This month, we celebrate the sainthood of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997). She is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, yes, this is true, but there is something in this person’s life that transcends denomination and speaks the truth of Christianity. She was short and plain in her person; however, it was the spirit alive in this little nondescript body that drove her to become a saint. What is a saint? It is those people who have given their life, breath, and will to Jesus to do His will. To turn love into action for Him in this ordinary life, to sacrifice wants and desires to do what is best for others. In other words, to follow the dictum, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Mother Teresa, as nondescript and straightforward as she was, embraced Jesus at his word. She saw her neighbor and responded with care and love, ignoring the pathway of comfort and safety, embracing the challenges, and accepting what she could do. She allowed love to call her to action. We are talking about a radical belief that Jesus would help her do His work, regardless of its costs. She was a radical Christian. She may be a saint in the Catholic Church, but she is an example to all, crossing the barrier of denomination, as to what a Christian can do with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, God raises her up in Calcutta, the third largest city in India (Delhi and Mumbai are first and second in population). Calcutta has a population of almost 16 million people. Where 76% are Hindu, followed by 20% Muslim, Christians barely make 1%, the rest are Jainist, Sikh, or Buddhist. (To give you some perspective, New York City is our largest American city with 8.4 million people) It is into this sea of humanity that she would work. Her work was not about making converts to Christianity. Her ministry was to love.

Her mantra runs like this: “Do not think that love to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that our strength lies.” She began working in the poverty of Calcutta, not with a building fund or a school, or by bringing in an agency to organize help, but by the simple fact of compassion for the souls around her. She offers this:” The most terrible poverty is loneliness, the feeling of being unloved”. She also offers this, a sentiment that could be pasted all over our modern society:” If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

Mother Teresa is often known for her homes for the dying. She would pick up people from the streets of Calcutta, people who were left to die on the side of the road. Others had passed by these human tragedies, not seeing their worthiness, or showing no thought or concern. She saw them and founded a place where they could be brought to die in peace, as she said,” That the last face they see is someone who loved them.” It did not matter if they were Hindu, Muslim, or anything else; they were human beings, children of God, and deserving of love.

Her work in such a diverse population was not about conversion, but about seeing the human need for love. What is love but seeing others’ needs and seeing others as part of our journey, and that is how we make God visible. God has created all of us in his likeness. What is the likeness, but the ability to choose love, compassion, and care for those around us. Like our own times, really, we live in an ever-growing godless society. We cling to our own and are almost afraid to see the needs of our neighbor. We do not speak when truth is violated by selfishness or a teaching or mindset that puts us into opposed camps. I think if we look at Mother Teresa, set in a sea of different beliefs, there is a common factor, and that is love, as she says, quit judging. We must love, smile, and find peace within those small things we can do well. See what loneliness is within our own lives, and see how we can make it better, how we can lift the spirit and sing our unity before our Creator. We are gifts to each other. She writes, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” We, each one of us, are the key to unlocking loneliness in our society.

Mother Teresa’s funeral on September 13, 1997, drew thousands of people. The government of India gave her a state funeral. Her body draped in the Indian flag, and a solemn cortege proceeded through the streets of Calcutta. She was beloved, not because she was a Catholic nun, but because she loved; she saw the lonely, the dying, the poor and needy, and what she brought was not so much material things, but recognition of the need for love in all human beings. She refused to judge and accepted all as lovable.

I leave you with this, a thought from Mother:

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. Many in the world are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa