Keeping It Salty

So the blog name is an obvious inside-the-Christian-circle reference to that famous bible verse- "Salt is the secret ingredient that makes all my food yummy." Oh wait, no. That's my mum. The one I'm talking about is: 'You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world.' Matthew 5:13

I am a full time Catholic volunteer and I have been for the past six years. When I was a lot younger, I wanted to change the world. I was a born activist (except for being lazy), outraged at injustice, quick to fire up in the defense of the oppressed. (That included stopping two ninth graders from beating up a skinny eighth grader while the other girls stood on the sidelines and cried- yes, obviously a memory I treasure.)

I had a 'normal' job for a while, but I would keep having superhero/spy movie dreams, which involved me saving the world in a dramatic and exciting manner. Oh, the idealism of youth, right? 'You'll grow out if it,' they said.

Whom did I want to save? The lost, the alone, the friendless, the unloved, the ones adrift in what seemed like an cold world. The ones trapped in their own sin, desperate for meaning, "Why don't you just become a social worker?" a friend asked once. But I didn't think social workers could change the world in a way that I thought it needed saving. The world didn't need more social workers, but more lovers.

Growing up in a Catholic charismatic community, I attended retreats and prayer meetings, parish summer clubs and camps. Not everyone who grew up in that world stayed in that world. (In other words, we weren't brainwashed.)

But in my teenage years and early twenties, in the course of all those church activities, I met a Lover, who changed everything. I found the Light that I was sure the world's darkness needed. And I heard a call from Him- 'People are looking for Me. Bring Me to them.'

Again, how? By word and by deed. By witness of life. That's where the salt comes back in. As I started working as a full time Catholic volunteer, I found a world that was hungry for authentic witness. 'Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.' Pope Paul VI

I thought of the people who influenced me in my life, who made me want to take a deeper look into my Catholic faith. They were all people of joy, people who lived differently. They were salt and light in a world that was tasteless without what they had to offer.

“To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.” Cardinal Suhard

I've realized through the years that saving the world is not usually something very dramatic. It is living a salty life. It is being fully who I am called to be, and pointing to the One who made me that way. It is living differently, responding differently, and seasoning the world with the Love that changes everything.

I started this blog to share some glimpses into this salty life.

Keep it salty, Christians!