Saint Teresa of Calcutta: A Mother to Many
Father Richard shares his deep respect and admiration for the Missionaries of Charity, the community of sisters founded by Mother Teresa (1910–1997) in Calcutta, India:
In 1998, I spent three days immersed in the life, spirit, and ministries of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity community at the motherhouse in Calcutta—a year after her death. Our work together ended on October 1, the feast day of her patron, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897). All the four hundred plus local community members returned for this day of teaching, praying, and celebrating in the manner of the poor. It was probably the closest I will ever get to what those first idyllic days must have been like for the early Franciscans: utter joy in Jesus and his gospel, poverty that is almost embarrassing but beautiful, and unquestioned belief in what your life means and in what you are doing.
Through that experience, I finally met a “conservative” yet fully contemporary form of religious life that I could trust. The sisters were not rigid; rather, they were simply devoted women. They did not need security, answers, and order, as we see in most traditionalist movements in the West. In fact, they were willing to live without security, with very few answers to their questions of mind and heart, and amid almost total disorder. All in union—hour by hour—with God. They lived that amazing and rare combination of utter groundedness and constant risk-taking that always characterizes the true gospel.
The sisters don’t waste time fixing, controlling, or even needing to understand what is wrong with other people. Instead, they put all of their time and energy into letting God change them. From that transformed place, they serve and carry the pain of the world, which they are convinced is the pain of God. This is the synthesis on a communal level that I am always seeking. I have encountered it in many individuals, but hardly ever in public and social form.
I do not believe that the lifestyle of the Missionaries of Charity answers all questions or that they are holier than many other Christians I have met. Yet there is a radical and utterly clear gift of God that is revealed through them. I even dared to ask one of the leaders about one of the most common criticisms of Mother Teresa: “Why did Mother not speak out against social injustice? Why did she not point out the evil systems and evil people that are chewing up the poor?”
The answer was calm, immediate, and firsthand. Mother Teresa felt that if she took sides, or played the firebrand, that she could not be what Jesus had told her to be—love to and for all. She said that if she started correcting and pointing out “sinners” she could no longer be an instrument of love and reconciliation for them. Like her patron Thérèse of Lisieux, “her vocation in the church was to be love.” She knew that her primary message had to be her life itself.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr and Friends, “A Passage through India,” Contemplation in Action, (Crossroad Publishing, 2006), 123–125.
Image credit and inspiration: John Mccann, untitled (detail), 2017, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The path of contemplation is lined with the great exemplar trees—those who have gone before—practicing contemplation and action in unique and interconnected ways.
Story from Our Community:
Quite often, I find that the Daily Meditation is just what I needed to hear on that particular day. Not always, but often enough to realize God is in it.
—Josephine N.
