Mother Teresa: a life and a love worth living

A Canadian government jet lifted off from a runway at Macdonald-Cartier International airport in Ottawa in the wee hours of a rainy September morning.

Among the handful of people aboard the gruelling 18-hour flight to southern Asia were Madame Aline Chrétien, the wife of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien; Archbishop Francis Spence, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, the archbishop of Montreal.

Their destination: Calcutta, India, where they would join church and government leaders from around the world in paying respects to one of the most beloved and revered public figures of modern history - Mother Teresa - who passed away in Calcutta Sept. 5 at the age of 87.

During the 2 ½ hour funeral in the 12,000-seat Netaji Indoor Stadium, Madame Chrétien, on behalf of all Canadians, laid a wreath before the coffin, gently touched it and then bade farewell to the Catholic nun who had given her life in the service of the poor, the sick and the dying, and whose final words were Jesus, I love you. Jesus I love you.

The saint of the gutters

The wife of the Canadian prime minister was only one of hundreds of dignitaries who had journeyed to Calcutta for the state funeral of the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order with over 4,000 nuns who serve the needs of the ‘poorest of the poor’ in 120 countries. They came to pay homage to the ‘saint of the gutters’, the Albanian-born missionary nun who wore a $1 white sari striped with blue and who called the slums of Calcutta her home.

There were princes, presidents, paupers and a papal envoy - Cardinal Angelo Sodano - who, in the name of Pope John Paul II, offered thanksgiving to Mother Teresa for all you have done for the poor of the world.

Cardinal Sodano, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told mourners that Mother Teresa fully understood the Gospel of love. She understood it with every fibre of her indomitable spirit and every ounce of her frail body, he said. She practised it with all her heart and through the daily toil of her hands.

Such tributes to the winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize and countless other humanitarian and Church awards were shunned by Mother Teresa during her lifetime. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, she said, Because you know what you are.

The diminutive nun was aware not only what she was, but also what her mission was - to serve Christ as she found him in lepers, AIDS victims, the lonely, society’s outcasts and those who live in dire poverty. Through the poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus, she said. She also found him in royalty and the rich and came to believe that the greatest poverty is not to be without money but rather It is to feel unwanted and unloved.

She was Mother to us, said Sister Nirmala Joshi, Mother Teresa’s successor and the woman who has the onerous task of walking in the footsteps of a ‘living saint.’

The fruits of Mother’s love and her life of sacrifice and total surrender to God have today brought people together from every country and region, she told mourners. Recalling words so often repeated by Mother Teresa, Sister Nirmala added, whatever you do to the least, you do it to me.

All human life is precious

Leading the official U.S. delegation to the funeral was First Lady Hillary Clinton who, following Mother Teresa’s death, wrote that her work compelled her to ‘disturb the peace,’ to upset the complacency of the comfortable to help the poor.

But it was Calcutta’s Archbishop, Henry D’Souza, who zeroed in on what he termed, Mother Teresa’s ‘greatest message’: that all human life is precious, in whatever condition it is found, from the womb to the tomb.

It is a message many around the world - including liberal Catholics - find difficult to accept. Her unwavering opposition to abortion and birth control, particularly in India, where the population is increasing by 20 million people each year, managed to disturb the peace of many. And her strongly-worded denunciations of abortion in particular - When we destroy an unborn child, we destroy God, - could not help but provoke equally strong criticisms.

Her detractors argued that Mother Teresa’s firmly held convictions about the sanctity of life from the moment of conception only helped ensure that the ‘poorest of the poor’ would continue to grow. Her response: There is no population problem, just God’s will.

Diplomacy was not high on the priority list for Mother Teresa. She was frank and direct, particularly on issues like abortion, calling it ‘murder in the womb.’ But she often stepped beyond the rhetoric of condemnation by reminding the world that A child is a gift of God. If you do not want him, give him to me. And many did.

Her inflexibility on contraception and abortion didn’t sit well in western political circles, either. Following Mother Teresa’s death, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to declare a national day of recognition for her work with the poor but stayed clear of mentioning her hard line on abortion. The American House of Representatives, too, watered down a resolution honouring her work by dropping the reference to abortion in the draft stage.

A skilled fund-raiser

Critics also assailed Mother Teresa for accepting money from tyrants such as former Haitian dictator Jean Claude (‘Baby Doc’) Duvalier. But, asked one archbishop, Why is it wrong to take money from Duvalier for the poor? That’s where it belongs anyway.

In fact, Mother Teresa was never reluctant to ask for funds from anyone when it came to meeting the needs of the poor, the sick and the dying. Nor did she have any qualms about selling her awards for funds that would further the cause. After Pope Paul VI gave her a Lincoln automobile, Mother Teresa auctioned it off and opened a leper colony in West Bengal; in 1979 she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and the cash award that went with it in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society ....

Stories abound, many of them humorous, of the fund-raising talents of the angel of mercy from Calcutta. At a Knights of Columbus banquet in New York in 1995, Mother Teresa held up her newly presented gold medal and asked How much is it worth? Observing that the banquet itself might have been a costly affair, she also remarked how nice it would be to return to Calcutta with the amount of money that had been spent on the dinner. One bishop laughed as he recalled later that the organisers were stuck with giving her about $100,000 more than they had anticipated.

Many people wonder what will happen to the almost 600 chapters of the Missionaries of Charity around the world without the gifts, talents and compassion of their charismatic founder. Although groomed by Mother Teresa to succeed her as superior general, Sister Nirmala, 63, a Hindu convert, is cut from a different cloth. She lacks the mischievous spark, said one newspaper journalist. Besides, she has not yet been canonised by the public, he added.

Church officials say, however, that Mother Teresa’s work was ‘God’s work’ and that the God’s work will continue. Sister Nirmala, at the funeral, was in agreement. God will provide whatever we need.

Trusting in Divine Providence

The last word to ease the worry over the future of her congregation, ironically, may be those of Mother Teresa herself, who had said with complete confidence, If God could find a weak person as I am, God will find someone to continue the work.

With the funeral over and the Missionaries of Charity continuing to do ‘God’s work’ among the poor, the focus now is on the Vatican and how soon - not whether - Mother Teresa will be examined for canonisation.

Although Pope John Paul II, who has deep admiration for Mother Teresa, has canonised and beatified more people than all of the other popes in this century combined, speculation among church leaders is that he will allow the normal processes to run their course.

‘To begin a cause it is necessary for at least 5 years to have passed since the death of the candidate,’ said the Holy See Press Office in a note following the death of Mother Teresa. For beatification, a miracle attributed to the candidate would also be required.

‘For canonisation, another miracle is needed attributed to the intercession of the Blessed and having occurred after his beatification, the note stated.

If all the hurdles are cleared, under the current procedures for canonisation Mother Teresa’s beatification and elevation to sainthood could take more than century. However, the process can also be accelerated, church leaders acknowledge, although it is uncommon for that to occur.

While it could take a long time for Mother Teresa to become St. Teresa of Calcutta, for many of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, she is already their saint and will continue to be so.

Mother Teresa shunned the title of ‘saint’ while she was alive, desiring only to Do all for Jesus, to Jesus and with Jesus. Appropriately, the epitaph on her tomb in the mother house of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta carries a quote from her beloved Jesus: Love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 15:12).

Not a new commandment from Christ, perhaps, but one that resounded clearly through the life of the woman born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu - Mother Teresa of Calcutta.