hoping and believing that I will rest peacefully with the evil spirits driven away from my room. But come to think of it I am salt, we are all salt. And when we are mixed in the world we can drive away the evil that is besetting it.