|
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta The servant of the poorest of the poor
Some 500 Missionaries of Charity in their white-and-blue saris attended
the ceremony, where the front rows were reserved for 3,500 poor. Also
present were representatives of the Orthodox Church and two Muslim
communities from Albania, since Mother Teresa was born to an ethnic
Albanian family. Next to Sister Nirmala Joshi, Mother Teresa's successor
and superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, were the heads of
other institutes founded by the new blessed. Also present was Monika
Besra, the Indian woman inexplicably cured of an abdominal tumor through
Mother Teresa's intercession, who received Holy Communion from the Pope. On December 20, 2002, the decree of the miracle attributed to Mother
Teresa (Monika Besra's cure) was made public. So, only five years and
three months after her death (on September 5, 1997), her beatification
was announced, which is unprecedented in the history of the Church.
Usually, the Church's norms require a waiting period of five years after
death before a Diocese can begin an inquiry into the life of the
would-be saint. On December 12, 1998, Pope John Paul II granted a dispensation from the
norm, and the inquiry for Mother Teresa was able to begin in the
Archdiocese of Calcutta. The closing session of the diocesan inquiry was
held on Aug. 15, 2001. The Acts of the Diocesan Inquiry consist of 80
volumes, each approximately 450 pages. This material was subsequently
submitted to the Congregation for the Saints in Rome. So, even though an
exemption was made for the period of waiting, no exemption was made from
the formal process itself or from any of its steps. Here is the Pope's homily for this beatification: The servant of the least “Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mk10: 44).
Jesus' words to his disciples that have just rung out in this Square
show us the way to evangelical “greatness”. It is the way walked by
Christ himself that took him to the Cross: a journey of love and service
that overturns all human logic. To be the servant of all! Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Foundress of the Missionaries of Charity whom
today I have the joy of adding to the Roll of the Blesseds, allowed this
logic to guide her. I am personally grateful to this courageous woman
whom I have always felt beside me. Mother Teresa, an icon of the Good
Samaritan, went everywhere to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor.
Not even conflict and war could stand in her way. Every now and then she would come and tell me about her experiences in
her service to the Gospel values. I remember, for example, her pro-life
and anti-abortion interventions, even when she was awarded the Nobel
Prize for peace (Oslo, December 10, 1979). She often used to say: “If
you hear of some woman who does not want to keep her child and wants to
have an abortion, try to persuade her to bring him to me. I will love
that child, seeing in him the sign of God's love”. Is it not significant that her beatification is taking place on the very
day on which the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday? With the
witness of her life, Mother Teresa reminds everyone that the
evangelizing mission of the Church passes through charity, nourished by
prayer and listening to God's word. Emblematic of this missionary style
is the image that shows the new Blessed clasping a child's hand in one
hand while moving her Rosary beads with the other. Contemplation and action, evangelization and human promotion: Mother
Teresa proclaimed the Gospel living her life as a total gift to the poor
but, at the same time, steeped in prayer. “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant” (Mk 10:
43). With particular emotion we remember today Mother Teresa, a great
servant of the poor, of the Church and of the whole world. Her life is a
testimony to the dignity and the privilege of humble service. She had
chosen to be not just the least but to be the servant of the least. As a
real mother to the poor, she bent down to those suffering various forms
of poverty. Her greatness lies in her ability to give without counting
the cost, to give "until it hurts". Her life was a radical
living and a bold proclamation of the Gospel. The cry of Jesus on the Cross, “I thirst” (Jn 19: 28), expressing the
depth of God's longing for man, penetrated Mother Teresa's soul and
found fertile soil in her heart. Satiating Jesus' thirst for love and
for souls in union with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, had become the sole
aim of Mother Teresa's existence and the inner force that drew her out
of herself and made her “run in haste” across the globe to labour
for the salvation and the sanctification of the poorest of the poor. Serving Christ hidden in the poor
“As you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to
me” (Mt 25: 40). This Gospel passage, so crucial in understanding
Mother Teresa's service to the poor, was the basis of her faith-filled
conviction that in touching the broken bodies of the poor she was
touching the body of Christ. It was to Jesus himself, hidden under the
distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor, that her service was
directed. Mother Teresa highlights the deepest meaning of service — an
act of love done to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick,
prisoners (cf. Mt 25: 34-36) is done to Jesus himself. Recognizing him, she ministered to him with wholehearted devotion,
expressing the delicacy of her spousal love. Thus, in total gift of
herself to God and neighbour, Mother Teresa found her greatest
fulfilment and lived the noblest qualities of her femininity. She wanted
to be a sign of “God's love, God's presence and God's compassion”,
and so remind all of the value and dignity of each of God's children,
“created to love and be loved”. Thus was Mother Teresa “bringing
souls to God and God to souls” and satiating Christ's thirst,
especially for those most in need, those whose vision of God had been
dimmed by suffering and pain. “The Son of man also came... to give his life as a ransom for many”
(Mk 10: 45). Mother Teresa shared in the Passion of the crucified Christ
in a special way during long years of “inner darkness”. For her that
was a test, at times an agonizing one, which she accepted as a rare
“gift and privilege”. In the darkest hours she clung even more tenaciously to prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament. This harsh spiritual trial led her to identify
herself more and more closely with those whom she served each day,
feeling their pain and, at times, even their rejection. She was fond of
repeating that the greatest poverty is to be unwanted, to have no one to
take care of you. “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you”. How
often, like the Psalmist, did Mother Teresa call on her Lord in times of
inner desolation: “In you, in you I hope, my God!”. Let us praise the Lord for this diminutive woman in love with God, a
humble Gospel messenger and a tireless benefactor of humanity. In her we
honour one of the most important figures of our time. Let us welcome her
message and follow her example. Virgin Mary, Queen of all the Saints, help us to be gentle and humble of
heart like this fearless messenger of Love. Help us to serve every
person we meet with joy and a smile. Help us to be missionaries of
Christ, our peace and our hope. Amen!
(End of homily.) Mother Teresa's biography This luminous messenger of God's love was born on 26 August 1910 in
Skopje, Macedonia, from Albanese parents. The youngest of three children
born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes,
received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was
confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a
love for souls was within her. Her father's sudden death when Gonxha was
about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane
raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her
daughter's character and vocation. Gonxha's religious formation was
further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in
which she was much involved. At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha
left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland, known for their
missionary work in India. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa
after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India,
arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was
assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught
geography and catechism at St. Mary's School for girls. On May 24, 1937,
Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said,
the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on she
was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary's and in
1944 became the school's principal. A person of profound prayer and deep
love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa's twenty
years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her
charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a
natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to
Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy. The “call within a call”
Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa
received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the
first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates
of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor, under the
jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Calcutta. She hardly made it to the
middle of the street when she was overcome by anguish. Suddenly the
reality of her new state in life became clear. She was completely alone,
with no house, no savings and no work. She did not know what she would
eat and where she would sleep. She found herself in that same terrible
condition of those who have nothing- those whom she wanted to serve. After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother
Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little
Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, 1949, she went for the first time
to the only slum with which she was acquainted, located just behind St.
Mary's High School. She had heard many horrible stories about the misery
in this slum. While she was living at the convent, she had never wanted
to step foot in this slum. Now she decided it would be her home. The next day, Mother had already found five children to teach. There was
not even a table, chair, basin or chalkboard in her room, and she used a
stick to trace the letters of the alphabet on the dirt floor. A few
months before, she had been the principal of the famous high school
located just a few steps away and had taught the daughters of rich
families. Now she was in a slum where people lived in misery among rats
and cockroaches, teaching the children of people who were nobodies. The
heat was suffocating in her shack: 115 degrees with humidity surpassing
95 percent. Mother Teresa recalls: "Through
the children, I began to penetrate those labyrinths of the most squalid
misery in Calcutta. At that time, the number of homeless in the city was
about 1 million. I went from hut to hut, trying to be useful. I helped
those who slept on the sides of the street, who lived on garbage. I
found the most atrocious suffering: the blind, the crippled, lepers,
people with disfigured faces and deformed bodies, creatures who couldn't
stand upright and who followed me on all fours asking for a little
food.” She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old
man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and
tuberculosis. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the
Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him
in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months,
she was joined, one by one, by her former students. The Missionaries of Charity On October 7, 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity
was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early
1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India.
The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in
February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon
followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every
continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother
Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including
the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba. In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of
the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in
1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the
Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.
Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations.
She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering
Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared
her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble
works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of
Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother
Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a “little
way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and
spirit. During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards
Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning
with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media
began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention
“for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.” The whole of Mother Teresa's life and labour bore witness to the joy of
loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of
little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of
friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great
woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes,
hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by
an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated
from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing
for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.” The
“painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started
her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother
Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she
mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and
burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of
the poor. During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health
problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to
the needs of the poor and the Church. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned
for the first time to her native Albania and opened a home in Tirana. By
this year, there were 168 homes established in India.
By 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were
established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March
1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the
Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After
meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta
and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her
Sisters. On September 5, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was
given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her
body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her
tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all
faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and
extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus' plea, “Come be My
light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,”
a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the
thirsting love of God.
This article was published in the Oct.-Nov._December, 2003 issue of “Michael”. |
On
October 19, 2003, World Mission Sunday, a visibly moved John Paul II
beatified Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the founder of the Missionaries of
Charity, “whom I have always felt close to me,” before a crowd of
300,000 overflowing St. Peter's Square, adding that she was “one of
the most important figures of our time, one of the greatest missionaries
of the 20
On
10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for
her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration,” her
“call within a call.” On that day, in a way she would never explain,
Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the
desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over
the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions
and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for
“victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” 
Here
are excerpts from an article written by Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala,
Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, published in
the Oct. 22, 2003 issue of the weekly edition in English of
L'Osservatore Romano: