What Does Jesus Mean When He Says That We Will Be Salted with Fire?

I was recently asked (through my Our Sunday Visitor column) about one of Jesus’ lesser known sayings. I would go into a little more detail in today’s post. Here is the passage:

Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another (Mark 9:49-50).

Some argue that these were separate sayings that were just stitched together, but I think otherwise. The logic of the saying seems cogent and unified to me. I will begin with a few observations about salt in those times.

All of these things are caught up in Jesus’ use of salt as an image. Sadly, salt (a necessary ingredient for life) is today treated almost as a poison. But such thinking was not operative in ancient minds.

To apply the image of salt to the Christian life, we should see that the Christian is to purify, sanctify, and preserve this wounded and decaying world by being salt to it. The Christian is called to bring flavor to life in a world that is so often filled with despair and meaninglessness.

1. Everyone will be salted with fire. Two images of salt and fire come together here, but the result is the same: purification. We have already seen how salt purifies. Fire does the same thing through the refining process. Precious metals come from the ground admixed with iron and many other metals. Subjecting them to fire purifies the gold or silver, separating it from the iron and other metals.

Both salt and fire purify by burning, each in its own way. Hence the Lord marvelously brings those two images together, telling us that we will all be “salted with fire.”

Indeed, it must be so. We must all be purified. Scripture says of Heaven, nothing impure will ever enter it (Rev 21:27). St. Paul speaks of purgatorial fire as effecting whatever purification has not taken place here on earth:

If anyone builds on this foundation [of Christ] using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—yet as one escaping through the flames (1 Cor 3:15-15).

The Book of Malachi also reminds us of our need to be purified, to be “salted with fire.”

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver (Mal 3:2-3).

Yes, we must all be salted with fire. We must be purified, both here, and if necessary (as it likely will be), in Purgatory.

2. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? In other words, we have to let the salt of God’s grace have its effect or else we, who are to be salt for others, become flat, tasteless, and good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot (cf Matt 5:13).

What does it mean for salt to become tasteless? Today, we are not used to salt going flat, but salt in the ancient world was frequently less pure. It came from the sea and was admixed with other things. As it broke down, the salt could go flat or become bitter. In that case it was useless except as pavement.

The image is a powerful portrait of a Christian who has become debased, flat. The fall is steep: from a worthy, esteemed, necessary, and helpful place (like good salt) to ignoble pavement, trampled and unappreciated beneath the feet of people who should have been blessed with its flavor. Jesus says elsewhere, if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot (Matt 5:13).

Alas, consider the sad condition of this world, made so because so many Catholics stepped back from being salt and light. Increasingly, the world is therefore hell bound and sin-soaked as never before.

The current contempt of the world for Christians—Catholics in particular—has indeed reduced us to less than pavement dust. We can lament the lack of appreciation for our faith, but a lot of it is due to our lack of saltiness. Salt gone flat is good for nothing, nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, this world thinks of us as flat and bitter to the taste.

We have a lot of work to do to recapture our role of adding spice and flavor to life. The good, the true, and the beautiful must be reintegrated into the lives of Catholics, who have too easily cast them aside.

Bishop Robert Barron speaks of 70s Catholicism as the era of “beige Catholicism,” when all the zest, color, edginess, and zeal of the Catholic faith was painted over and Catholics sought to blend in—even disappear. Today we are seeing the results of salt-gone-flat Catholicism. Little by little, we must recover our salt, our zest, our pep, and even our stinging quality. Flat Catholics are good for nothing.

If the salt will not be salt, there is no substitute for it. Jesus asks rhetorically, if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? There is no substitute for Christians. If we will not be light, then the world will be in darkness. If we will not be salt, then the world will not be purified, preserved, or have anything good or tasty about it at all. The decay of Western culture has happened on our watch, when we collectively decided to stop being salt and light.

3. Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another. In other words, allow the salt, the purification, to have its effect. Only if we do this will we have peace with one another.

Our divisions and lack of peace are caused by our sins. Thus, to accept the purification of being salted with fire is our only true hope for peace. When the Lord burns away my envy, I no longer resent your gifts; I rejoice in them and come to appreciate that I need you to complete me. In this way there is peace. When the Lord burns away my jealously and greed and helps me to be grateful for what I have, I no longer desire to take what is rightly yours nor do I resent you for having it. In this way there is peace. When the Lord burns away my bitter memories of past hurts and gives me the grace to forgive, an enormous amount of poison goes out of my soul and I am equipped to love and to be kind, generous, and patient. In this way there is peace.

Yes, allowing ourselves to be salted with fire is a source of peace for us. And while we may resist the pain of fire and salt, just as with any stinging medicine we must learn that although it is painful it is good for us. Yes, it brings peace; it ushers in shalom.

In short, salt is a enhancer. It enhancers flavor. Salted with Fire means the fire will also enhance. Sounds a little strange until one realizes that this is exactly what “fire and brimstone” is. Brimstone like salt, brings out the best in molten metals like Gold and Silver. In the time of Jesus, brimstone was wildly used for such purposes. It actually burns quite cool compare to other fuels.

Finally, as a biblical proof, please read the following....

1Co 3:11-15

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

None of the above.

For the same reason that a prayerful blessing to an evil person is like placing hot coals upon their heads..

And, in the parable of the tares in the wheat, the weeds will be burned....

When the Holy Spirit moves in and encounters evil, it burns it in the process of transforming it.

God is Love... and Perfect Love casts out fear.

A problem is created when a person holds onto the fear and becomes afraid that the Light of the Divine Bliss will kill them. They experience the feeling of burning in hell.

I’ve been around quite a few people for extended periods caring for them up to and at the time of their death. Usually, there is a period of Divine Bliss just prior to death and I can feel the person slip away into this beautiful feeling as they transcend their physical body and enter Heaven.

But recently, my 97 year old mother died after me caring for her 24/7 for over two years. Three weeks prior to her death, she was crying and said that she was afraid that she was going to hell. I could feel the fear in her hips as it was so strong that it would cramp my left hand if I held it over her hip area of her body.

The next day she stopped eating. Each day I would spend hours in meditation and prayer, asking for the portal to open up and shine the Divine Bliss upon her. But to no avail... I could however see the liquid light of the Holy Spirit upon her.

This continued daily for two weeks. The hospice nurse and I both noticed the entire time that her body temperature was very, very hot to the touch, yet she had no infection.

At the end of two weeks she stopped consuming liquids, except for the small dose of morphine I would give her every 4 hrs. She brought her knees up in a fetal position and her body became stiff, making it awkward for me to turn her over every four hours to prevent bed sores. It was like turning a mannequin. This continued for three days upon which time her body relaxed and straightened out. Again, her body was very, very hot to the touch the entire time. It radiated heat it was so hot. She survived a week with no liquid consumption.

Two things happened that were very odd during this dying process. She began this process at about 90 lbs and during the three week period of dying she stopped eating for two weeks and then no food or liquids the third week, but yet she still had multiple bowl movements and urine purges every day right up to her death. Where they came from was beyond me.

When she died, I was with her. It was about 10 pm. I called the hospice nurse and told her not to bother coming until the next day as I was ok with her being there for the night. I straightened the limbs in order that the body could be moved easily after it became stiff.

The next day when the hospice nurse arrived the body was not stiff at all. I put a clean long sleeve blouse and long pants on her and the body was completely limber and easy to move. There was no rigor mortise... Puzzled the heck out of me.

It was not until after she had died that I realized that the Divine Bliss confronting her fear energy would have been to much for her. Thus the portal did not open. She was afraid of the bright Light of Heaven. It would have been too much and created the discomfort she had feared.... i.e burning feeling of hell!

However, the Holy Spirit came upon her which was not as bright as the Divine Bliss. This Holy Spirit stayed with her for all three weeks transforming the fear to Love and gently cleansed her soul. This is why her body was so hot during the three week period up to her death. (I did notice that all of the fear energy was gone from her hip area prior to her death.)

She slipped from her body and only then did the bright Divine Bliss come upon her to assist in transcending to Heaven.

My point in sharing this story is that the energy of the Holy Spirit was like salt of fire being placed upon her body as it cleansed her soul of the fear. It reminded me of when Jesus went into the wilderness without food or water in his cleansing process, prior to becoming “One with God.” It’s how the process works.

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