Mother Teresa

MOTHER TERESA

AN ICON OF CARE AND COMPASSION

"Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers." James 1.22 (NRSV)

Those of you who can still remember the "swinging 60s" will recall that it was a time of debunking pomposity and challenging the establishment, especially the monarchy, politicians and, of course, the church.

One of the main antagonists of the time was the then agnostic, Malcolm Muggeridge, who, as a journalist, knew how to use the new found power of television and had the vocabulary with which to express his cynicism.

For almost half a century, he had managed to keep afloat on a fast flowing river of words working at various times for the Manchester Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman, the Sunday Pictorial, and as Editor of the magazine, Punch, before arriving upon the small screen as an interviewer, where he tended to convey his own views, rather than those of his guests.

And so it was in 1966, that he found himself at very short notice having to interview a particular guest for BBC television. He claims to have mugged up his little known subject on the train to London. To use his own words: "I sat waiting for her with appropriate questions running through my head, the camera, the lights, the sound recordist, all in position. Then she came in. It was, for me one of those special occasions when a face, hitherto unknown, seems to stand out from all other faces as uniquely separate and uniquely significant, to be henceforth for ever recognisable".

The person who stepped into the studio that evening was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. A small woman only 4'10" tall, wearing a blue and white sari with sandals upon her feet. As she spoke about her work among "the poorest of the poor" of Calcutta, Muggeridge was transfixed. She had a face, to use his own words, "shining and overflowing with Christian love".

It took Muggeridge a further three years to persuade the BBC and Mother Teresa, to allow him to make a documentary film about her and her work which he called "Something Beautiful for God" which, together with a book he published at the same time under the same title, made known her work to millions throughout Britain and America.

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As you will recall, Mother Teresa died the day before the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 at the age of 87, and had a State Funeral in India.

She was born in Albania and at the age of 12 decided to become a nun. When she was eighteen years old, she joined the Order of Loreto in Ireland because they worked in India where she wanted to go and work. Soon she found herself teaching Bengali girls from wealthy homes at St. Mary's School, Calcutta.

The sight of poverty outside the confines of the school disturbed her and in 1946 she had, what she describes as, "a call within a call", to start a religious community to care for "the poorest of the poor". After waiting two years, she was granted permission to found the community, now known worldwide as, "The Missionaries of Charity".

The order quickly began to grow as it sought to rescue new-born babies found abandoned on rubbish heaps; to care for lepers rejected by society; to offer medical treatment to those who were sick, to comfort those left dying in the streets; to educate children from the slums; to provide shelter for the homeless; to offer a haven for the mentally disturbed and to feed those who were hungry. More recently, she extended her work to include those suffering from AIDS.

Of the dying she once said: "We wanted them to know that there are people who really love them, who really want them; at least, for the few hours that they have to live. To know human and divine love; to know that they too are the children of God, and that they are not forgotten, that they are loved and cared about, and that there are young lives ready to give themselves in their service".

Throughout her work she sought to bring love and cheerfulness to the suffering; help to the abandoned and dignity to the dying, always confident that God would provide the necessary financial means.

The statistics published in her obituary hardly did justice to the spiritual dimension of her work which she saw as serving Jesus in the faces of those in need.

She once said: "I see Christ in every person I touch, because he said: 'I was hungry, I was thirsty'. It is as simple as that. Every time I give a piece of bread, I give it to him. That is why we must find the hungry one and the naked one. That is why we are totally bound to the poor".

At a time when religious orders are in the decline, the Missionaries of Charity have expanded, possibly because of the practical nature of their life of faith. Today there are over 566 centres in over 122 countries with 3,700 sisters. They feed 500,000 families each year; teach 20,000 slum children, care for 90,000 lepers in their clinics and provide for 27,000 who have died in their hospices. True the work only touches but a small proportion of suffering humanity, but nevertheless it remains an icon of care and compassion in an increasingly materialistic world.

However, Mother Teresa has not been without her critics over the years.

The Hindus of Calcutta have accused her of being a CIA agent, maintaining that poverty is an unalterable part of the divine scheme of things. Western liberals have attacked her conservative religious position, especially in regard to abortion and birth control. The church in Peru has expressed fear that the easing of hardship for the poor can lead to a weakening of opposition to repressive regimes. The Australian feminist Germane Greer has accused her of being a religious imperialist who uses charity as a means of foisting catholicism upon vulnerable people. Others have suggested she should concentrate more upon removing the causes of poverty, and others have questioned the source of her money.

But, those who seek to do good will always have their armchair critics who keep their hands in their pockets and wallets under lock and key. Even Jesus had his in his life time.

As far as Mother Teresa was concerned, her work was her response to the Word of God. As Muggeridge observes: "To me, Mother Teresa represents essentially love in action, which is surely what Christianity is all about".

And those words certainly find an echo in the epistle of James who urges you and me to be “a doer of the word and not merely a hearer”. In other words, the word of God should be a springboard for action and not a substitute.

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But are we "doers of the word"? Or are we mere hearers?

There is no doubt that we love to hear the Word of God in our worship and follow it carefully in our prayer books and bibles when it is read. We love to listen to sermons, talks and lectures on the Christian faith, but are we prepared to roll up our sleeves and make the Word of God a living reality? Are we just passive Sunday Christians or are we practical Monday to Saturday Christians as well? How do we express in our daily life what we have heard on a Sunday?

"Be doers of the Word" says St. James "and not merely hearers”. He could easily have added: ’and not talkers of the Word’. It never ceases to amaze me how much time we are prepared to spend talking about what we know we ought to be doing particularly in parish life. So often, the only action we seem to take is to set up committees so that we can institutionalise our talking and deceive ourselves into thinking that action is actually being taken.

But St. James says "be doers of the Word and not hearers”. Alternatively he could easily have said: and not writers of the Word. So often, we think that, provided papers are being circulated, reports being published and letters are being written, we are actually involved in action. This is true not only of the church in general, but also of so many charities today who seem to spend an increasing amount of time and energy, to say nothing of financial resources in such activity rather than engaging in 'hands on' activity with those they seek to serve.

Once, when some journalists were trying to interview Mother Teresa, she is said to have shown her impatience by saying "why not put away your notebooks and do something useful".

I must admit, and I am sure that it comes as no surprise to you, that I too share her impatience with those who just want to listen or talk or write rather than act upon the Word of God.

It is when people see Christians practising what they preach, it is when they see Christians rolling up their sleeves and caring for those in need, as Christ did in his lifetime, that others are challenged to take the Christian gospel seriously.

Little wonder that 11 years after first meeting Mother Teresa, that arch agnostic and cynic, Malcolm Muggeridge, who had been a professional hearer, talker and writer all his life, became a practising Roman Catholic. He claimed that Mother Teresa's courage, faith and love had turned his dilettante interest with religion into a devouring passion.

As regards Mother Teresa's legacy, perhaps Muggeridge should be allowed to speak again:

"It will be for posterity to decide whether she is a saint. I only say of her that, in a dark time she is a burning and shining light; in a cruel time, a living embodiment of Christ's gospel of love; in a godless time, the Word dwelling among us full of grace and truth."

My friends, “be doers of that word and not merely hearers” or talkers or writers.

Finally, let us pray a prayer that Mother Teresa wrote and prayed daily.

Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick and, while nursing them, minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognise you and say, "Jesus my patient, how sweet it is to serve you". O God, while you are Jesus my patient, deign also to be patient Jesus, bearing with my faults, looking only to my intention, which is to love and to serve you in the person of each of your sick.

“In Holy Communion, Christ lets us know him under the appearance of bread and wine; but in my work I know him under the appearance of flesh and blood. For did he not say: ‘Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me’?” Mother Teresa.