‘BLESSED are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). The church sees in these words a call to action, which Mother Teresa practiced to the hilt. As the then-pope and now Saint John Paul II said: “Man attains the merciful love of God, His mercy, to the extent that He, Himself, is interiorly transformed in the spirit of that love toward his neighbor.”
In Saints of the Roman Calendar, Fr. Enzo Lodi narrates that Mother Teresa on a train bound to Darjeeling, India, to attend a retreat, heard a call in her heart. “Interior locution and vision,” is how theologians call it.
Jesus revealed his desire for “victims of love,” to share His love to the poorest of the poor.
“Come be my light, I cannot go alone,” was the eloquent message she received on September 10, 1946.
For two years, she prayed and discerned to fathom deeply what to do, with the help of “religious and ecclesiastical authorities” according to Fr. Anthony Netikat, CM, in Saints for Everyday.
All for the poor
With God’s blessings and “authorization of Pope Pius XII,” she decided to share her love with the poor, sick, aged and marginalized Indians in the gutters of Calcutta.”
She took a short course in Patna in Bihar, India, with the Medical Mission of Sisters then lodged with the Little Sisters of the Poor in Calcutta.
On August 17, 1948, for the first time, she dressed like the ordinary Indian woman—in white with blue-bordered design and sandals for footwear. On December 2, Catholic On-line narrates that, she went to the slums and “visited poor families, washed sores of children, cared for a sick, old man on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and tuberculosis.”
Some volunteers came to help with donations and supplies. Some of her students in Saint Mary’s School for Girls, where she taught for 20 years, offered their services.
On October 7, 1950 the Congregation of Missionaries was approved by the Archbishop of Calcutta with her former students as the core group. Competent and committed, they all were, with Sister Nirmala, a Brahmin convert, an exemplar.
In 1951 Nirmal Hriday, a home for the dying, was established, followed by the Foundation of Sishu Bhavan for babies, then Shanthi Nagar, a leper colony where the lepers were taught skills to earn an honorable living.
To the poor in the world
In May 1960 she sent sisters to other parts of India.
Pope Paul VI in February 1965 granted Mother Teresa a Decree of Praise and encouraged her to start a house in Venezuela.
Her love and unselfish work for the poorest of the poor were featured in print and broadcast media, and earned the respect of presidents, kings, prime ministers, queens and other officials from public and private sectors. From 1980 to 1990 the congregation opened houses in many countries and “in almost all communist countries, including the Soviet Union, Cuba and Albania.”
Her charism inspired many people to join, so she founded different missions for charity.
In 1963, the Missionaries of Charity Brothers were organized, followed by the Contemplatives of Sisters in 1976; Contemplatives of Brothers in 1979; and Missionaries of Charity Fathers in 1984.
Those who shared her “spirit of prayer, simplicity and humble works of love,” who belong to different faiths and nationalities joined Workers of Mother Teresa for the Sick and Suffering, which was later renamed Lay Missionaries of Charity.
In 1981 the Corpus Christi, Movement for Priests, composed of those who desire to “share her charisma and spirit” was founded.
Indefatigable was Mother Teresa, as she travelled pleading for support for the haves to see Jesus in the persons of the needy, sick and the dying.
Honored until death
She was named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu when she was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia.
She went to a public school, was a member of a Catholic Solidarity and showed interest in foreign missions.
At 18, she joined the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland and was named Ma. Teresa, after Saint Thérése of Lisieux, the Patroness of Foreign Missions.
In December 1929 she was sent to Calcutta, India, and had her first profession of vows two years after.
She taught at Saint Mary’s School for girls and became the school principal.
Her selfless dedication for destitutes earned her praises and honors as the “Living Saint.” In 1971 Pope John XXIII awarded her the Peace Prize, and a year after, was given the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. In 1979 she was a world celebrity as the Nobel Peace Prize awardee.
According to United Nations Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, “She is the United Nations, she is peace in the world.”
In 1983 she suffered a heart attack in Rome while visiting then-Pope John Paul II, and her heart ailment necessitated a pace maker six years after.
Then, she contracted pneumonia, malaria, fell and broke her collarbone in subsequent years.
She resigned as head of the missions on March 13, 1997, and died on September 5, 1997, in Bengal, Calcutta, India.
The government of India accorded her a state funeral.
At the time of her death Wikipedia states that the Order has 4,000 sisters and 300 brothers, in 610 missions in 123 countries.
Mother Teresa personified the spirituality on love in an age where often, love is synonymous to barter or transaction. The “Icon of the Good Samaritan” showed the world how to love the “poorest of the poor.”
From morn ‘till night, these God’s words she heard in her heart: “Whatever you did to the least of my people, you also did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
On September 9, 2007 then-Pope John Paul II beatified and addressed Mother Teresa, the “Saint of the Gutters.”
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education-National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Laguna.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons