Ave Explores Series | Faith in Action | Week 4
St. Teresa of Calcutta
“To live the Gospel.”
It’s a common phrase, though we don’t always know what it’s supposed to look like. I would happily argue that in our living memory, no single saint has put a more eloquently raw shape to actually living it than St. Teresa of Calcutta. Born in Albania to a simple family, Agnes Bojaxhiu first became a Sister of Loreto before the Lord asked her to go “help the poor while living among them.” She founded the Missionaries of Charity and today more than five-thousand of her sisters minister to the poor across the globe.
Mother Teresa was a woman completely given over to Jesus, whom she would often refer to as her crucified spouse. Consumed by love, she was driven like the bride in the Song of Songs to run through the streets, all the world over, in search of him. Because of her faith, she actually found him, day-in and day-out, hidden among the poorest of the poor. And in the finding, she reminded us of something very simple and very important: When Mother Teresa gave bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty she actually met Jesus. She could quench his thirst for souls as she loved him in the poor. In that discovery, nothing could stop her for she made her own the words of the Song of Songs: “I have found him whom my heart loves.”
In this zealous bride, we find the perfect blend of mystical lover and active disciple. Mother Teresa’s visible life of service led her to incredible notoriety. Perhaps her most memorable worldly achievement was the receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, though she kept the award hidden in a cardboard box on a shelf in the convent. Only those who actually knew her understood the real fuel of her tireless service: Jesus Christ, poor upon the Cross, broken and glorified in the Eucharist.
No matter how full her days became as her fame increased and the mission grew, Mother Teresa was well known to be first in the chapel and to often spend multiple hours a day there before the Lord in adoration. Nourished by Love and aching with it, she and her sisters would then move out into the world to meet the poor. For Mother Teresa, there was no discussion and no debate: There were poor in the world, she loved Jesus, and so she had to go to them.
Famously at the very beginning of her apostolate, she met a leper dying in the street. Overwhelmed with compassion, she picked him up and began to wipe the dirt and maggots from his wounds. The scum of that society, left in the gutter, this forgotten man looked at her and asked, “Why are you doing this?” She looked straight into his eyes as she embraced him and responded: “Because I love you.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta, teach that to us, we beg you. . .
St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.
Image of St. Teresa of Calcutta provided by januaryjaneshop. Find it and all of the saint polaroids on Etsy and Instagram.
Fr. John Burns is a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee who works extensively with St. Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. He is the author of Lift Up Your Heart, Adore, and Return.
