Today September 5

Today is the memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910 - 1997). Born Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Gonxha means "little flower" in Albanian) in Albania (a country famous now for being the poorest country in Europe. Even now post-Communism, the entire populace are the victims of an elaborate Ponzi scheme), but what is now the republic of Macedonia. Like St. Ignatius of old, she was fascinated and motivated by the lives of the saints. She joined the Loreto Sisters as a missionary and was sent to Ireland to learn English in preparation for work in India. She chose the name Teresa, both after "big" Teresa the mystic, reformer and founder, and after "the little flower" Therese, patron of missionaries. She taught school to relatively wealthy girls in Darjeeling, but when she moved to the school in Calcutta, she was "increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her." -Wikipedia, "Mother Teresa". On her annual retreat back up to the mountains of Darjeeling on the train, she had what she called her "call within the call" to leave the convent and work with the poorest of the poor. It was an "order," not a suggestion. First she established a school in Motijhil, but that failed, and she just started to help the poor and dying. No money to her name, no sisters to join her (at first), no home, she experienced poverty like she'd never known it before. And all the while, the Tempter said in her ear: "You have only to say the word and all will be yours again." But she held fast and didn't take the easy road and go back to Loreto. She founded -- in an abandoned Hindu temple donated by the Indian government -- the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. People of all faiths were welcomed and treated there according to their faith: Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received the water of the Ganges, Catholics received the Last Rites. "A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals . . . to die like angels" she said, inspired by the comments of her first dying person -- a Hindu man -- who was in the gutter and covered in worms. She took him home, cleaned him up and cared for him. Just before he died, he looked in her eyes and said: "I have lived like an animal, but I die like an angel."

Shortly thereafter a leprosy hospital (and hospice) was opened and then an orphanage. She started the order with 13 sisters and now has 4000 sisters, 300 brothers and over a million lay volunteers in 610 missions in 123 countries. You might think such a beacon of strength, such a loved and loving woman, the subject of the profound documentary "Something Beautiful for God," winner of the Pacem in Terris award from the Catholic Church (1978), the Medal of Freedom from America (1985), numerous honorary degrees AND the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) (the $192,000 award for which, she gave entirely to the poor in India) would not be a figure of controversy, but you would be wrong. Not only did people misinterpret Archbishop D'Souza's decision to perform an exorcism on her after her first heart attack (because he felt she might be under attack by the devil, besides her physical malady), and not only did they misinterpret her writings in "Come Be My Light" as a "crisis of faith" (rather than an exposition of her personal spiritual dryness common in mature souls), but Christopher Hitchens profoundly misinterpreted her heartfelt -- and honest -- admission, "I'm not a social worker. I do it for this reason. I do it for Christ" as a failure to fight poverty and just a way to expand the number of Catholics. No. You see, in each ravaged face, Hindu, Muslim, or Christian, she saw her Lord -- and she put an absolute value on life -- this life, right here, right now. She did something for each one -- right now, just as she could. She couldn't alleviate all poverty . . .it would be foolish to think so . . . but she could help this one poor person, right here, right now. And unlike others, she did! She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2002. I predict we will all live to see her a (canonized) saint. I believe she is already a saint, in the sense that she is a citizen of heaven. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.