INTRODUCTION
Mother Teresa says, “I want you to
go and find the poor in your own homes. Above all, your love has to start
there”. This is how Mother Teresa begins theologizing in her life and the world
around. She says, “The poor do not need our sympathy or our pity. They need our
love and compassion”. Mother Teresa is very much realistic and need oriented.
She knew well for what the world is hungry and also she could interpret the
holy will of god. Mother says, “to love with a pure heart, to love everybody,
especially to the poor, is a twenty-four –hour prayer”. In the Bible Jesus says
that God has anointed him to proclaim the Good news to the photo liberate the
captives and heal the sick. This is the central point on which I have based my
assignment. I felt strongly that Mother had “Divine Revelation”. To begin the
mission of theologizing from such a group that people of the world wishes of
their none-existence.
This assignment also includes Mother
Teresa’s biography, Enculturation as an important element in her mission of
theologizing in West Bengal and the world around. Mother also uses the stories
anthologizing in her day-to-day life situations. This assignment also includes
the Council Document to know the mind of the Church in spreading the Gospel in
a particular context.
Biography:-
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu who later came
to be known as Mother Teresa who born on August 26,1910 in what is currently
the Republic of Macedonia, in the city of Skopje. She was baptized at the
church of the Heart of Jesus on August 27,and the parish priest who baptized
her, namely Fr. Zef Ramag, gave her the name Agnes, after sty. Agnes. St. Agnes
was born in Rome in the region of emperor Diocesan (245-313), and in 304 she
was martyred at the tender age of twelve or thirteen, during the Christian
persecution.
Her mother’s name was Dramatize
Belnai(1889-1972) but she was called Drona, a word meaning “rose” in Albanian,
and because of this she gave her daughter the name Gonxha, which means “flower
bud”.
Nikola and
Drona had three children. Their elder daughter Aga was born in 1904, their son
Lazar in 1908, and in 1910 was born their second daughter Gonxha, who later
became Mother Teresa.
Nikola’s family, that is the family
of Mother Teres’s father, managed a small inn in addition to his involvement in
construction business. Apparently Drona’s father was regular customar at the
Bojaxhiv shops and inn, for whenver he came to Skopje on business he would stay
at the Bojaxhiv inn. It was in this way that the two families came into contact
with each other, and later due to the intimate relations that grew between them
a marriage was arranged between Drona aged 14 and Nikola aged 28.
According to the official
Ottomanrecords, the Bojaxahiu family lived in Skopje as early as 18th
century. They lived in the centered of the city near the left bank of the Vader
River, in a single-story house with large yard. In the yard were two shops and
inn.
Inculturation:
-
Mother
Teresa had realized that the Inculturation is one of the most effective
instruments in theologizing.
Mother
Teresa says, “there is no great difference in the reality of one country or
another because it is always people you meet everywhere. They may look
different or be dressed differently or may have a different education or
position. But they are all the same. They are all people to be loved”.1
Hiromi Josepha Kudu reveals that
Mother’s attitude of acceptance and her non-judgmental approach towards the
cultures, customs and religions of India, was the [1]key point
in the success of her activity within the country. In particular, in her
attitude of respecting the freedom of persons in choosing their own faith and
never forcing the follower of a religion into becoming a Christian. For
example, she did not baptize children of the Shish Bhawan orphanage managed by
her sisters, because the children are adopted not only by Christian but also
Muslim and Hindu families. She always kept in mind the welfare of the children,
so that they may be adopted without resistance by families of any religion, and
she also wanted to give them a chance to choose their own religion when they
grew up.
Hiromi Josepha Kudo, who conducted
her first research from 1989 to 1992 and her purpose was to obtain material for
her Master’s thesis in social welfare. Where she met Mother Teresa and she said
to her:
“I am not a
social worker. What we are doing is not work, but Christ’s love in action. So I
think our work for God is not to be studied in order to write a social work
treatise. The activity that we are doing is not work. Serving Christ in the
poor is the same as Adoration in the chapel.”2
Once Mother
Teresa said to Sister who had kept watch over a patient overnight without
sleeping, “you have done 24 hours of Adoration”.3
Mother
Terese and her sisters have a professional attitude overflowing with kindness,
sympathy, and love, so much so that if they are not social workers, then we
would truly have no one worthy to be declared a social worker, I feel that we
theologians ought to learn many things from Mother Teresa.
The priority of Mother and her
Sisters was not social worker, and they were not social workers as she herself
had stated, yet they were not active congregation either. Mother was sought
serve Christ with perfect devotion wasn’t just Martha, but Mary (Elk 11:39-42).
For her these two positions were compatible and in no way contradictory to each
other, and so she strove to put this
idea into practice into her life .
In her letter to Archbishop Mother
mentions that God converse with her frequently and even after the revelation in
the night train, he gave her directions. The following sentences are from the
letter from hers to the Archbishop. It contains the words that god spoke to
her. “I want the Indian nuns, victims of my love who would be Mary and Martha,
who would be so very united to me as to radiate my love on souls.”4
Mother Teresa, who hailed from a
multi-ethnic city Skopje, felt that the first towards establishing good
relations with people of different race and culture was to get a grasp of their
language. Furthermore, she inclined to believe that the local people has built
up a sort of psychological barrier against her, and she probably surmised that
the mental distance to them would be shortened if she wore the same simple
dress as they wore.
Mother Teresa explained in her
letter to the archbishop that she had received a concrete revelation from god
about the establishment of a new religious congregation aimed at serving the
poor, and also about the uniform of the congregation.. She says, “in the
congregation girls of any nationality should be taken, but they must become
Indian-minded and dress in simple clothes: a long , white, long-sleeved habit,
light blue sari and a white vial, sandals, no stockings, a crucifix, girdle and
rosary.”5
Nosra Aetate:
Michael Gomes, who had freely lent a
room in his house to Mother at the beginning of her activity in the slums,
narrates that her greatness lay in her fact that she was a devout Catholic.
However, he added that this did not meanest she disregarded other religions,
for it was indeed true that she esteemed all religions. On his point he also
remarked to Navin Chawla saying, “we cannot view her through Catholic eyes, or
Hindu eyes, but only through human eyes, for she does not discriminate. She
respect all religions and all people. It is not as if she is not a good
Catholic. She is, but she does not make it exclusive.”6
Hiromi Josepha Kudo quotes certain
relevant pages from the Council Document Nostra Aetate, or declaration on the
Relation of the church to Non-Christian religions, a document promulgated on
October 28,1965.
“thus in
Hinduism men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an unspent
fruitfulness of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek
release from the anguish of our condition through ascetical practices or deep
meditation or a loving, trusting flight towards God.”7
Concerning Hinduism, Nostra Atetate
states, “like wise other religions found everywhere strive variously to answer the restless
searching of the human heart by proposing “ways”, which consist to teachings,
rules of life, and sacred ceremonies.
The
Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions.
She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of life, those
rules and teachings which, through differing in many particulars from what she
holds and sets forth, never the less often reflect a ray of that truth which
enlightens all man.”8
The Documents also states, “ the
church therefore has this exhortation for her sons: prudently and lovingly,
through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, and
in witness of Christian faith and life, acknowledge, preserve, and promote the
spiritual and moral good found these men, as well as the value in their society
and culture”.9 The church
therefore recognizes the value of other religions and positively encourages
dialogue and collaboration.
Charity Begins Today:-
Mother beloved in immediate action.
She was a doer, not a preacher. She would often say:
Charity
begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in street, and
today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesterday has gone, and
tomorrow has not yet come. We see a need, we go to meet it; at least, we do something
about it.
‘a women
came with her child to me and said, “Mother, I went to two or three places to
beg food, for we have not eaten for three days but they told me that I was
young and I should work and earn my living. No one gave me anything.”
I went to
get some food for her and by the time I return, the baby in her arms had died
of hunger.
‘we will
not have them tomorrow if we do not feed them today. So be concern about what
you can do today.’10
The courage to give:
Groups of individuals flocked to Mother and asked her how they could help her in her work among the poorest of the poor. Mother always told them that their families cane first and so, before she directed them to work in anyone of her homes, she would spend time talking to them about their families and neighbors.
I want you
to find the poor, right in roar home first. And begin to love there. And find
out about your next-door neighbors. Do you know who they are?
She told
them her own most extraordinary experience of love of one’s neighbor shown by a
very poor Hindu family.
A gentleman came to our house and
said :Mother Teresa, there is a family with eight children who had not eaten
for sometime. Do something to them.” so I took some rice and went there
immediately. And I saw the children- their eyes shining with hunger. I do not
know if you have ever seen hunger. It is terrible thing- the look on the face
of a hungry person- but I have seen it very often. The mother of that family
took the rice from my hands and divided in two. She took half of it and went
out of the house. When she came back, I asked her: “where did you go? What did
you do?” and she gave me a very simple answer: “they are hungry also.”
“what
struck me was that she knew that the next-door neighbors were hungry, too. And who
were they? A Muslim family. I was not surprised that she gave, but I was very
much surprised that she knew, because as a rule when we are suffering, went we
are in trouble, we have no time for others. Yet this mother knew and had the
courage of her love to give.”11
If I had just passed by:-
“I could not have been a Missionary of Charity,” Mother Teresa told to her sisters, “if I had passed by when I saw and smelt that women that who was eaten up by rats-her face, her legs. But I returned, picked her up and took her to a hospital. If I had not, the Society would have died. Feelings of repugnance are human but if I see the face of Jesus in his most distressing disguise, I will be holy.” 12
Saint of the slums:-
Mother Teresa went to work in the
slums in 1948. there after she and her sisters became familiar figures in some
of the most depressed and deprived areas of the world. I the early years, she
had no car of her own and used the public transport system. Until she allowed
herself to be dissuaded from doing so for reasons of health and age, Mother
often used to walk to her place of work in the slums and ghettos of the world.
She herself was very observant and would exhort her sisters: “open your eyes
and see.”
This is a
story she vividly remembered and often repeated:
I will never forget one day I was
walking down the street and saw something moving in the open drain. I removed
the dirt and found a human being there. He had been by worms and after we had
bought him to our house, it took us three hours to clean him. And this man-who
lived a such a terrible life of suffering in that open drain said: “I have
lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angle, loved
and cared for.” And just as we were still praying with him, praying for him he
looked up at the sister and said, “ sister I'm going home to God”, and he died.
There was such a wonderful, beautiful, smile on his face. I have never seen a
smile like that.
It was so wonderful to see the
greatness of a man who could speak like that without complaining, without
cursing. Like an angel! This is the greatness of people who are spiritually
rich when they are materially poor.”13
Open your
eyes :-
Mother’s friends and followers were
drawn to her from all workers of life and religious. Speaking to a group, which
she knew had never felt the pangs of hunger for food, but perhaps silently
suffered the hunger for love, she told about this experience, which had greatly
moved her.
“None of us
know what is the pain of hunger, but one day I learnt it was a little child. I
picked up the child from the street. He was just six year old. I could see from
his eyes that he was very very hungry. I have seen that terrible hunger in many
eyes. I gave him a piece of bread and instead of eating it as fast as fusible,
he started eating it crumb by crumb. I said to him: “eat, eat the bread, you
are hungry,” and that little one looked at me and said, “I am afraid that the
bread will be finished and I will be hungry again.”
“ That
little one already knows the terrible pain of hunger which you and I may not
know. That is why I say: open your eyes and see, for there is hunger not only
for a piece of bread; there is hunger for understanding love, for the word of
god”.14
Let God make plans:-
Now that the bishop had broken the
ice, he confided in Mother. He had to write an article for a paper on the
future of the Catholic church. Would there be women priest? Would priest be
permitted to marry? To the first question Mother said, “Jesus did not make his
mother a priest. If he did not make women priest, why should we? And as for the
future of the church, Mother said, “the future is not in our hands. We have no
power over it. We can act only today.” She quoted a clause from the
constitution of the Missionaries of charity:
“we will
allow the good God to make plans for the future- for yesterday has gone,
tomorrow has not yet come and we have only today to make Him known, love and
served.”15
An Indian by choice:-
It was possible to speak to Mother
about anything and everything and not shock or surprise her. lesser mortals
might even have been indignant at some of the questions Mother was asked, but
Mother, never. She answered with a smile even though she was often aware of the
provocation.
In 1979, the year Mother won the
Nobel prize, many organizations, governmental and non-governmental, held
meetings to congratulate her. In Calcutta, her own city, the west Bengal
government convened an open-air civic reception in her honor. The chief
minister presided. Television crews from several countries and hundreds of
photographers and journalists were constantly shooting the chief guest.
After the meeting, a journalist
said: “ mother, you must now consider yourself as a citizen of India.”
Another
media person took her up on her answer, “ do you really consider yourself an
Indian?”
The small sari-clad figure wrapped
in an oversize navy blue cardigan replied, “yes, and I feel India to the most
profound depths of my soul but there is a difference.” An addressing the Indian
gentlemen who had posed the question, she said: “you are an Indian by accident
(of birth); I am an Indian by choice.16
The last word :-
In Japan, as elsewhere in the world,
Mother Terese spoke about the vocation of hundreds of young women who left
their homes and joined her order. This thought may have been uppermost in Mr.
Hideki Izumi’s mind when he asked her a question about her family. Mr. Izumi
began by telling Mother that he had two daughters, one aged eight years and the
other thirteen, and he would be very unhappy if one of them entered religious
life.
Mother said: “a vocation is not the
work of human hands. A vocation is between God and your daughters…” and added,
“ if you have two, you must pray that God will call one of your daughters to
belong to him. That is the greatest gift of God to a family…if God calls your
son or daughter to come to His service you are blessed.”
Mother added, “ I too had a very
happy family. And it was very difficult for my mother to give me, but she did.
This is the sacrifice. Say if your daughter gets married and goes away, you
will have to give your daughter all the same. So, instead of giving her to
others, you give her to god. This is the difference. We have in our
congregation thirty-five nationalizes. We are over two thousand sisters.”
Mother wants me:-
To volunteers in rich countries,
Mother Teresa would speak of another kind of poverty-poverty of spirit. She
said, “ there is homeless not only of people sleeping in the streets of
Calcutta, Rome and many other places including San Frsnsco, where it is said
that about five thousand people sleep in the streets at night. It is not only
of that kind of homeless, being unwanted, unloved and uncared for. We lived in
a throwaway society. And we have so many people who have been thrown away.
I will never for great a little
child who came knocking on our door around midnight, crying at the top of his
voice and saying: “ I went to my father, my father did not want me, I went to
my mother, my mother did not want me. Do you want me Mother?
Naturally I
wanted him very much, for that little one was so hurt.”18
Give it up:-
Women from Rajas than came to me, said Mother, and with
tears complained, “ I have a child who is three years old but cannot speak.”
“ I asked
the women, “ is there anything that you like very much that you could give up?”
she answered, “yes, betel-nut; I chew the betel-nut the whole day.”
“well,” I
told her, “ give up betel-nut chewing. Offer as a sacrifice to God. You ask for
a big favor, give something in exchange.”
Mother said
that the sacrifice of the lady from Rajas than bore fruit. She returned to
thank Mother and said, “ now the child can speak.19
CONCLUSION
Mother says “the world never needed
love more than today.”
Mother was
wise enough to read the signs of modern times and act accordingly. She knew how
poor and rich both are hungry for love, hungry for God. So, her starting point
is from the poorest of the poor. Mother used to say, “ though we do lots of
social activities but we are not social workers. We do for Christ.
I feel that
her theologizing is unique and concrete one. She could reach Christ to every
people those who were thirsty for God.
One may ask, why Mother likes to
tell the real stories to the people while she was sharing her faith? I feel the
answer is, “…to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it is not given.” (Matthew 13:11).
Mother says, “Every work of love,
done with a full heart, always brings people close to God.” Therefore her ways
of theologizing is unique and the modern theologians have to learn how to bring
people close to God from the simple looking but great works of Mother Teresa.
[1]
Moulthrop, G. Hammer, “thoughts to inspire and celebrate,” Mumbai: Jaico
Publishing House, 2003,
p.37.
2 kudo, H. Josepha, “Mother Teresa: A
saint from Skopje”, Gujarat: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2006, p. 84.
5 Ibid,
p. 97.
6 Ibid,
P. 164.
7 Ibid,
p. 167.
8 Ibid,
p. 167.
9 Ibid.
168.
10 Joly, E.
Le, “Reaching out in love,” New Delhi: Penguin Book India ltd., 1998, p.
24.
11 Ibid,
P. 21.
12 Ibid,
P 8.
13 Ibid,
P. 3.
14 Ibid,
P. 36.
15 Ibid,
P. 49.
16 Ibid,
P. 52.
17 Ibid,
P. 62.
18 Ibid,
P. 67.
19 Ibid,
P. 97.
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