Today the world celebrates Saint Teresa of Calcutta, known during her life as “Mother Teresa” because of her tireless work of caring for the poorest of the poor and dying. Inspiring women and men not only in India but all over the world, she died on September 5, 1997 and was named a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 2016.
This tiny woman who impacted the way the world saw care for the poor spoke often of the importance of small efforts toward love. Here are some of her words of advice. We would do well to allow the words to enter deeply into us because they come easily to mind but may take a long time to seep into the heart.
There are no great things, only small things with great love.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Today, as yesterday, the theme seems to be about the danger of making judgments without sufficient evidence. In the gospel (MT 13:54-58) Jesus is teaching in his hometown synagogue and people are questioning how he could possibly sound so wise given the fact that his father, Joseph, was a lowly carpenter and the rest of his family had no “pedigree” either. The conclusion was that “they took offense at him.” Nothing about what he said, but just whether he had a right to say it, given the lowliness of his station in life!
Today’s gospel (MT 5:43-48) is one that can make me feel as if it would be easier to go back to sleep. Turning over and saying, “Sorry, God. Those questions are too hard for this time in the morning” seems reasonable. It never works, though, because the questions keep nagging.
Early in his tenure as king, Solomon had a dream where God said to him, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” (1KGS 3:4) Solomon’s response is striking because it sounded as if he could have had anything in the world. He began by praising his father, David who had been a great ruler and the beloved servant of God. Then he talked about his own inexperience because he was young, and his lack of knowledge about how to act as king over such a vast populace. How amazing his wisdom at such an age! How astounding the sentence that followed. “Give your servant, therefore,” he said, “an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” In return for the selflessness of Solomon’s request God gave him not only what he asked for but also many things he did not seek: the riches and glory that might have been the request of a lesser man.
This morning as I read Psalm 86 I thought of how blessed I am with good friends to whom I can go for comfort in troubled times. There are moments, however, when it is only God who will suffice as a sounding board – or when it feels as if that is true. When I have acted in a less than worthy manner or judged someone unjustly, I am likely to first seek God’s forgiveness until I work up the courage and humility to admit my fault to a human being. Excuses abound for bad behavior and it is only when the layers of babble are stripped away – usually in conversation with God – that I dare to admit my need for forgiveness. How blessed are we, therefore, to have a God whose name is Love! I am grateful to the psalmist today – and to the translator – for these comforting words that give me pause.
One of the “tricky” faculties of the human mind is our ability to judge. We need to be “razor-sharp” in using the quality of discrimination – knowing first the two sides of that “coin” – while refraining from making judgments based on insufficient information, hearsay or our own narrow perspective. To clarify what might sound rather complicated in that sentence, I have two examples.
Not having any inspiration this morning – nor even cogent thoughts for that matter, I have been searching the words of Macrina Wiederkehr for an expression that would mirror how I’m feeling. Since I am unable to recognize myself in anything I read, I choose simply to offer her prayer that begins: There are mornings when I simply sit in silence trying to remember some of the things that rise in me. Her list is challenging but maybe if I focus on even one of the elements, it will jump-start my motivation for the day. May this day be a blessing for each of us and all of us together as we rise to the call of the Spirit.