Mother Teresa

So this person is walking down the street on a Tuesday afternoon. They approach a sidewalk corner and as they get closer, they see another person, leaning against a pole; clothes are grimy and tattered, varied and miscellaneous trash surrounds them on the ground and they realize those are that person’s only belongings. They’re homeless. Now as this person gain proximity, imagine the thoughts provoked at the sight of this derelict. First idea is to walk past them without a second glance, complete neutrality. But then, a new concept forms. Sympathy begins to grow and this person imagines the struggle one would have to endure to sink to this point of absolute desolation. How alone they must feel, they think. They decide to hand that person 20 bucks. And ever more tenderly, a smile is offered between the strangers. Visualize that. Now visualize doing that everyday, for 70 years. That’s maybe a fraction of the work Mother Teresa contributed to the “poorest of the poor” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center) worldwide. Mother Teresa is iconic for her completely selfless and compassionate entity, that she’s developed ever since her childhood, and renowned for her contribution of love and charity for the helpless everywhere.

Mother Teresa’s intense passion towards aiding the unloved and uncared for strengthened since her childhood years. Albanian blooded, she was born in 1910 under the name Gonxha Agnes, 6 years later acquiring her First Communion. She grew older, fascinated and eager to learn and hear of missionaries and their work. “Mother Teresa knew, even as a young child, she would devote her life to God. At 12, she told her mother she wanted to become a nun” ("Teresa, Mother"). So young, and already Mother Teresa decided to devote her life to charitable work for those in need. Everyone has those childhood dreams that they never let go of: those aspirations to become a superhero, a princess, a rock star. Mother Teresa’s childhood dream was to become a nun, one can only imagine the rapture Mother Teresa felt for following this ambition she’d continued to hold close to her heart ever since she was twelve. “I wanted to be a missionary, I wanted to go out and give the life of Christ to the people in the missionary countries” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta). Mother Teresa never doubted her calling to be a nun and help those thirsting for love.

For most, becoming a missionary and dedicating their occupation to teaching and loving others would be fulfilling enough, but Mother Teresa reached further out in her calling to spread love. Infinitely inspired, beyond this world from what Mother Teresa described as a “call within a call” (Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center). “Mother Teresa's vision of a missionary of charity is and I quote: "A person who is sent to bring God's love, to prove God's love: that God loves the world, and that God loves the poor"” (Sr. M. Sabita) This call was described as God’s personal pleading to Mother Teresa to share the love and compassion to the poor, those that not only lack in materialistic necessities, but who rarely feel cared for. Mother Teresa reached out so far to bring these people hope. She established the Missionaries of Charity, which branched out into numerous other establishments – Missionaries of Charity Brothers, Contemplative Sisters, Contemplative Brothers, and Charity Fathers. Mother Teresa’s family branches were in full swing, many others hearing the Word and coming to join the movement. Her work began to attract more attention; Mother Teresa received the Indian Padmashri Award and the Nobel Peace Prize Award, along with the close attentiveness of the rest of the world, admiring her ongoing dedication for the needy. For decades Mother Teresa’s establishments worked towards finding homes for the lost ones, treating the diseased and abandoned, and loving the unloved. “He realized that Mother Teresa had virtually no understanding of a cynical or godless point of view that could consider any human being less than absolutely valuable” (“Mother Teresa”). She was extraordinarily considerate in terms of those forgotten, never overlooking any human as beneath her. She kept this belief strong and irrefutable. Mother Teresa was never failing in devoting her life to helping others; a choice she’s never regretted.

As the family branches continued to flourish, Mother Teresa began to wither physically, but with the faith and commitment she’d built for all her life for the needy, nothing could stop her from continuing her calling until her very last breath. “The 1980s marked the beginning of the final stages of Mother Teresa's life. In 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) in Rome, Italy, she suffered a heart attack. A second heart attack followed in 1989, and in 1991 she was stricken with pneumonia while traveling in Mexico. She offered to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but when a vote was taken among all members of the order, the only ballot supporting her resignation was the one she cast herself” (“Mother Teresa”). Mother Teresa stepped towards her 80’s she continued to weaken, ailed with old age and sickness, and yet she still continued to manage the several worldwide establishments. By this time she had already been vouching for her resignation, and she could have persisted to step down despite the vote for her to continue – weakening with each second, Mother Teresa accepted the vote and put all her heart into the charities. “As in Calcutta, their focus was the poorest of the poor: orphans, the dying, and those ostracized by diseases such as leprosy” (“Mother Teresa”). Mother Teresa sparked the fire of love infiltrating the forgotten, poor and diseased. She herself was already joining the category of the dying and diseased, but the only thing on her mind was to continue picking others up from the ground. Mother Teresa’s selflessness is so extraordinary, always putting herself last.

Mother Teresa has been esteemed for her complete dedication to those in the world that have been tossed to sidewalk corners everywhere. She gave her whole life giving love and hope to these people all others had forgotten, caring in the utmost tenderness and compassionate nature, the nature of a mother. Mother Teresa is most heroic for her faith and love towards everyone, especially those neglected sidewalk corners worldwide.