You are the salt to the world

Reading a menu is informative, and a good one will stimulate desire and expectation. But it is still not eating and tasting the food. So, too, thinking of ideas in the spiritual domain may prepare us for the experience but are by no means the experience itself. If organised religion today has lost so much credibility and authority it may be because the whole dimension of religious or spiritual experience has fallen to such a low level, especially at a time when people are so hungry for the experience. The low priority given by churches, seminaries and religious teaching generally to contemplative experience has resulted in an exodus into the wilderness for many. It recalls the warning of Jesus: ‘You are the salt to the world. If salt becomes tasteless, how is its saltiness to be restored?’ (Matt. 5.13).

Tasting Wisdom, Laurence Freeman OSB