Today the Catholic Church commemorates Saint Teresa of Calcutta, better known to many of us as Mother Teresa. Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, she devoted her life to serving Christ through the poorest, sickest, and most forgotten people of society. She founded the Missionaries of Charity and spent her life reminding the world that every human person possesses a dignity given by God.
Mother Teresa understood something that our modern world can easily forget. The person who is suffering, abandoned, elderly, sick, poor, or forgotten is not a burden. That person is an opportunity to encounter Christ.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
— Matthew 25:40
This was not simply a Scripture passage for Mother Teresa. It became a way of life.
How often do we overlook the person right in front of us because we are too busy, too distracted, or too concerned with our own problems? We can become so focused on changing the world that we fail to love the person God has placed directly in our path.
Mother Teresa reminds us that holiness often begins with something very small. A kind word. A helping hand. A visit to someone who is lonely. Patience with someone who is difficult. Caring for a parent. Forgiving someone who has hurt us. Sitting beside someone who simply needs to know that they are not alone.
These ordinary acts can become extraordinary when they are done with love.
Mother Teresa once said:
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
What if this is where God is calling us today?
We do not have to travel to Calcutta to find someone who needs Christ’s love. The mission field may be our own home, our workplace, our parish, our neighborhood, or the person sitting beside us.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta teaches us that we cannot always solve another person’s suffering, but we can refuse to let them suffer alone.
May we learn to see the face of Christ in those whom the world overlooks. May we become instruments of His mercy rather than simply observers of another person’s pain. And may our love become more than words, becoming prayer in action and faith in action.
StreetEvangelist 