Salt for the World

​Thomas of Celano tells how one of the early followers of St Francis has been overzealously fasting. He had been trying to deprive his body for the sake of his spirit. The man had been moaning in the night due to his hunger pains but would not eat. St Francis became aware of it and ordered that the table be set with food and had all the brothers come and sit. St Francis began to eat first and he directed all the others to do so as well. He did this “out of charity’s sake so their brother would not be embarrassed.” While they were eating St Francis “wove for his sons a long parable about the virtue of discernment. He ordered them to season with salt every sacrifice to God. With concern he reminded them that in offering service to God each one should consider his own strength. He insisted that it is just as much a sin to deprive the body without discernment of what is really needed as, prompted by gluttony, to offer it too much.”

Discernment is key in the process of initiation. We discern individually and as a community while this process unfolds. St Augustine tells us that when he was initiated he was “signed with his cross and seasoned with his salt…” In the ancient world salt was a valuable commodity. It was necessary for the preservation of food. It contained essential minerals and electrolytes such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc and iodine. A salad is the plate of vegetables on which you sprinkle salt at the beginning of a meal. Roman soldiers received a ration of salt which is the origin of our word salary.
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Christ taught that his followers should be like salt. John the Deacon, states that the catechumen receives salt “to signify that just as all flesh is kept healthy by salt, so the mind which is drenched and weakened by the waves of the world is held steady by the salt of wisdom…” Discernment is the exercise of wisdom. Part of what we are trying to do is learn to perceive when it is the right time to move on and when it is not the time to look back.