Talks on the Sacramentals, by Msgr Arthur Tonne - Salt

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its strength, what shall it be salted with? St. Matthew, 5:13.

The Bible records many wonders performed by the Prophet Eliseus. Among them is one worked in the city of Jericho. There the prophet healed the waters of a well with salt. Let the sacred writer tell it:

"And the men of the city said to Eliseus: 'Behold the situation of this city is very good, as thou, my lord, seest; but the waters are very bad, and the ground barren.'

"And he said: 'Bring me a vessel, and put salt into it.'

"And when they had brought it, He went out to the spring of the waters and cast the salt into it, and said: 'Thus saith the Lord: I have healed these waters, and there shall be no more in them death and barrenness.'

"And the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Eliseus which he spoke." 4 Kings, 2:19-22.

The people of the Orient also used salt to clean and toughen the skin of a new-born child, as we read in Ezechiel, 16:4. Strewing salt upon land meant that it was being dedicated to the gods. The Jewish law prescribed salt for the sacrifices and for the loaves of proposition, according to Leviticus, 2:13. In the New Testament salt symbolizes wisdom, as we read in St. Matthew, S:[13].

Blessed salt is a sacramental of the Church, one rich in meaning and symbolism. There are two kinds of blessed salt--baptismal salt and the blessed salt. We might mention five uses of salt in the ceremonies of the Church:

1. In Baptism the priest blesses some salt and puts a small amount into the mouth of the child with these words: "Receive the salt of wisdom; let it be to thee a token of mercy unto life everlasting."

There follows a prayer in which we ask God graciously to look upon the person to be baptized--"who tastes this first nutriment of salt, suffer him no longer to hunger for want of being filled with heavenly meat."

2. Another salt is exorcised and blessed in the preparation of holy water for the Asperges that precedes the High Mass on Sunday, and for use in homes, at weddings and funerals, in blessing religious articles, and in other ways. Baptismal salt and blessed salt may both be used repeatedly without a new blessing.

3. The appendix of the Roman Ritual gives a blessing of salt for the use of animals.

4. Salt is also blessed and mixed in the water, together with ashes and wine, used in the consecration of a church.

5 Salt may also be used, although it need not be blessed, for cleansing holy oil from the fingers.

From a material standpoint salt is practically a necessity. The Roman army allowed each soldier a portion of salt. Later he received an allowance of money to buy salt. From this comes our English word 'salary.' In certain parts of Africa and Tibet cakes of salt have been used as money. In by-gone days salt was offered to a guest before all other foods; it was a symbol of friendship. That may be the origin of the superstition that spilling salt is a bad sign.

Such an important element will also have deep spiritual symbolism. We will first note its meaning in the baptismal ceremony:

1. Salt is pungent and biting: this reminds the person being baptized that as a Christian he must be prepared for sufferings and trials.

2. Salt dissolves quickly in the mouth: these sufferings will be of short duration.

3. Salt gives a pleasant taste to food: the one being baptized must relish, must have a taste for spiritual things.

4. Salt preserves things from decay and corruption: the corruption of the soul is sin, which is taken away completely by Baptism.

5. Salt is also a symbol of wisdom: that is what Christ meant when He said to His apostles:

"You are the salt of the earth." St. Matthew, 5:13.

That is what St. Paul meant when he wrote:

"Let your speech, while always attractive, be seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." Col. 4:6.

6. Since it cannot corrupt and even keeps from corruption, salt is a sign of everlasting life. One can understand how the devil hates salt, since it is an emblem of eternity and immortality. This thought is brought out in the blessing of salt for holy water. It speaks of "salt from which the evil spirit has been cast out for the health of the faithful, and that there may be banished from the place in which thou hast been sprinkled, every kind of hallucination and wickedness, or craft of devilish deceit, and every unclean spirit."

How fittingly that holy water is used to drive out, by the power of God, all the evil spirits. That is why you take holy water upon entering church and make with it the holy sign of the cross upon yourself. You are washing away, driving away all evil thoughts, all influence of the evil one, especially while you are adoring the Holy One in His temple.

Just as that faithful man of God, Eliseus, purified the waters of the well at Jericho by putting salt into it, so your man of God. your priest, by blessing holy water with salt and by sprinkling it on the people as he marches down the aisle of church, drives away the devil.

This humble yet helpful sacramental of salt must make us realize anew that Mother Church, guided by God, makes use of the simplest of God's creatures to be the instruments of God's graces and helps. Amen.