salt of the earth

"Our salt identity is for the benefit of the earth. Our lives are a mission to bring zest and meaning to the earth...Teilhard de Chardin was afraid people would lose their zest and passion for the development of the world. So he tried to uncover this zest and passion as the deep desire of their hearts,.. He wrote that the 'only worthwhile joy is that of cooperating as one individual atom in the final establishment of a world.'  When his friends said they did not feel this drive in them, he said to them, 'You are not searching to the full depth of your heart and mind. And that, moreover, is why the cosmic sense and faith in the world is dormant in you.' Jesus' words that we are salt of the earth and the light of the world are meant to awaken our cosmic sense and our faith in the world."

quoted from Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels : Year A - On Earth as It Is in Heaven by John Shea (2004) pg 75