One of the most extraordinary women on the earth today, few people would argue, is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa’s life is totally dedicated and devoted to the Master Jesus. She is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and there are few people on earth that could not be deeply moved by her service to the poorest of the poor.
She was born in Albania but now considers herself to be a citizen of India. Her early training, as I am sure you all know, was as a Catholic nun, however, in truth, she belongs to the whole world. She was twelve years old when she decided to turn her life completely over to God. It was her mother who was a holy woman herself who set the example for Mother Teresa.
It was at eighteen years old that she decided to leave home and become a missionary. She never doubted this decision from this point onward. It was in 1946 that she received the inner calling to leave her mission and instead go to the slums to serve the poorest of the poor.
The message she received was quite clear. She was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. Jesus wanted to be cared for in the slum dwellers, the abandoned, the homeless and uncared for. Mother Teresa not only went to serve these people, she also took on the poverty and kind of life of the people she was helping.
She had no money and just relied on divine providence and a simple faith that God would provide for her and those whom she was caring for. This was the only way she could put her love for Christ into action.
On her first trip to the streets of Calcutta she had five rupees to her name when she began. She gave four of them to the poor. A priest came up to her and asked her for a donation to the Catholic press. Mother Teresa proceeded to give away her last rupee. She was on the streets of Calcutta with nothing. Later that day the same priest came back and gave her an envelope containing fifty rupees. A man had heard about her service work and wanted to help her.
To this day Mother Teresa and her organization, the missionaries of charity, have no regular salary, but rely totally on divine providence to supply all their needs for their service work. When the first twelve sisters joined her mission they took the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and charity.
In 1950 the Holy Father approved of her mission. When a new sister joins she spends six months as an aspirant, six months as a postulant and two years as a novice. After this there are six years of temporary vows, then one year before final vows. Seventeen is the youngest woman they can accept.
Their mission is one of total unconditional love. It is to bring Christ to the people and people to Christ. The key to their work is that they see Jesus in every person they serve regardless of the distressing disguises He may be wearing. Mother Teresa’s view is that the world has turned its back on the poor an din doing so it is turning its back on Christ, Himself. Did not Jesus say, "Do it unto the least of these, my brethren, and you do it unto me."
All the Sisters walk together in pairs, with a rosary in hand. For the Virgin Mother is their Mother, and strength and protection. Help is given to all people, Christians and non Christians alike. Everything the Sisters do (prayer, work, suffering) is for Jesus. It is just Jesus that gives them the strength to carry on this life and do it with great joy and happiness. It is Christ they tend in the poor. It is His wounds they bathe, His sore they clean, His limbs they bandage., They are taught to see beyond appearance and to see the "true reality" of who our brothers and sisters really are!
The Sisters wash, sweep, tidy, mend, cook for those that are unable to do so. In one very beautiful story from a book called, "My Life for the Poor" by Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado and Janet N. Plyfoot, Mother Teresa tells of an old man who was very sick, whom the Sisters were helping. One day the old man said, "Sisters, you have brought God here. Now bring the priest also." The priest heard his confession which he had not done for over sixty years. The next day the man died in the peace of God.
Mother Teresa teaches the Sisters to accept everything that happens in life with joy, for this is the best way to show gratitude to God. Mother Teresa believes in action, not just words She teaches that each person she gives to until it hurts, otherwise it is not true giving.
In another very poignant story an atheist came to the home for the dying in Calcutta. A man was brought in from the streets, who had been picked up from a drain unconsciousness and he was covered with maggots. The Sister did not realize she was being watched as she was touching him, and soothing him like Jesus Christ, Himself was in her arms (which He was, in truth). The atheist stood there and watched in amazement and came back to Mother Teresa and said, "I came here Godless and full of hatred. I am going full of God. I have seen God’s love in action. I have seen through those hands of that Sister, through her face, through her tenderness, so full of love for that man. Now I believe."
The day for the Sisters begins at 4:30 A.M. with prayer, meditation, mass and holy communion. Each Sister only owns two saris so one has to be washed each morning. By 7:30 A.M. they are off to the streets. 12:30 they have spiritual reading for a half hour and then a cup of tea. At 3:00 the Sisters go out to the streets again.
At 6:30 they return for adoration of the blessed sacrament. 7:30 is dinner. 8:30 to 9:00 recreation. Then at 9:00 night prayers and preparation of meditation for next morning. Once a week is a "Day of Recollection", and confessions and adorations.
The missionaries of charity is a means of putting their love for Christ in "living action". Mother Teresa has said that what they are doing in the slums, maybe we cannot do. However what we are doing in our lives with our family, work, and friends they cannot do. It does not matter where we are or what we are doing. All that matters is that we all put our love for God or Christ into action wherever we may happen to be.
Mother Teresa believes that the poverty in the West is actually much worse than the poverty in India. Ethiopia, and the Middle East. A plate of rice can satisfy these people. The people in the West are dealing with a poverty of being lonely, unwanted, unloved, shut in rooms, and old age homes with no visitors. In another touching story, a man was picked up from the streets in Melbourne, Australia, who was an alcoholic for many years. He was taken to the "Home of Compassion" in Melbourne. The Sisters treated him like Christ, Himself. The man suddenly exclaimed, "God loves me!" After a few weeks he was released and he never touched alcohol again. The Sisters look at it as they are the ones who are being privileged in being able to serve the poor. In serving them they are serving God Himself.
In another beautiful story, Mother Teresa tells of hearing a child’s cry in the middle of the night at the gate. When she went downstairs to the gate she saw a little boy not more than seven years old. He was crying and proceeded to tell her that he had gone to his father and he didn’t want him. He went to his mother and she didn’t want him, either. Then he said, "But you want me."
On another occasion a group of approximately sixteen Sisters were given permission by the government of India to come and help Mother Teresa in her work for a short time. A couple months later, on leaving, one of the sisters said, "I have received much more than I have given and I can never be the same person again, because I have touched Christ, I have understood what love is, what it is to love and to be loved!"
Another part of the mission of charity work is to help take care of the "lepers". The Sisters are trained properly so there is little possibility of infection, however, the dangers are obvious. When the Sisters are asked who will volunteer for this work every single hand in the congregation goes up.
Mother Teresa has gone to them and told them, "that what they have is a gift of God, that God has a very special love for them, that they are very dear to Him, that what they have is not a sin." An old man who was very disfigured came near to Mother Teresa and said, "repeat that once more. It did me good. I have always heard that nobody loves us. It is wonderful to know that God loves us. Please say that again!"
In Calcutta alone the Sisters take care of 17,000 lepers. The greatest suffering for the lepers is that they are shunned by everybody and wanted by no one. Recently the government has given the Mission of Charities land by the government to rehabilitate them and they are now taking care of over 55,000 lepers. Mother Teresa again emphasizes it is not what we do, but rather how much love we put into what we are doing which is the key. This applies to every single person on planet Earth.
The Mission of Charity Sisters do not preach their religion to people in words. Their preaching is done by example, of putting God’s love in actions, by serving the dying, homeless, the abandoned, the destitute. The people who are coming to help in this great and noble work, are in the majority, not even Christians. In another touching story, a man was picked up from an open drain, and his body was covered with wounds. He was brought to the home for the dying and cared for. Three hours before he died he said, "I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for." He died with a big smile on his face.
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