Homily: September 5 - Blessed Teresa of Calcutta - Servant of the Poorest of the Poor

Blessed Teresa was born in Macedonia in 1910 and spent a brief time in Ireland when she entered the Sisters of Loreto convent in Dublin.  When she was sent to teach at the Loreto school in Calcutta, India, she was overwhelmed by the tremendous poverty and suffering of the destitute.

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear, she was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”

She received permission to establish a new religious order and returned to Calcutta to live among the poor in Calcutta’s slums and to serve them.  She dressed in a white Sari and sandals, the ordinary dress of an Indian woman.

The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 she opened a home for the dying and the destitute. Their service later extended to orphans and abandoned children, alcoholics, the aged, and the homeless.

As the Order grew, houses were founded in other cities around the world dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor.

In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, she died.
In every chapel of the Missionary Sisters is a crucifix with the words of Christ in Italian “Ho Sete”—“I thirst”, written above it: A reminder that when we bring drink to the thirsty we are giving that drink to Jesus himself.

When I was studying in Rome, I had the honor of working alongside the Missionary Sisters of Charity at a house for destitute men near the Coliseum.  The men would come off the streets and would be fed and bathed and treated with dignity and respect.  The sisters were so edifying as they treated these men as they would treat Jesus himself.

These Sisters, following the example of Blessed Teresa, who pour out their lives to serve the poorest of the poor are among the most joyful women I have ever met.  A reminder too that the greatest joy is not found in doing our own will, but pouring out our lives in service to God.

May Blessed Teresa continue to inspire us and teach us and pray for us that we may be ever more dedicated to serving Christ in the poor for the glory of God and salvation of souls.