What was the secret of this powerful little woman? She was a woman of heroic virtue. It was her purity, the purity of heart and of purpose that enabled her to focus every ounce of her energy on her simple and unswerving purpose in life:
To do, to make, to be something beautiful for God.
Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She looked pro-choice politicians in the eye and told them that abortion was murder. She said,
"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself."
She passed out prayer holy cards at the United Nations and got ambassadors praying in the UN general assembly room. She exemplified uncompromising loyalty to Jesus. She worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the Face of Jesus in the poor.
On September 5, 1997, God called her home. This tiny woman, recognized throughout the world for her work among the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003. Blessed Mother Teresa's beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited process for declaring a person a saint, which was put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer and for the poor a model for all to emulate.
Speaking in a strained, weary voice at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the 300,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the aging pope, the Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant personalities of our age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he said, was “a bold proclamation of the Gospel.”
When my former pastor was a seminarian at the North American Pontifical College in Rome, he met Mother Teresa privately. She spoke these words to him and she inscribed them in his prayer book:
Be only all for Jesus through Mary.
I am sure this meeting had a profound effect on this young seminarian. When he came to my parish as pastor, in his first homily, he stated his mission for our parish: Be only all for Jesus through Mary. Throughout his six years as pastor, he fulfilled that mission. First, on August 15, 2010, he consecrated our parish to our patron Saint Mary of the Assumption and he renewed that consecration every year on August 15th. A family in our parish donated a life-size statue of Mother Teresa and our pastor made a beautiful little shrine to her outside our chapel. Finally, on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2016, he consecrated our parish to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His mission for our parish was complete: Be only all for Jesus through Mary.
When Mother Teresa died, she owned nothing but her rosary beads and her distinctive white-and-blue sari. She was enveloped in an immense odor of sanctity. She did so much to serve so many others and had such a great influence on the world. She took a vow of poverty and became wealthy in the ways that really matter. She abandoned her life to the service of the world. The meek inherit the earth.
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us and all those for whom we pray through this ministry.
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