Mother Teresa of Calcutta - Sept. 5th

 

Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa of Calcutta making her a saint of the Catholic Church in Sept 2016.  Her birth name was Agnes Bojaxhiu. She born on Aug. 26^th in 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, of Albanian heritage. Her father, a local businessman died when she was eight years old, leaving her with her mother, a devoutly religious woman. At the age of 18, Agnes left home in 1928, for the Loreto Convent in Dublin, Ireland, where she was admitted as a postulant, and received the name of Teresa, after St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Agnes was sent by the Loreto order to India and arrived in Calcutta in 1929. Upon her arrival, she joined the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling. She made her final profession as a sister of Loreto on May 24^th, 1937. While living in Calcutta during the 1930s and '40s, she taught in St. Mary's Bengali Medium School.

On Sept. 11^th of 1946, on a train journey from Calcutta, Mother Teresa received what she termed the "call within a call," which was to give rise to the Missionaries of Charity Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, and Co-Workers. The content of the inspiration is revealed in the aim and mission she would give to her new institute: "to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the cross for love and souls" by "laboring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor." The sisters would later receive permission to take a fourth vow of serving the poorest of the poor.

On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established. When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, there were 158 foundations. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, despite increasing health problems, Mother Teresa traveled across the world for the profession of novices, opening new houses, and service to the poor and disaster-stricken. New communities were founded in South Africa, Albania, Cuba, and Iraq. By 1997, the Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members, and were established in almost 600 foundations in 123 countries of the world.

After traveling to Rome, New York, and Washington, in a weak state of health, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta in July of 1997. At 9:30 PM, Sept. 5^th, Mother Teresa died at the Motherhouse. Her dear friend, Pope Saint John Paul II would later beatify her.

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25 give us 6 out of 7 of the Corporal Works of Mercy, which we will be judged at the moment of our death. Jesus said, “When I was hungry, you gave me food, when I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was naked you clothed me. When I was ill or in prison you visited me.” The 7^th Work of Mercy is found in the Book of Tobit, to bury the dead. Jesus also said, “What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”

Mother Teresa discovered God’s call to quench the thirst of Jesus on the Cross, by serving the poorest of the poor. Her mission began when she took the first dying man off the street to help him die a peaceful death. She couldn’t help but see Jesus dying within the poor and wanted the dying man to know he is loved. Throughout her life, she opened houses for the many ways in which people suffer: houses for the handicapped, houses for the homeless, houses for the dying, houses for AIDS Victims, houses for abandoned children.

When I was a seminarian I went to Calcutta during the summer to work with Mother Teresa’s sisters. I saw a building three times the size of the parish center completely full of cribs with abandoned babies in every crib. As I walked by each crib, the children would cry because they wanted affection. They wanted a mother and a father to hold them. I went to Kalighat, the house of dying, and saw how the sisters heroically remove maggots from the flesh of dying people. I worked in the house for handicapped and saw people of all ages rejected by society because they were missing an arm or a leg or had Down syndrome. Mother Teresa’s sisters were there to show every person that their life has meaning, that they have dignity and that they are loved.

Today, let us pray to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, that we may grow in our love of the poor and see Jesus in the disguise of the poorest of the poor and be willing to open our heart to help them in any way we can.