On 26 August of each year falls the birthday of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Little in appearance but giant in her spirit, this holy and heroic woman keeps inspiring and challenging the Church and the people of good will to live with ever greater commitment the value of solidarity with the poorest of the poor. In the following reflections I want to unravel some of the wisdom the Lord has given to this extraordinary and humble little nun. Having a taste of the spiritual patrimony Mother Teresa has left is indeed the best way of keeping her presence alive amongst us.
In the homily of the beatification of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Pope John Paul II referred to her as “an icon of the Good Samaritan”. Her spiritual writings attest how much she lived this vocation not only by caring for the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta but, and most of all, by the God given wisdom she shared with others. For Mother Theresa, faithfulness is pivotal for a sound following of Jesus. She used to say: “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies”. Faithfulness in love, understood as self-giving, requires persistence. “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired”.
Love is shown through simple things done with great love. “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love”. Love can be communicated by the simplest of things, say a smile. Mother had a soft spot for a smile coming from a sincere heart. She used to say: “Peace begins with a smile”. A genuine smile makes love contagious. “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing”. For the Blessed of Calcutta, everything that brings love builds and creates a civilisation of love in our world. “Good works are links that form a chain of love”. Therefore in order that love persists amongst us it is important that we should keep showing it through our loving actions of solidarity for the least advantaged. “If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it”. What brings love in our world is not the number of our actions inasmuch as with what spirit we carry them out: “It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters”.
This discourse concerning love makes sense when one delves deeper into the hidden and harsh reality of people who are neglected and feel unloved. “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat”, the little holy nun observes. To be the poorest of the poor does not necessarily mean that one lacks the basic necessities of life such as food and drink. On this regard Mother Theresa clearly explains: “Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own”. The terrible loneliness that permeates the first world countries with its concomitant tragic results is really shocking. “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”.
Sometimes we might think that the poorest of the poor reside hundreds of miles away from our homes and country. But hardly do we realise that these people are found in our families and communities! Mother liked to say: “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty”. Yes. Love should start by meeting those who live with us who feel somewhat estranged, judged and abandoned. “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action”. In this sense, Mother helps us rediscover the reality that authentic love is never equated with giving lumps of money or giving expensive gifts. Love means spending time with your loved ones. “Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go”.
Mother Theresa nourished a high respectful love for every person she met because she strongly believed that in that person there “is Jesus in disguise”. Although she was conscious of her limitations she never looked at herself but believed that Jesus was ministering to the poorest of the poor through her. “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world”. Let her God given wisdom encourage and lead us to believe and live with conviction that only God’s love can give us a reason to live and a reason to die for. “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love”. Most of all, let us in our moments of inner desolation, like her, resort to God, as our rock of salvation: “In you, in you I hope, my God!”
Happy birthday, Mother Theresa, our dearest little nun!