A Saint Remembered

Mother Teresa did not take her eye off of a goal of her "call within a call". She pressed on undaunted by skeptics, criticism, favorable press, awards, or compliments. She, as they say, walked with kings and kept the "common touch".

In l979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway for overcoming poverty. When she was asked what we could do to promote World Peace, she answered, "Go home and love your family!" In 1985 she was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

After her death, Pope John Paul II had her declared a saint to be known, thereafter, as the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. The Missionaries of Charity, which she began, had 4000 Sisters working to carry out her work. Six hundred and ten missions were operating in 123 countries when she died.

And all started by a woman willing to listen to a "Call within a Call".

Leaving the Order for a bigger Order

Initially she was sent to Loreta Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland to learn English since that was the language that was taught to school children in India. It was her intention, and that of the Order, than this novice known later as Mother Teresa would return to India and that she would be a teacher of children. And that happened. But it did not happen for long!

Although she enjoyed teaching, she became more and more disturbed by the poverty that was all around her in Calcutta. She could not sit inside a building, with some amenities, and go outside into the real world and witness the pain and suffering of those without food, shelter, medicine and any kind of hope for something better. She kept saying to herself and to anyone who would listen, "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person". And she took her own advice and reached out her own hand, first, to help another.

In 1950 she founded the Missions of Charity in Calcutta, India. She said she received "a call within a call" and made up her mind that she must leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. She took off her habit and replaced it with a white cotton sari with a blue border. It was not an easy task. She had not expected an easy task but she had no idea how difficult it would be to find daily provisions. Gradually others saw and responded to the need.

In 1952 she opened the first Home for the Dying saying, "A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals to die like angels -- loved and wanted."

Her hands were never idle; her heart was never unconcerned. Every moment made a difference to someone out there in desperate trouble.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

People make a lot of judgments about people by what a person looks like or where that person buys their clothes or works. But God looks upon the hearts of people and decides if they would be willing to climb aboard for a long, uphill climb!

This was certainly true of the person who would later be known as Mother Theresa. As a small girl in Calcutta, India, she was fascinated by the stories of missionaries and vowed that one day she would join the order of the Sisters of Loreta and be a missionary.

At the age of eighteen she joined the Order and never saw the members of her family again! She took the name after Thesese de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize

In 1952 Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of Reverence for Life. When he finally came to Oslo, Norway, people crowded to speak to this person who urged the world to stop nuclear tests and weapon-making and seek ways of peace. Even the King of Norway welcomed him to the country.

He took the prize money and returned to Lambarene and his work. Some people promoted him as some kind of jungle saint or a modern Christ healer but he continued his work, dressed in rumpled clothing and using his hands to heal and help. He lived out his life practicing a reverence for all life, as well as preaching the same.

A Reverence for Life Philosophy

Dr. Schweitzer decided that he would pursue these interests until he was thirty years of age and then he would give himself to serving humanity and follow the command of Jesus Christ by becoming a "Fisher of Men." He followed his heart and did exactly that going to Lambarene in West Africa where the need for medical attention was overwhelming. There, he eventually founded a hospital.

One day while he was out on a boat on the River Oguwe, he came upon a philosophy for which he had long been searching. He made the phase the basic tenet of an ethical philosophy which he developed and put into practice. He called it REVERENCE FOR LIFE. The basic thought, so far as he was concerned, was that good consists in maintaining and enhancing life, and to destroy or hinder that life is evil.

Some critics thought it was too simple "Don't ever step on a bug".

Some critics thought it was too difficult, "No one can stop a nuclear war if one is headed your way!" Neither were correct in their assessment of the philosophy Schweitzer intended. But, in spite of the critics, or maybe because of them, the philosophy and the philosopher became more newsworthy!

Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

When God looks for people to serve as his hands on earth, he sometimes calls on the busiest of persons or those who already have their hands in many varied projects. The words "Renaissance Men" is often used to describe such people. They do a lot of things and they do them all extremely well, to paraphrase the meaning of the term.

Such, indeed, was the case of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the ultimate Renaissance Man. His father was a German pastor who insisted that he learn theology and to play the organ from the time of his birth in Kaysersberg.

He did his father's bidding. He received a degree in theology and was given a place to serve. He studied with an organ teacher and became an outstanding organist and organ-builder, even writing books on both subject. And, if that was not enough, he studied philosophy and medicine earning additional degrees. All of these things, he did well.

But God was about to add another heap to his load!

The Assassination of the Leader

But the story does not end with "they all lived happily ever after!" This man who preached non-violence was killed by an assassin on 30 January 1948 as Gandhi was walking to a platform to address a prayer meeting. He had survived four unsuccessful attempts to kill him but this one was lethal!

His ashes were interred at the Aga Khan's palace in Pune.

But the lessons of Mahatma Gandhi spread like wildfire in every place where people were being persecuted and where violence was a way of life!