ധ്രുവദീപ്തി // The Canonization of Mother Teresa // Mother Teresa, A Life Lived for Jesus Christ. // Elsy Mathew, Bangalore.

Divine Thoughts / 

         Mother Teresa, A Life Lived for 

Jesus Christ...// 

(The Canonization of Mother Teresa 
will be celebrated tomorrow 
on 04. 09. 2016 
by 
Pope Francis 
in Vatican, Rome).

                               

   Elsy Mathew, Bangalore.

 St. Mother Theresa

The wrinkled smiling face shining out from her blue trimmed white religious robes, surrounded by poverty-stricken children and people of the streets of Calcutta,  is but one of the enduring images of Mother Teresa.  Mother Teresa devoted her life to working with the poor in Calcutta. She is an icon for charity. By the time of her death in 1997, over 500 Missionaries of Charity Centers were operating in over 100 countries. Mother Teresa’s mission in her own words in 1950 was: “…to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to society and are shunned by everyone.

Mother Teresa did not know many languages, but when it came to communicating she was an expert. Her most eloquent way of communicating was through her smile. Mother Teresa and her Sisters are all blessed with this seal of their profound happiness. Their spontaneous, frequent, and natural smiles spring from their enjoyment of the simple things of life.

St.  Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was one of the greatest human beings of all time! A gift for the poor and the destitutes. She had received many high profile awards. Some of them were: Padmashree Award in 1962, Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Bharat Ratna in 1980, The Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth, Medal of Freedom. If anyone was worthy of receiving awards, private audiences with queens, presidents and other world leaders, honorary degrees, the Nobel Peace Prize, and many other distinctions of honor – it was Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa was very frequently asked for her autograph. But she never stopped at just her signature if she had time. For those she knew better, she wrote something personal, very fitting, encouraging, at once spiritual and intimate. No matter how busy she was, she always ended her letters and talks with, God bless you!

A Few Incidents in her Life.

 Mother Teresa's Parents

It was rainy season in Calcutta. One morning Mother Teresa and Sr. Agnes noticed something looking like a bundle of rags lying on the footpath of a busy Calcutta street. A closer look indicated that it was a woman in an unconscious state, but still breathing. The two sisters put her in a rickshaw and rushed her to the Hospital. In spite of their pleading the hospital staff and the doctor on duty refused admission to the woman as the hospital was full and the woman’s cure was impossible. Mother Teresa put the woman on her lap and sat on the floor and pleaded with the doctor to treat her. “Mother, there is no space even to sit. She cannot be saved. There is no possible treatment for her! Take her to the place from where you picked her up. When she dies the Municipal van will take the dead body away!” was all the doctor said! Mother’s heart wept, hours rolled by, until it was time for the duty officer to leave. The doctor stopped;  perhaps there was a prick of conscience. He got a mattress placed on the floor, but was unable to pierce the injection needle through the atrophied flesh of the woman! After a few hours the woman died a peaceful death in the arms of Mother Teresa who exclaimed, “At least she died a beautiful death!” The agony and suffering of the dying, abandoned and uncared for humans, always distressed Mother Teresa. Most of the dying whom Mother Teresa rushed to the hospital had their records written there like this: “Name of the dead: Unknown, Age of the dead: Unknown,; Religion of the dead: Unknown; Address of the dead: Unknown!” Well, they were all abandoned and unwanted by society.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu-

Now known as 

Mother Teresa 

Once Mother saw a woman lying in the gutter of a Calcutta lane. She was being eaten away by worms, disease-ridden and unconscious. Mother took her to her home for the destitute, gave her a bath and put her in bed. Afterwards, Mother touched her hand to soothe her. The woman's face for a few fleeting moments lit up with a serene smile and she said, "Thank you." And then she died. "If I were in her position," concluded Mother Teresa, "I would have said: I'm hungry, I'm sick. I would never have said" Thank you. It is the woman who taught me a lesson of gratitude. In Mother’s words: We are committed to feed Christ who is hungry, committed to clothe Christ who is naked, committed to take in Christ who has no home—and to do all this with a smile on our faces and bursting with joy. It is possible to serve without loving, but it is impossible to love without serving.

 Mother Teresa and
brother Frank

One day a beggar came to Mother Teresa and said, "Mother, I heard that you collect money to feed the poor."  Mother said, "Yes, that is true. Now what can I do for you?"  The beggar told her that he wanted to give her something as a donation and held out the day’s collection of a few rupees. She did not want to take those few hard earned coins from the beggar, nor did she want to offend him. He insisted these few rupees should be spent for the children’s dinner. Mother accepted them and turned to her sisters saying, “These few rupees are more valuable than the Nobel Prize awarded to me in 1979”.  That night Mother could not sleep.  The beggar's face was before her eyes all night with the thought that he had most probably forfeited his meal to contribute to the children's.  Early next morning she went searching for him and told him there was a spare cot in the home and that she would be happy to take him in.

Mother Teresa had a special fondness for small children and their small offerings were to her bigger than the biggest donations she had ever received. Once there was a sugar shortage in Calcutta and the Sisters of her order, the Missionaries of Charity, came to her  from Shishu Bhawan, the home she had founded for destitute children. Each one repeated the same thing, that there was no sugar for the children. In their preoccupation with the crisis, no one, except Mother, noticed that a four-year-old boy was standing in front of her and looking up at her face. She put her arms around the child and said, "Mother Teresa has no sugar for her children." The boy went home and told his parents, "I will not eat sugar for three days. I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa." A few days later the boy led his parents to Mother House and in lisping syllables asked to see Mother. As soon as he saw her coming, he held out the jar of sugar that he was firmly clutching in both hands. Mother Teresa used to repeat this story many times with great feeling and each time she would say, "That little boy, who could hardly pronounce my name, loved with great love and that little one taught me that it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in that giving."

 Visited in Bharanangaanm, Kerala

St. Mother Theresa and
St. Pope John Paul II 

An English priest had decided to go to India to work in the slums among the poor, and so notified Mother Teresa. He expressed the desire to join the Missionary Brothers of Charity, who follow a rule of life similar and perhaps even more austere than that of the Sisters. Mother Teresa dissuaded him: “Don’t do that, Father. Stay where you are and take care of the poor in your country. My poor are easy to take care of because they are satisfied with a piece of bread and a cloth to cover their bodies. That’s why my work is easier than yours. The poor in your country are poor in spirit. That’s why it is harder to get rid of their kind of poverty.” We have to love those who are nearest to us, in our own family. Love will then go out to all who need us. We have to get to know the poor who are all around us; only then will we be able to understand them and love them. And only when we love them will we be able to serve them.

Sandra Hook, a school teacher from Vancouver, spent her summer vacation in 1984 working for Mother Teresa in Calcutta.  One of her jobs at Nirmal Hriday, the home for the dying destitute, was to bathe a woman who was very sick. Sandra could not stand the sight of the woman, who was covered with filth and sores and had her nose partially eaten away by insects. Then, she says, she remembered the words of Mother Teresa, "When you touch the poor, touch them as though you are touching the loving Jesus." Suddenly, her whole perspective changed. She did not find it difficult to bathe the woman. Once Mother Teresa was asked. What is the greatest gift to you? She replied with a smile, The Poor People. She was then asked How are they a gift? She replied, :I have an opportunity to be with Jesus 24 hours a day.

 Mother Teresa and Formar Prime  
Minister of
India, Mrs.Indira Gandhi

Eileen Egan was a lay person who worked with the Missionaries of Charity for 30 years. She describes her experiences with Mother Teresa in her book, Such a Vision of the Street. One day, Eileen was reciting to Mother Teresa a 'litany' of problems, she had been faced with. Mother suggested that Eileen change her attitude: "Everything is a 'problem'. Why not use the word "gift"? From then on, there was a shift in vocabulary. Eileen describes one occasion when she was accompanying the nun on a trip, and had to face a long delay at an Airport. She was about to inform Mother of the 'problem', when she remembered Mother's advice and turning to the saintly woman, said, "Mother, I have to tell you about a gift." As soon as Mother Teresa heard of the delay, she settled down calmly to read her favourite book of meditations. Eileen concluded that after she had learnt the lesson, whenever disappointments or difficulties cropped up, they would be introduced with "We have a small gift here" or "Today we have an especially big gift." This attitude changed the mood and the approach to the mishaps.

Once Mother was asked: “Do your work and Spiritual Life become easier with time” Mother replied: “Yes, the closer we come to the Lord, the more we become the work. Because you know to whom you are doing it, with whom you are doing it and for whom you are doing it. That is very clear. That is why we need a clean heart to see God.  Man first set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. On that day there was excitement even at Nirmal Hriday, the home for the destitute in Calcutta. One of the Missionaries of Charity asked Mother Teresa who was attending the patients there, "Do you think you will ever go to the moon?" "If there are poor and unwanted people on the moon, I will surely take my sisters there, " replied the saintly foundress.

 "It is Prayer, It is no more work":
Mother Teresa

After the election of Sister Nirmala as her successor, someone asked Mother Teresa if she finally felt relieved: "Relief, what relief? I never considered my work to be any kind of burden, she quipped, "I still have plenty to do. So do pray for us." There is also the case of a maid servant who "did not have any money to give," said Mother, "But she was willing to wash dishes and clean the floors at our orphanage. Now she works there. She is giving till it hurts. It is no more work--it is prayer."

Mother Teresa’s Golden Words:

--I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

-- I always say I am a little pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and he has to sharpen it a little more. Be a little instrument in His hands so that He can use you anytime, anywhere. We have only to say "yes" to God.

--Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray"

--"If your eyes are positive, you will love the world, But if your tongue is positive,, the world will love you," 

--A woman's love is in action. She looks with her heart and feels with her eyes. A woman is the bank where her family deposits all anger, worries and hurt. A woman is the cement that keeps her family together and her love lasts. 

--How can we love God whom we do not see, if we do not love our neighbours  whom we see, whom we touch, with whom we live?

 Love is seeing God in the person next to you.

Love is seeing God in the person next to you.

Knowledge is seeing God everywhere.

Expression of love is service.

Expression of joy is smile.

Expression of peace is meditation.

Expressing God is conscious action.

Instead of death and sorrow, let us bring peace and joy to the world 

-Mother Teresa

Could such a life of selfless devotion and sacrifice coupled with decades of good deeds, acts of charity and countless missions of mercy help a person find favour with God and ultimately assure him/her of eternal life and a home in heaven?

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