Small Things...
How long has it been since Mother Teresa died? Okay, I checked - a little over 8 years (September 5, 1997). It seems like she's popping up everywhere I look recently. Why? Dunno. Well, maybe I do know...but I don't like what I think I know... So...she's haunting me...or, rather, her work, her committment, her life is affecting me...
And, truthfully, I don't like it one bit...
A couple weeks ago I was getting ready for worship and I came across one of her most famous quotes, which I think is still one of the most profound statements to come out of the 20th century:
We can do no great things, just small things with great love.
Did you know, though, that that wasn't a sentence spoken in isolation? We so tend to reduce Christianity to bumper sticker slogans that we might be tempted to believe that she, indeed, just rattled off these great one liners (of course, we do the same to Jesus...so why am I surprised?) Here's the context, as best as I can assemble it (everyone knows she said it, I just can't track down WHERE she said it...sigh...)
We can do no great thing, just small things with great love. It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
And probably more to it than that...
The quote seems to be her life's ambition. She made reference to it in a number of places, most notably in her 1979 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as he loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love...
Small things with great love. I can't seem to accomplish any of that. Some days I can't even do the small things, let alone attain the "great love" part...
Here's the thing that's bugging me. I can't escape this little nun no matter what I try to do...
I pick up a book called Irresistible Revolution and start to read it (not a chapter one, no, I don't seem to be wired that way, but I start at chapter four...why? Dunno...) and the whole freaking chapter is about this little woman and the author's discovery of what true Christianity is...by doing what she did her whole life (interestingly, he was somewhat unaffected by actually MEETING her - yep, little woman in a sari...he had little to say but he needed a hug from her...and he got it...).
Claibourne writes:
I was in an interview with some reporter who asked me if Mother Teresa's spirit will live on. I said, "To be honest, Mother Teresa died a long time ago, when seh gave her life to Jesus. The joy and compassion and love that teh world finds so magnetic are only Jesus, and that is eternal." I saw that eternal love all over Calcutta. I did indeed see Christ in Mother Teresa, but I also found Christ in the lepers, the children, the destitute, the workers. I even began to recognize that Christ lives in me.
So what? Well, I don't know... Everything about this woman - everything she said and did - deflected from her to Christ. One biographer noted that if the Vatican needed evidence of a miracle to grant her sainthood, the pope had only to look at the millions of changed lives in India to see the miracle.
Yet, in her Peace Prize acceptance speech, Teresa said:
One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition - and I told the Sisters: You take care of the other three, I take of this one that looked worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: Thank you - and she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked what would I say if I was in her place. And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, I would have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something, but she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face.
Yeah - here's arguably one of the greatest, most selfless, most giving and loving human beings of the 20th century saying that she's selfish. But she wasn't. She was, again, deflecting attention from her to Christ - to seeing Christ in the death of this woman... And when Teresa died...she didn't "draw a little attention" to herself, say she was hungry or dying or cold or in pain or anything. She met Jesus with grateful love...
Sigh... Can I really love? I mean really?
So, Teresa, I'm learning. I'm trying. I don't feel called to Calcutta - but I don't need to. There are plenty of unloved, unwanted, untouchable folks on this side of the culture that need to know Jesus' love and touch and mercy and compassion...It's that whole dying to self thing that keeps getting me...
But I'm learning. Small things with great love.
So, I'm going to do a small thing today. I'm praying for the love to accomplish it...
My first step...
And, truthfully, I don't like it one bit...
A couple weeks ago I was getting ready for worship and I came across one of her most famous quotes, which I think is still one of the most profound statements to come out of the 20th century:
We can do no great things, just small things with great love.
Did you know, though, that that wasn't a sentence spoken in isolation? We so tend to reduce Christianity to bumper sticker slogans that we might be tempted to believe that she, indeed, just rattled off these great one liners (of course, we do the same to Jesus...so why am I surprised?) Here's the context, as best as I can assemble it (everyone knows she said it, I just can't track down WHERE she said it...sigh...)
We can do no great thing, just small things with great love. It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
And probably more to it than that...
The quote seems to be her life's ambition. She made reference to it in a number of places, most notably in her 1979 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as he loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love...
Small things with great love. I can't seem to accomplish any of that. Some days I can't even do the small things, let alone attain the "great love" part...
Here's the thing that's bugging me. I can't escape this little nun no matter what I try to do...
I pick up a book called Irresistible Revolution and start to read it (not a chapter one, no, I don't seem to be wired that way, but I start at chapter four...why? Dunno...) and the whole freaking chapter is about this little woman and the author's discovery of what true Christianity is...by doing what she did her whole life (interestingly, he was somewhat unaffected by actually MEETING her - yep, little woman in a sari...he had little to say but he needed a hug from her...and he got it...).
Claibourne writes:
I was in an interview with some reporter who asked me if Mother Teresa's spirit will live on. I said, "To be honest, Mother Teresa died a long time ago, when seh gave her life to Jesus. The joy and compassion and love that teh world finds so magnetic are only Jesus, and that is eternal." I saw that eternal love all over Calcutta. I did indeed see Christ in Mother Teresa, but I also found Christ in the lepers, the children, the destitute, the workers. I even began to recognize that Christ lives in me.
So what? Well, I don't know... Everything about this woman - everything she said and did - deflected from her to Christ. One biographer noted that if the Vatican needed evidence of a miracle to grant her sainthood, the pope had only to look at the millions of changed lives in India to see the miracle.
Yet, in her Peace Prize acceptance speech, Teresa said:
One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition - and I told the Sisters: You take care of the other three, I take of this one that looked worse. So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: Thank you - and she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked what would I say if I was in her place. And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, I would have said I am hungry, that I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something, but she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face.
Yeah - here's arguably one of the greatest, most selfless, most giving and loving human beings of the 20th century saying that she's selfish. But she wasn't. She was, again, deflecting attention from her to Christ - to seeing Christ in the death of this woman... And when Teresa died...she didn't "draw a little attention" to herself, say she was hungry or dying or cold or in pain or anything. She met Jesus with grateful love...
Sigh... Can I really love? I mean really?
So, Teresa, I'm learning. I'm trying. I don't feel called to Calcutta - but I don't need to. There are plenty of unloved, unwanted, untouchable folks on this side of the culture that need to know Jesus' love and touch and mercy and compassion...It's that whole dying to self thing that keeps getting me...
But I'm learning. Small things with great love.
So, I'm going to do a small thing today. I'm praying for the love to accomplish it...
My first step...
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