Be Salty

Reflection for February 8, 2026 – The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, we will hear many of Jesus’ well-known parables: “salt of the earth,” “lamp under a bushel basket,” and “city set on a mountain.” Find the daily reading here.

I want you to close your eyes. Are they closed? (I’m serious.) Okay. Now think of the greatest saint in history.

I don’t care who you’re thinking of. It’s going to be different for everyone. Just think of that person. Think of his or her life. And answer the question: Why is he or she a great saint?

You’re all thinking of different people, but the answer is the same for everyone. And it’s not “Because he did great things for God” or “Because she sacrificed everything she had for the poor.” Those answers show evidence of the reason. But the reason is something more.

The greatest saints in history were not great at holiness. God brought holiness about within them because (ding ding ding! Here’s the answer!) the greatest saints in history were great at being who they were meant to be.

Not who they wanted to be. Not who they thought they should be. Who they were meant to be.

Simply put, they gave themselves to God. All of themselves. Flaws and all. And God took them, in their totality, and said: “Now watch this.”

Just imagine if salt was ashamed of being salty. Imagine if it looked at the sodium content on its nutrition label and thought, “That’s embarrassing,” and decided it was going to stop being salt. Well, great. Now it’s just a box of tiny rocks.

Wouldn’t it have been better for the salt to trust the baker using it?

There is a plan for each of us. There is a path to holiness for each of us. This path doesn’t bypass our flaws or our weaknesses; it incorporates them. It transforms them. It fulfills them.

So be salty. Be who you were meant to be.

©LPi