Memories of Mother

Mother Teresa, originally uploaded by Jeevan_.

The entire world was saddened to learn of Mother Teresa’s death Yesterday (who died on 5 September, 1997). People from every continent, from every walk of life and from every persuasion grieved her loss and spoke of her with love. Again and again, she was praised as one of this century’s great humanitarians.

That she was – but she was so much, much more. In truth, Mother Teresa’s life and work cannot be explained apart from her clear, uncompromising Catholic faith and her profound love for the Lord Jesus. That is the key, which unlocks who she was and what she did as a lover of the poor and a universally respected advocate for human life and dignity.

As a young woman growing up in her native Albania she experienced the faith of her parents. Successful and prosperous, they were also generous to those in need. From her father, a well-traveled merchant, the future Mother Teresa learned of human suffering in various parts of the world. From her parish priest, she learned about the foreign missions. As she grew to adulthood, she sensed God’s call to religious life and to missionary activity. At the age of 18 she accepted His call in faith and in loving trust by becoming a Sister of Loretto and by embarking to far-off India. It was in India that she received much of her religious formation deepening her already ardent faith and love. It was also in India that she encountered the poor as she labored in a hospital in Bengali, and later, in a school in Calcutta. Wherever she went and whatever she did, her faith and trust in Jesus prompted her to open her heart and hands to the poor.

Yet the Lord was asking more of her. He was asking her to dedicate her whole life to the poorest of the poor. In 1948, the Holy Father granted her permission to begin a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity – dedicated to the poor and abandoned on the streets of Calcutta. All this she did as a woman of faith. Her philosophy of life was simple. She summed it up this way: Give God permission to work through you. The work is God’s work. The poor are the Lord’s poor. Put yourself completely under the influence of Jesus, so that He may think His thoughts with your mind, [and] do His work through your hands.

The Jesus she knew in deep prayer she met also in the poor. At the very heart of her life and mission are the words from St. Matthew’s Gospel: ‘whatever you did for one of these least brothers, you did for me.’ Truly, she recognized the Lord Jesus in the abandoned leper dying in the streets, in the person ravaged by AIDS, in the newborn baby in need of a home, in children, hungry and neglected – and she taught her sisters to do the same. Mother saw Jesus in the poor and the dying but she also led them to Jesus and His love. She did not pity the poor but loved and respected them as human beings called to eternal life and glory. Her goals were simple and straightforward: to comfort them in hunger and illness and to open their hearts to God’s love. She knew they needed bread, but also the living word of God. She knew they needed water, but also peace, truth, and justice. She knew they needed a home but also a loving embrace and deep respect.v

We pray that she will rejoice forever, accompanied by those whose lives she touched.
May the angels lead her to paradise.
May the martyrs welcome her.
May she rejoice in the Holy City Jerusalem
where Lazarus is poor no longer!