Mother Teresa

The True Potential of Compassion

         Scott LaBarge, professor of ethics, states: “Our heroes are symbols for us of all the qualities we would like to possess and all the ambitions we would like to satisfy.  A person who chooses Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony as a hero is going to have a very different sense of what human excellence involves than someone who chooses, say, Paris Hilton, or the rapper 50 Cent” (LaBarge 1). LaBarge highlights the fact that our current society has a tendency to “confuse celebrity with excellence” (LaBarge 4).  It is important that we look up to people who embody the characteristics we deem important, people such as Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King Jr, who use those qualities to make the world a better place. It is important that we idolize people who represent the best in humanity and accurately represent who we strive to be. If we look up to the right people, we can better ourselves as individuals and a species. We too often associate heroism with one who has an extensive line of money and people trailing behind them. But what if a hero is the teacher that chooses to devote to her life to troubled teens or the boy who visits lonely elders in a retirement home? What if a hero is a person who, against all odds, chooses to change the lives of others through acts of compassion and kindness. I see true heroism in a person who is driven to leave the world better than they found it, through giving even when they have little and being a voice for the voiceless. A true hero is a person who uses generosity and selflessness to improve other’s lives while inspiring others to do the same.

Mother Teresa caring for a malnurished childhttps://saltandlighttv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?id=65395 

          Saint Mother Teresa is a perfect example of someone who embodies what it truly means to be a hero. Mother Teresa or Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born August 27, 1910, in what is now The Republic of Macedonia. She had a normal middle-class life with her parents and two siblings: Aga and Lazar. From a young age, Mother Teresa watched and helped her mother nurse the old and poor back to health. Thus, a love for tending to others who were less fortunate than her started to stem and would ultimately become a prevalent part of her life. At age 12, her Catholic faith strengthened and inspired a dream of becoming a nun. Bojaxhiu left her life at 18 to join “Sisters of Loreto”, an Irish nun community that served in Northeast India. Even while educating young girls at St. Mary’s school, Agnes felt that she could do more to boost the state of her community. With permission, she became an independent nun and moved to the slums of Calcutta. She then adopted the name Teresa in honor of her hero St. Theresa of France. Mother Teresa spent the rest of her life starting foundations and taking other steps towards improving the lives everyone from orphans to lepers.  Throughout her whole life, Mother always felt that more could be done. Whatever she received would in turn share with others before thinking of herself. Her generosity exceeded that of most people in the fact that she was content in giving up the most basic of necessities just so others could have them. All the possessions in the world were not as valuable to her as the smiles on the faces of those she helped. Her selflessness even extended to her health that was far too fragile to be exposed to the slums she spent her time in. Saint Mother Teresa’s selflessness in endangering her health to help others and generosity through giving all she received to those in need led her to become one of the most inspiring people in the world.

Mother Teresa's neverending generosity in giving her time and kindness to other, it what deems her a true hero. However, this life of giving began long before adulthood: “As a child, she frequently invited the poor over to have dinner. As a nun, she helped the homeless, disabled and abandoned children. She also educated these unfortunate children” (Gold 14). Here, it can be seen that Mother Teresa had lent a helping hand long before she was a nun and had the resources to do so. Even in her childhood, her compassion toward the impoverished drove her to lend a helping hand. As children, our worlds are mostly egocentric. Mother Teresa had an advanced sense of empathy at a young age and did whatever she could fathom to make other’s lives better. She shows us how we are always able to make a difference and that age and wealth are not boundaries keep us from doing so.                                                

St. Teresa of Calcutta grew up in Albania but dedicated her long life to the care of the very poor in Calcutta. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity. She was awarded the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She died on 5 September 1997, was beatified in 2003, and canonized in 2016. https://www.hourofourdeath.org/five-more-insights-from-st-teresa-of-calcutta/ 

       Whenever she saw people in need, she would try and find a way to help them: “With so many people living on the streets, the desperation and sickness was everywhere. Mother started the Center for Dying because she couldn't let the last moments of these people’s lives be lived alone.” (Callahan 5). Even though she couldn’t save all their lives, her Center for the Dying helped 18,000 people die in peace (Teresa 18). Mother Teresa saw people dying around her and knew she couldn’t stop the inevitable. Still, she showed her generosity in taking them in and helping them to live the end of their lives surrounded by peace and kindness. She knew that any act of kindness, no matter how miniscule, would be significant. These people, like many of our homeless and suffering today, would have never been helped if it weren’t for her. Mother Teresa had generosity like no other that improved the lives of many who needed it.

     Though it could potentially put her in harm’s way, she dedicated her time and effort to selflessly helping the sick and poor. Even when her life was in danger, she chose to put other’s on the top of her priority list: “Despite suffering from two heart attacks and having a permanent lung condition, she stubbornly chose to put other’s healths first.” (Gold 129). Mother Teresa sacrificed herself well being because she didn’t deem it as important as others. Not only did she put others before herself, but she frequently spent time caring for those with leprosy and other serious illnesses, that could easily endanger the health of a healthy person let alone herself. These actions showed that she had a heart like no other. Mother Teresa valued others in a way that most people never achieve. Mother Teresa showed the true capacity of human compassion and generosity through her awe-inspiring actions.  Even though she was serving others as a nun, she still thought she had much more to give:

  “Mother Teresa was a nun for twenty years in Calcutta, and then suddenly it dawned upon her that she was living in a rather comfortable convent and teaching and serving in that way. Suddenly she realized that [emanations of] Christ—the hungry, the poor, the suffering, the dying—were around her in Calcutta. So she got permission from the Catholic Church hierarchy and began her own order and just went out and lived in the slums of Calcutta” (Hixon 1).

Her unhappiness with helping people as a normal nun shows her immense sense of selflessness. She knew that she could give even more of her life to serve others and chose to do so. Mother Teresa spent no time doing things for her own benefit . She saw that she had it better than so many people and chose to extend the gift of a life free from poverty. She did what many people can’t, gave up all her worldly goods to live amongst the “poorest of the poor”. In living her life the way she did, Mother Teresa was a hero to many.

          Mother Teresa would often say, “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” Through no extraordinary means did she change the world. She strove to simply leave the world better than she found it and did so through generosity and selflessness. This inspires me because it shows that I don’t have to change the whole world to make a difference because small acts of kindness are just as important. Mother Teresa dedicated her whole life, despite her troubling health, to others well beings. She started various foundations and raised thousands of dollars all of which went to the poor and ill. She never saw her acts of service as a sacrifice because she knew she was capable of starting great change. Mother Teresa’s actions were like a pebble in a pond, they created great ripples. In an interview about his experience learning from Mother, Sean Callan notes: "We felt we were in the presence of a saint. She gave her life to helping people in their most difficult conditions and created a mission for religions and laypersons to follow in her footsteps." (Callahan 10). Even after her death, Mother Teresa’s influence on people remained. Many like Callahan had worked under her and seen the way she treated people and changed their lives through the simple act of kindness. Numerous groups such as the “Sisters of Charity” strived towards continuing what she had started. This led to her official sainthood 19 years after her death to commemorate the difference she made in so people’s lives. Mother Teresa inspires me not only because of what she did but because of what she represents. She shows that it takes no remarkable talent, no genius, and no wealth to transform the world. She not only helped people, but she helped those who would not have otherwise received compassion or recognition.

She utilized the love we are all capable of as a tool for bringing peace. She motivates me to transform my passion for health care into care for people. This summer I’m going on a humanitarian trip in Peru to help orphans and other struggling people in small communities. Still being a child, I thought there wasn’t much I could do to help anyone. I had the mindset that any act of kindness was insignificant and powerless, like a drop of water in a vast ocean. Luckily, Mother Teresa taught me that, “ We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop” (Teresa). Many of us go through life thinking that we require some astounding gift from God in order to make in difference in the world we live in. Saint Mother Teresa reveals that we do not know the true power of our actions. It is not through intelligence and fame that we change the world, but love. When we all leave the world a better place than we left it, one drop of water becomes seven billion and that makes an ocean.