Mother
Teresa – A National Highway
Recently when I was
going through a News Letter of Goa Diocese, I read some news on Mother Teresa’s
Canonization and her great works. Suddenly a bit of news that I had gone
through made me think about Mother Teresa and her work and dedication to our
Mother India. The news is as follows:
A new highway in
Bhubaneswar is named after Mother Teresa, coinciding with her canonization
ceremony at the Vatican. This is to show the love and homage to her from the
part of Odisha government for the great work and service she rendered to India
and in a special way to Mother India. (Renewal Novsornni Renovacao, Pastoral
Bulletin of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman – Vol. LIV No.18, Sep 16-30,
2016.) This news made me think of Mother Teresa as a great angel who not only
connected all of us Indians but also reminded each one of us the meaning of
India and Indians. When I am just looking for a phrase or an expression to give
a title to her where there are no differences, where unity in diversity is seen
in, India is where I felt a Highway where anyone can travel. I think Mother
Teresa fits exactly as the Highway leading all of us and connecting all of us
in the journey of our life
A
National Highway:
A National Highway is
the largest road that connects many places and allows all kinds of vehicles to
travel. These are the roads, which control the traffic in the cities. These
roads connect many national and state capitals, major ports and rail junctions
and link up with border roads and foreign highways. National Highways not only
serve as the transportation but also become the economic backbone of the
country.
Mother Teresa – A
National Highway, I say because She and Her work exactly fits the description
of architectural connectivity of National Highways. As a special and linking
point, the National Highway is the only place where Indians do not lay the
stamp of caste, religion, race and even special reservations. All are become
equals and anyone is welcome to travel on this road. Such was the indiscriminate
heart of this great woman of Kolkata, She was a saint who lived and showed us
how to love. She brought meaning to life and enhanced the dignity to every form
of life, specially the handicapped, the crippled, the deformed, the destitute,
the orphaned. She was a mother open to all with her kind and loving heart
connecting all of us in God’s Love. She won everyone allowing to travel on her
road of love and treated all as mother and never created a traffic jam on her
road of love. Yes, dear friends she with her motherly kindness and gentle
approach won the hearts and admiration from every one of us and thereby
connecting all of us in the network of her love. Let us see some of her life
incidents that support my phrase, Mother Teresa – A National Highway.
Her
Life as a Missionary: Her life as a missionary broadened and
stretching her roads of life with humanism. She pitched her place as a
missionary in India by welcoming every one into her loving home.
Her
Life in the Loreto Convent: Though she was a little strict,
yet, the gentle firmness won the hearts of the young girls and sisters in the
convent with her little acts of love and kindness. Her tender heart towards the
slums around the convent makes us understand as the first pillar or foundation for
highway of humanism.
Her
Life in the Calcutta Slums: Though she was initially not
allowed to carry out her calling in the slums of India, nor accepted by them,
she opened her little ways and shortcuts to make them enter her broad highway
by being with them and loving them and serving them. She became a great Network
of Love extending her kindness and little acts of mercy to everyone far and
wide. She won their hearts and made them ply their little vehicles on the
highway with her service and love. E.g.: An Old woman, thanking her for the
great work and love she has shown towards her before she died.
Her
Life with her own Sisters: She taught her sisters to be
Missionaries of Christ. She trained them to be ever available to go to the
place they would never dare to go. Not only her sisters, she was always present
where there were crises and famine. E.g.: Even though she was not feeling well,
she was present in the drought areas of Africa when they were in need. Her
watch word in her work was: “They are in need of Jesus.”
One of the important
and admirable traits that this woman was that she contributed not only to the
Indian dynamism but also to the world’s greatness and nobility through the
Inter Religious Dialogue and respect for all faiths. The constitution of the
Missionaries of Charity expresses profound respect for all religions. It
recommends never to impose Catholic Faith on others even as the sisters reach
out to people of all faiths. This is how her large and broad highway paved way
for everyone to love and serve. By means of her kindness, she not only won the
hearts of the people but also revived the faith in many nations.
Yes dear friends, let
us also travel on this highway where encounter, dialogue and love has its first
place to become a truly human being. Let us also turn our small narrow roads of
petty mindedness often spewing traffic jams of hatred, anger and indifference
into a highway where it opens and connects with a great network of Love. Let us
pray to our dear Saint Mother Teresa, that we may imbibe her spirit of love,
charity and peace to make this world a better world and we better beings.
This is my humble
tribute to Mother Teresa! Long live Mother Teresa in the heart of the people,
not only who received direct services from her, to know her, but to me as well
who had been much inspired by her singular motive of love her God in the person
who were despised and disowned in this world. She lived to make known that God
who took the human form to enhance the dignity of humankind, to share the divinity
with the humanity.
Cl. Palla Velangani Joseph
