Last week, a year ago, September 4, Pope Francis declared beloved Mother Teresa a saint officially. Last week, on September 5, the world also observed the 20th anniversary of her crossing over from this earth into heaven. Almost a week before that (August 26), the world celebrated her birthday too.
Though one is not sure of what inner connections these dates may have to the “saint of the gutter”, Mother Teresa recalled that it was again on September 10, while travelling in a train from Kolkata to Darjeeling for her annual retreat that she heard Jesus’ clear voice in her heart to do something for the “poorest of the poor”. That was 1946. Something more powerful than herself had then gripped her whole being. Jesus became everything for her. She burnt with a desire to sacrifice everything for him. The religious Order — Missionaries of Charity — founded by her still celebrates September 10 as the “Inspiration Day”.
It took nearly two years after this special day before she could get permission to execute her plans to serve the poor, the sick and the uncared for. After obtaining the permission, she would not even wait 10 days for her 37th birthday. On August 17, 1948, for the first time she donned her white sari with blue borders, the way Bengali women would, and walked out of the Loreto Convent to dedicate herself to the world of the poor, doing it wholeheartedly till the last breath of her life.
She understood that the sea of poverty that surrounded her in the days soon after India’s Independence needed more hands than just her own. Since she was convinced that she was tending the wounds of the crucified Jesus, she soon found young women of faith from all over India, wishing to follow her path.
One notices that a lot of important events of her life happened around the second half of the month of August and the first half of September. One wonders if it has something to do with the season that we are currently into? The Book of Wisdom in the Bible reminds us, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…”
And once Mother Teresa put her foot into that unknown world of the unloved and rejected by society, she resolutely followed Jesus’ words: “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” Not surprising then that she lives in our hearts and inspires us even today as she used to fondly say: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Do we need any specific time and place to do that?
