Mother Teresa

I just got through reading the biography of Mother Teresa.

Wow... What a challenge to my life.

I never really knew what it meant to truly take Jesus at his word when he says:

For I was hungry and you have me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25.35-40

This is basically what Mother Teresa based her entire ministry on (more or less).

It was so simple.

She wasn't out to change the whole world or anything... she just honestly saw in each person's face, the face of Christ. She knew that by serving the poorest of the poor, she was really serving Christ himself.

Despite all the fame that she eventually gained for what her and the sisters were doing, she still intentionally lived in poverty herself. This is what I find most fascinating. One of the things that she urged people around her to do constantly, was to "give until it hurts".

Wow!... I don't do that! I give out of my surplus. I give when it makes me feel good. When it even comes close to "hurting" I stop giving. What a challenge to people that claim to follow Christ. We need to be giving (love, time, energy, money, possessions) until it hurts.

One of the prayers that she said often, that really spoke to me, was this:

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand rather than to be understood;
to love rather than to be loved;
for it is by forgetting self that one finds;
it is by forgiving that one is forgiven;
it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

The way she saw the poor was unlike most. She rarely saw poverty in monetary terms. She seemed to be disturbed more by the mountain of poverty present in the West, among the "rich", than that of what we term "Third World".

One thing she said that really stood out to me was this: "The poor represent the greatest human richness this world possesses and yet we despise them, behave as if they were garbage."

Basically, reading this book has really caused me to examine my life according to the example that Jesus sets for us... not according to Mother Teresa or even what is being preached today... but, to go to scripture and ask the hard questions.

I am still processing through a lot of this. Perhaps I will write more about some of these thoughts in the future.

But for now... I just wanted to give a recommendation for this book. If you are just looking for something to read, I would recommend it.

I also want to take this time to direct your attention to the right hand column of the blog. I have a few different recommendation categories. These are all books, movies, or articles that I have encountered and think are worth your time. Check em out if you want.