On Mother Teresa

I recently finished a book, "Something Beautiful for God", by Malcolm Muggeridge. If you know me, actually finishing a book is a big accomplishment. My husband often jokes that it takes me 2 years to read a book! Well, I am happy to report, dear hubby, that this one took me only 2 months! Of course, I picked it up repeatedly over that 2 months to RE-read what had slipped my memory from the previous reading. Therefore...2 months. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read this book and will share with you some of it's meaningful moments to me.

The author, Malcolm Muggeridge said of Mother Teresa, "To me, Mother Teresa represents, essentially, love in action, which is surely what Christianity is about." It should be noted that later in life he converted to Christianity in large part due to the light that Mother Teresa shed upon Christ in her actions.

Mother Teresa, in a conversation with Muggeridge, spoke of the poor she served. "I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience...For all kinds of diseases there are medicines and cures. But for being unwanted, except there are willing hands to serve and there's a loving heart to love, I don't think this terrible disease can ever be cured."

Muggeridge asked M.T. where her strength came from enabling her to do all of these daily acts of love. Stating that her strength is in Christ, she commented, "Without him we could do nothing. And it is there at the altar that we meet our suffering poor. And in him that we see that suffering can become a means to a greater love, and greater generosity." I am amazed that a woman who has given up everything and lives AS the poor live can find even more depths from which to become increasingly generous! This really blew me away. The "greater love" IS the "greater generosity". It is interesting that of the rich she said, "And the rich want to share the hardship in some way just a little bit sometimes; the difficulty is that they don't give until it hurts." I wonder how "rich" I am if I used her definition? I'm guilty.

Of all her efforts and the efforts of her team, she said, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean I think the ocean will be less because of that missing drop."

On suffering, Malcolm Muggeridge explained, "Suffering crystallizes, as nothing else does, the dilemmas and nightmares of life without God." He uses an analogy of a machine and manufacturer..."When machines jam and go wrong, we hate them utterly, and look round for a manufacturer or mechanic to curse. In the eyes of those who see men as machines, God is the manufacturer, and the mechanic his priest. Mother Teresa, of course, sees it quite differently. Suffering and death, to her, are not the breakdown of a machine, but part of the everlasting drama of our relationship with our creator. Far from being an unjustifiable violation, an outrage, they [suffering and death] exemplify and enhance our human condition. If ever it were to be possible--as some arrogant contemporary minds are crazy enough to believe--to eliminate suffering, and ultimately death, from our mortal lives, they would not thereby be enhanced, but rather demeaned, to the point that they would become too insignificant, too banal, to be worth living at all."

I am still dealing with all of this and sifting it in my heart. Certainly, I have much to learn. I hope to be a learner, teachable, moldable. But, I don't want to sit merely "sifting." I am called to action...to love. Jesus says to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbors.

One final quote I heard on an audio clip from Mother Teresa..."Help us, O Loving Father, to take whatever you give and to give whatever you take with a big smile."