Blessed Mother Theresa - [2012] - A tribute!

As a young seminarian at Our Lady’s House Higher Secondary School, Bandel Church, Hooghly P.O., West Bengal, India, I had the singular privilege of listening to the life and works undertaken by her, from the lips of Blessed Mother Theresa herself. That was way back in 1963. I was then too young to realize the significance of that eventful day and what the middle-aged Nun, who had already risen to be acclaimed as a pride of twentieth century, wanted to convey to us through her humble discourse.

Today, fifteen years after her demise, I look back with fond memory at a soul who devoted her best years – nay - entire life for the welfare of millions of orphaned, abandoned and destitute children, forsaken or discarded by parents or guardians, at the mercy of some Good Samaritan. That Good Samaritan was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, born of an Albanian descent family in Skopje, Macedonia on 26^th August, 1910.

I have no intention whatsoever to narrate the life-long achievements of Mother Theresa which might appear like doing disservice to an angelic human being who made the supreme sacrifice and attained sainthood in the hearts of more humans the world over, than the comparatively lesser figure who experienced the fruit of Christ’s redemption. We ought not lose sight of the fact that Mother Theresa earned the distinction of having utilized the sacrifice of redemption by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and bequeathed a supreme example for the world to follow.  Moreover, whereas Jesus Christ failed Himself to redeem us on all occasions, Mother Theresa succeeded in failing the world through her dedication of an entire life to the service of humankind and for the world.

It might sound demeaning of the act of redemption by our Savior if one were to pronounce lightly the supreme sacrifice made by Jesus Christ for the salvation of each one of us as also the whole of mankind at the altar of Golgotha.  In essence it was in His act of failing Himself on most occasions but with special mention oN two important occasions narrated hereafter that we attained the reward of Jesus’ Supreme Sacrifice in huge measure to have been assured of an eternal reward in the company of God and His angels. 

It is important to recollect how at the garden of Gethsemane, prior to His passion and death, Jesus Christ worked a mind-boggling miracle (John Ch.18.6) that was intended to convince the chief priests and elders who were out to trace him from among His apostles and disciples for getting him to pay for all the good He had done during those three years He set out for public life.  In order to ensure that they were nabbing the right individual who claimed to be the Son of God they had to make cautious inroads in to His every move.  It was unfortunate that those gullible humans failed to read the divine writing on the wall.

Accordingly, when Jesus Christ sought of the Chief Priests and elders at the Garden of Gethsamane as to who they were after, they replied ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.  At this they all fell to the ground. But Jesus Christ went up to them telling them to do that which they had come for.  That is to say Jesus did not allow His divinity to come in the way of our securing the fruit of redemption.  Had Jesus acted or worked against the imagination of those gullible human beings, then a reverse situation could have transformed Holy Bible in to a failed sequence of redemption.  But rather Jesus ensured that His Divinity be intact in fulfilling the wishes of His Heavenly Father. 

As a matter of fact Jesus Christ failed Himself a second time on a later occasion, that was in the presence of Pilot who was to deliver a judgement to appease the public.  When Pilot sought an answer from Jesus Christ “Do you not hear how many charges they have made against you?” (Mathew Ch.27.13) Jesus made no answer because He knew how an answer by God-incarnate could have trounced the attempt by the entire mob to vilify Him and His mission.

However, once it was all over on the cross, He did manifest through a unique miracle that He indeed was the Son of God, whereat the very soldiers deputed to guard Him and the two robbers crucified with Him, were petrified at the nature’s fury as well as theimpact immediately on His breathing His last.

However, today as we set our eyes towards a hitherto elusive day when Mother Theresa waits in line to be canonized like many others like her who lived a saintly life, it behooves us to give a supreme thought on the supreme sacrifice made by her in acknowledgement of Christ’s act of redemption.  By her dedication and sacrifice of entire life for the care and welfare of poor and the poorest of the poor (as she herself would put it), we ought to feel proud of the day when this nun was born to this world more than a century ago.  It was indeed a very solemn occasion when a girl child born of an Albanian descent family in Skopje, Macedonia on 26^th August, 1910 gave to world an enduring example of selfless and dedicated sacrifice of one’s own life through a benevolent service for the salvation of many destitute and abandoned children and for the good of the world but more especially the poorest of the poor of a world swayed by Satan through a multitude of vices.  We all bow our head in reverence at the benevolent and magnanimous act of providing a supreme example of living the fruit of God’s redemption of mankind.

Incidentally, we should not lose sight of the fact that where Jesus Christ failed Himself to redeem us for our own sake, Mother Theresa succeeded in failing the world through her noble dedication and large-hearted service of mankind. Both were down to earth human beings namely Jesus Christ (a word made flesh) and Mother Theresa a fruit of God’s creation, who suffered painful indignity and spiteful contempt for no reason whatsoever.

Mother Theresa is the one only individual who ensured that Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary did not go in vain and earned the distinction of working her way in to heaven directly from a world infested with crime and sin. The world failed to reply back at the stupendous edifice she single-handedly built up solely on the strength of her love for a suffering Jesus Christ. Even during her lifetime Mother was humble and never exhibited her piety for the sake of vane reputation.

Jesus Christ, being God incarnate, could not have earned a distinction as role model for imperfect humans like us because His suffering and death was of superior dimension not comparable to any suffering we human beings could endure. As God incarnate, Jesus Christ could foresee what all torture He had to endure and as Man He endured everything in fulfillment of the wishes of His Father.  But Mother Theresa is truly a dedicated soul in whose steps human beings can follow.  Yet this world which is badly mauled up by crime and sin with no amount of spirituality traceable in man is unable to stand up to defy the devil. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were an act of divine love which collectively brings back man to the one fold of God’s kingdom.  Can man ponder over this one unique aspect?

Mother Theresa was a lowly human being, who renounced a life of worldly pleasures, extravaganza and concupiscence for the service of the ‘poorest of the poor’.  She made the supreme sacrifice of adhering to the very concept of Jesus Christ’s teaching viz. love of God and love of neighbor. Her austere and detached life was a sublime translation of Bible in to conviction that redemption by Jesus Christ had to be earned in order to enjoy its fruit. In life she was a living testimony of Jesus’ own teaching to the extent of loving God and loving one’s neighbor. She inherited that which no human being ever succeeded in attaining viz. the honor and distinction of being the rightful heir to Jesus Christ’s own bequeathal during His dying hours “Woman, behold thy son” (John Ch.19.26).

Among the many unsung martyrs who laid down their lives in the name of Jesus Christ was St. Peter, who received the charge from His Master and Savior Jesus Christ a precept to keep the Christian flock intact. St. Peter was taken prisoner by Nero in 64 A.D. and sentenced to death by crucifixion. St. Peter was crucified with his head downwards in fulfillment of his wish to die in a posture other than that of his Divine Master.

Mother Theresa, who was born 1910 years after Jesus Christ was crucified, took up the cross and followed the same Jesus for upholding the name of Jesus Christ by tending to the millions of poorest of the poor.

I kept listening to the discourse by Mother ostensibly with rapt attention as she narrated episodes and events, with a touch of human love.  However, as a playful youngster I was hardly attentive to the discourse.  Today, as I reflect back on the said discourse I can vividly recollect her say when she said that one day she is said to have come by an aged woman floating in the drain on the streets of Calcutta. Thereupon, she with the help of other sisters accompanying her pulled the woman out of the drain brought her to the home for the destitute. After the woman was given a wash up, she was given some food to eat. Seeing the plate of food, the eyes of the woman opened wide and she whispered in a feeble voice “If I had got this food a week earlier, I would have lived”. Saying this she collapsed but not before she met the love of Jesus Christ at the Mother’s ‘Nirmal Hriday’ in Kalighat, Calcutta.

The faithful from all over the Christian world look up to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Rome to see their beloved Mother Theresa canonized at the earliest. Mother Theresa has truly been an inspiration; she has also been instrumental in opening the eyes of many across the world, through her love and dedicated & selfless service for the poor, down-trodden and those forsaken by a world of crime and sin.

As laity, we have no right to question the decisions of the Catholic Church. However, as faithful ourselves, it does behoove us to reflect as to whether Church is doing a service to the faithful by laying off the decision to canonize Mother Theresa pending the required miracles through the intercession of Mother Theresa, whereas the Mother herself has made the grace possible during her own life by setting up an order for the welfare of the Church and the world. What better miracle do we need as a testimony for the sainthood of Mother Theresa?