5 September: Saint Teresa of Calcutta
The little pencil in God’s hands
“God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor”, Mother Teresa often told people she met, involving them in charity towards those in need. She was convinced that in serving the poorest of the poor, one should not simply act as social workers, but as brothers and sisters who seek out other brothers and sisters. Her charity was fuelled by faith. It was not just philanthropy. Mother Teresa felt the urgent need to lift people from their misery, but she also believed in the importance of bringing to them the message that God is love and that his love translated into attention to their condition. Her thoughts regarding this were very clear: “God has identified himself with the hungry, the sick, the naked, the homeless; hunger, not only for bread, but for love, for care, to be somebody to someone; nakedness, not of clothing only, but nakedness of that compassion that very few people give to the unknown; homelessness, not only for a shelter made of stone, but that homelessness that comes from having no one to call your own.”
Mother Teresa, in the world Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje (now North Macedonia) to an Albanian Catholic family.
In 1928, she moved to Ireland to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto. A few weeks later, she left for India as a missionary. She taught history and geography for 17 years at St. Mary’s high school, which belonged to the Congregation in Entally in the eastern part of Calcutta.
In 1931, she made her first vows and changed her name to Sr Mary Teresa of the Child Jesus, in honour of Saint Lisieux. In 1937, she travelled to Darjeeling to make her perpetual vows.
She continued to teach at St. Mary’s, and became the school’s principal in 1944. Her convent was located near the city slums, the bad smelling shantytowns where people died in complete poverty to the general indifference of others.
The Lord was waiting for her among those people. On 10 September 1946, while she was on a train in Darjeeling to participate in spiritual exercises, she received what is known as “the second calling”. During the trip, a thought would not leave her mind: Jesus’ cry on the Cross, “I thirst”. She understood that she had to begin a new life at the service of the poorest in society, the least ones, the discarded of the discarded. On 17 August 1948, she left the Congregation of the Sisters of Loreto and, wearing a white sari with a blue hem, she was hosted by the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna. She then returned to Calcutta and temporarily stayed with the Little Sisters of the Poor.
On 21 December, she went to where the Lord was calling her: among the desperate in the slums. She began to look after elderly abandoned people on the streets, to visit families, to help those who were dying and suffering. The Eucharist was at the heart of her day as she wandered the streets with Mary as her spiritual companion, reciting the Rosary. After a few months, some of her former students joined her and shared her life. This was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.
The community gradually grew and on 7 October 1950, the Archdiocese of Calcutta recognized the Congregation. It is essentially Marian in nature, as the first chapter of its Constitution says: “Our Society is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of our Joy and Queen of the World, because it arose from her request and thanks to her continuous intercession, it developed and continues to grow”. In addition to the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, each Missionary of Charity makes a fourth vow, “wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor”.
Around the early 1960’s, the Congregation spread and the Mother sent some missionaries to other parts of India.
In February 1965, Paul VI granted pontifical approval to the Missionaries of Charity and asked Mother Teresa to start a mission in Venezuela. This was followed by other foundations in Rome, Tanzania and other countries. On 11 December 1979, as she received the Nobel peace prize, she explained that her actions were inspired by the charity of Christ: “we are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people. But we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the Body of Christ twenty-four hours a day”. In 1980, the Indian government conferred the Bharat Ratna award on her, the highest civil honour of the country. She accepted awards only “for the glory of God and on behalf of the poor”.
Between 1980 and 1990, she founded mission homes in almost all the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.
She died in Calcutta on Friday, 5 September 1997. On 26 July 1999, a diocesan inquiry was opened on her life, virtue and fame of holiness, three years earlier, as John Paul II had requested. On 4 September 2016, Pope Francis canonized her in Saint Peter’s Square, during the Jubilee of Mercy.
Who can forget her face marked by wrinkles, her humility and her love for others. This fragile woman considered herself to be just an instrument in the hands of Providence, describing herself as “God’s little pencil”.
She left her love for her brothers and sisters, especially the lonely, the abandoned, and the discarded. Her words are like a testament to all of us: “you can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone”.