Come Be My Light

Feast of Saint Teresa of Kolkata, 5 September 2018

“If I ever become a saint—I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

Today we celebrate the feast of Mother Teresa. (Still the title "Saint" seems very strange for me, and "Saint Teresa of Kolkata" even stranger. Mother Teresa is synonymous with sainthood even now as when she was living here on earth; and evokes more familiarity. Think of her original name: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. How difficult it would have to been to pronounce that!) She was just a holy person for me, or like any other holy person whom I admired from far away till I read the book Come Be My Light. If you haven't yet read this book, I think you should do it. After she was inspired to found the Missionaries of Charity, she went into a deep darkness with regard to prayer and interior life. The joy that she had experienced, and the visions that she had from Jesus, all these came to a halt. She found no joy, no satisfaction in her spiritual life. Her heroic spiritual struggle is shown precisely in the living out of her interior darkness for 50 years at a stretch, except for six months in between.

Hope this doesn't scandalize you. Mother Teresa never tried to convert a Muslim or a Hindu to Catholicism. She told the sisters that their job was not to talk about Jesus or even promote Jesus, but "to be Jesus"! Isn't this true evangelization? She saw Christ in the poorest of the poor. Her darkness did not allow her to meet God in the chapel or the convent, but pushed her to meet Him in the poor, beggars, leprosy patients, the dying. Don't mistake that Mother Teresa's was merely a social concern, but Christ was at the centre of her founding the Congregation, and of living out the charism. He led her to unusual places: slums, holes, a Hindu temple, market-places, drains, dumping grounds. Christ can be encountered in all the usual, and unusual places, and in the least expected places. He is found in the least expected persons. (Try for yourself.)

According to Mother Teresa, the biggest problem in India or in the world is not poverty or physical sicknesses or wars or violence or economic backwardness, but "being unwanted or unloved or uncared for." The greatest disease is not AIDS or cancer or leprosy but loneliness, despair, hopelessness. She further adds, “There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.” In this regard we can all make a difference, at least a little difference. "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." Again these are Mother Teresa's words. I could just string along many quotable quotes from her (in a reflection like this), and that is the kind of person she was. She did was she could; but what strikes us is her littleness and her humility in the face of those gigantic ventures that she undertook. She didn't want publicity, she could face both praise and criticism with equanimity and magnanimity. Just one reason for all these: God alone. He called her to be light in this world. And even from heaven she seems to be continuing her mission of being light, and why not? “If I ever become a saint—I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from heaven—to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

Mother Teresa teaches us that human planning is needed, but that is not all. If there is not inspiration from above, if there is no contact with the life-giving "vine," what is the use of all our planning? Let us be centred on Christ, and I believe, everything else will be taken care of. You don't have to be perfect to be good, just try to make a little difference wherever you are, here and now.