Mother Teresa -- faith and good works.

Someone once said to Mother Teresa, "I wouldn't do what you're doing for a million dollars!" Mother Teresa replied, "Neither would I." The most successful enterprise in the modern world, however, even in (authentic) economic terms, is the work of a nun who says, "God does not ask us to be successful; He asks us to be faithful."

The Missionaries of Charity were founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They now have 5000 sisters in more than 400 houses in over 100 countries. Spun off from them are an order of priests and an order of brothers. The volunteers whose lives have undergone a new Pentecost from working with them are more numerous still. The response of the world at large is probably best summed up in the words of an Englishman when he saw Malcolm Muggeridge's Something Beautiful for God when it was finally aired by the BBC: "That film spoke to me like I've never been spoken to before!"

Living by Faith

What is Mother Teresa's secret? She lives by faith in the Son of God become man.

The just man lives by faith may be St. Paul's favourite Scripture text. It is from the Book of Habakkuk, 2:4, and St. Paul quotes it three times, in Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, and Heb 10:38. Father Martin Luther did almost 500 years of harm by saying that all one had to do was believe, not act. `Good works' were worthless. St. James' epistle was "an epistle of straw" for saying that faith without good works is dead (Jas 2:20). The fruit of Luther's advice is 50,000 different sects and counting. The fruit of Teresa's marriage of faith and action is the success mentioned above, of religious, and lay volunteers, who

. . . put out wings like eagles. They run and so grow not weary, walk and never tire (Is 40:31).

It may be that some of us have adopted the twin of Luther's error and become Pelagians, proceeding on the false assumption that we can make our way on our own merits. Not so Teresa. She presides at the marriage of both Gospel truths, the one that says, Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5), and the one that says, I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13).

Liturgy and action

Pope Paul VI, echoing Vatican II, said, "Between evangelization and human progress there is neither opposition nor separation." Mother Teresa was putting that principle into practice more than a decade before it was enunciated. Vatican II said, "The liturgy is the summit to which all the church's activity is directed, and, at the same time, the source from which all her power flows." Mother Teresa adopted a way of life which, for all its activity, made the liturgy the focus of her day. But active she was, getting involved in the world so whole-heartedly that, when the history of this time is written, it may turn out that the Council Fathers were inspired to urge involvement with the world (on the basis of the Gospel) by the force of her commitment. For she dedicated herself to "the poorest of the poor," and simply waded into the worst problems the worst city in the world, Calcutta, had to offer. This was no inane attempt to make the Gospel conform to the ways of the world; this was taking the Gospel to the streets and making the streets conform to the Gospel. Mother Teresa's watchword was, Whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you do to me (Mt 25:40).

Like every person who not only hears the word of God, but keeps it, Teresa found herself smothered in gifts, including gifts she had not even asked for. She learned, and quickly, how to cope with abandoned children, with the dying (sometimes people so stricken that their bodies were maggot-infested and gnawed by rats), with lepers, with cripples. And what were her resources? "When God quits giving to us, we'll quit giving to the poor."

Soon she found that when she went to describe her work, she did so with such eloquent simplicity that her audience was spellbound. How is one to improve on, "He comes to us in this distressing disguise" as a translation of, "Whatever you do to the least of these, my brothers, you do to me"? She has long been able to fill any auditorium--and stadium--any time, any place. She became a silver-tongued orator without the asking.

Better than that, she became a prophetess without the asking, if a prophet is one who has the courage to speak the truth even in the teeth of the disapproval of men. On February 3, 1994, she spoke these words at a Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.:

"If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?. . . Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

It is not just that those words are the soul of truth in themselves. At the head table in the hall where they were uttered sat President and Mrs. Clinton, Vice-President and Mrs. Gore, and a plethora of Washington government officials. When Mother Teresa's superb speech was greeted with standing applause, the Clintons and the Gores reached hard for their glasses of water to avoid having to join in, although Clinton, in thanking her, did (however meaninglessly given his policies and acts) commend her as a model "we would all do well to emulate."

A prophetess on spiritual poverty

Mother Teresa's work with the poorest of the poor has taught her that there are levels of poverty that go deeper than the physical. "The poorest country in the world," she says, "is one which does not protect its own children." Canada, take note. There is talk these days about Canada's economy being threatened. Canada's real poverty began in 1967 with the "legalization" of contraception, sealed in 1969 by her failure to stand on guard for the unborn.

In August of 1982 Mother Teresa visited Beirut, which was under heavy siege by the Israelis. With the leadership skills of a military commander she rescued thirty-seven children from a mental asylum which was under fire, and moved them to safety. Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things (even gifts like generalship) will be yours without the asking (Mt 6:33).

In 1993 Mother Teresa filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in a case involving a man's right to protect his unborn child from being aborted. It was a beautiful presentation, dealing with facts such as that human life begins at conception; that the U.S. had made a federal case out of slavery, a minuscule crime compared with prenatal infanticide; that Roe vs. Wade was "an infinitely tragic and destructive departure" from American tradition in which "human life is. .. always and everywhere to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect."

Add lawyerdom to Mother's gifts.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the brief in question. A report on the matter ended with the words, "The legal case is closed." The moral case is not closed, however, and Strict scrutiny awaits those who exercise authority (Wisdom 6:8). It is the beginning of wisdom for the Supreme Courts of the U.S., Canada and elsewhere to realize that, in the words of John the Baptist, no one has shown them how to flee from the wrath to come.

Fame is a cross

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake. Rejoice and be very glad, for your reward will be very great in heaven. (Mt. 5:11-12). One might think that persecution is one blessing Mother Teresa does not qualify for. Contrary to the assumptions (I think) of most of us, she considers her fame and the publicity that surrounds her her greatest cross. But she knows literal rejection. The above U.S. Supreme Court rejected her brief, which was a masterpiece. The secular press (I realize on investigation) has been damning her with faint praise for decades. So cute, their denigratory innuendoes! Her nuns "wander around" the famous Home for the Dying, "stabbing" people with needles, predicting "This one will die," and letting patients who are dying themselves try to help the stricken. This from The Toronto Star of June 4, 1987, which has been calling good evil and evil good ever since it bought into the culture of death.

The media find it difficult to keep entirely silent about her work, compelling, ubiquitous, inspiring as it is. They may yet succeed in their censorship, however, as they have succeeded in maintaining silence about the atrocities visited on the unborn. Mother Teresa, as I say, considers their attentions a cross in the first place. Like every sage in history, she does not pin her hopes on the opinions of men. "God does not ask us to be successful; He asks us to be faithful."

See what happens, however, when the press does engage her. Some time after Time Magazine (December 29, 1975) ran her picture on its front cover with the heading, "Living Saints," a reporter hollered across the street to her as she was proceeding from point A to point B with some of her sisters, "They say you are a living saint. How do you respond?" She replied, "Everyone must be worthy in his own position, I in mine, and you in yours. Holiness is not something extraordinary; it is a simple duty."

That sentence should be cast in bronze and emplaced over the entrance of every establishment in the land. No "Aw shucks, it was nothing!" much less, "Yes, I am a little bit of all right, am I not?" A perfect teaching, sparked by as tricky a question as you please. The Pharisees themselves, I think, posed no questions for our Lord that were more calculated to make one stumble.

Recent attacks

An English iconoclast by the name of Christopher Hitchens wrote a television piece called "Hell's angel." It was aired in November, 1994, and as the title none too subtly suggests, tried to trash Mother Teresa and her work. (David Warren wrote a very worthy review in the November, 1995, Saturday Night pointing out, for example, that when Hitchens reported with would-be irony that Mother Teresa did not check herself into her own Home for the Dying when she had her heart attack, he omitted to report that she was not in Calcutta, India, at the time, but in Tijuana, Mexico).

Hitchens is not a Catholic, but I find the source of his "case" against Mother Teresa in a U.S. publication which calls itself the National Catholic Reporter, and which should be called the National Anti-Catholic Reporter. The December, 1993, issue from the official publication of the National Coalition of American Nuns trashed Mother Teresa for being loyal to the church: "Her modus operandi reflects the church at its worst--noncollaborative, authoritarian, hierarchical and tunnel-visioned."

Make no point; just attack the person. Hurl unsubstantiated charges. (The Church is noncollaborative and tunnel-visioned). Employ truthless innuendo. (The Church's authority and hierarchy are bad).

It is tenable, I think, not to say supportable by Scripture, that the enemies of Christ would have been unable to lay a hand on him if he had not been betrayed by Judas. If so, that makes the above Catholic press comparable to Caiaphas, where the secular press would be Pilate. As for the National Coalition of American Nuns . .. I suspect that Hitchens said to himself, "If Catholic nuns can attack Mother Teresa and her Church, why can't I?"

Blessed are you when men revile you . . .untruly, for my sake.

The Missionaries of Charity have five houses in Canada, in Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver, and St. Paul, Alberta. Sister Anna, the superior of their Toronto house (185 Dunn Ave. M6K 2S1), told me something Mother Teresa said which sums up not only her response to persecution but the spirit she stands for: "They may take us and cut us up into pieces, If they do, each piece will cry out, `I am Yours!'"

Charity is love. They are not called Missionaries of Charity (M.C.) for nothing.

Move from strength to strength, blue and white clad champions of faith, hope and charity, uncompromising prophets, priests and kings of Jesus Christ our Lord! Burning lamps shining in dark places, the Lord be with you, that you may ever overcome evil with good!

The work of the Missionaries of Charity is too humble to make true criticism possible. There is one criticism, however, which is true, and which their work shouts from the housetops. Mother Teresa said it in the words, "I had no idea God was going to do these things." Mary, the Mother of Jesus, said it in the words, "He that is mighty has done great things for me." Sirach said it:

Yet even God's holy ones must fail in recounting the wonders of the Lord.

Eccles 42:17

Joseph Thompson is a contributing editor of Catholic Insight. The following Book Note is also by him.

Mother Teresa: A simple path compiled by Lucinda Vardey, Toronto, Random House of Canada, (Ballantine Books, New York) 1995,

pp. 202, hardcover Can. $27.95

This book is worth its salt if for nothing more than the simple path (Mother Teresa's) from which it takes its title:

The fruit of silence is prayer.

The fruit of prayer is faith.

The fruit of faith is love.

The fruit of love is service.

The fruit of service is peace.

In fact, the body of the book is simply an expansion of those five steps by Mother Teresa, who keeps stepping out of the picture to let some of her field marshals comment on their implementation.

Lucinda Vardey speaks of the influence of the East on Mother Teresa. She may be right. Gautama (the Buddha) got much mileage out of his Noble Eightfold Path. God knows simplicity is a huge virtue, much neglected in the West. Not that it was free of dangers in the East, where it was prone to nihilism.

It is in Lucinda's mention of this influence of the East that she goes wrong. "[W]hen reading Mother Teresa's words. . .we may, if we choose, replace the references to Jesus with references to other godheads or symbols of divinity," she says. "However, Mother Teresa's chosen way is the Christian one. . ."

Jesus Christ does not belong on a list with "other godheads and symbols of divinity." Far from insulting others' beliefs and practices, we are their best friends when we point this out.