My grandfather met Mother Teresa. He was a missionary in India while I was a little kid. Money cannot buy the world-tearing humility that comes from seeing a surrendered life in action. I refer to both my grandparents and Mother Teresa. My life is changed by them both. I'm not sure the world has ever seen or will see again another Mother Teresa. I pray for both the strength and weakness to lay down my life however it may be asked of me.
My friends, Seth and Amber of Five Cent Stand, have a song that Seth wrote about Mother Teresa. He usually plays this video when they do the song live. Here is the song and video together. Enjoy and imagine.
If you liked the song, check out more of their music at their website or myspace.
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10 Cachinnations
That was great. Thanks for sharing.
Posted on 5/26/2006
Wow that is amazing about your Grandparents. Love to hear some of those stories sometimes. When did you get to meet Mother Teresa? How cool. What an amazing life of devotion. I am in awe of people like her and your grandparents. Thanks again for posting this.
Posted on 5/26/2006
I can't view the video at work.
The nuns who worked with Mama T. all agreed she was...umm...a difficult woman.
I guess feeding every hungry person you come across gets pretty stressful.
Posted on 5/26/2006
Yeah there have been many stories about Teresa and most people are suprised to find out that she was human. She had no politics therefore she did things that the political world thought of as wrong. She used whatever publicity that she gained to do things like get up at the United Nations who recieved her with a standing ovation and then proceeded to rail against abortion and made everyone squirm. She told them if they really wanted peace then they should start with stopping the killing of innoncent lives. At the UN. And they invited her!
Most of any bad reports about Mother Teresa have come out after her death. Guess they didn't have the guts to make the accusations while she was alive.
I read this article to which a priest who worked with her for years talked about people's tendency to idealize her into their own idea of perfection.
"There was one moment that I will never forget," recalled Bunyan, who now serves as a priest in Loveland, Colo. "We were trying to pick up a man whose back was simply covered with sores. This was very hard and, as I lifted his shoulders, my hands slipped and he fell back onto the bed. It was agonizing."
Mother Teresa waited a moment and then prodded her disciple to try again. Her face revealed both compassion and determination. Yes, the man was in pain. Yes, lifting him again, peeling the soiled sheet from his body, and washing his sores, would hurt. But this did not change the fact that this needed to be done, for his sake.
It wasn't that Mother Teresa had no feelings or had become oblivious to suffering. Just the opposite -- she didn't let her feelings prevent her from doing what needed to be done. She washed people's wounds.
This is what made Mother who she was," said Bunyan, who returned to India four years ago to take part in a celebration of her ministry. "She was not otherworldly. Too often, calling her a saint is just as bad as saying she's crazy. ... It still puts her off in an unreal world of very spiritual people. Then we don't have to take her seriously.
Truth is, Mother Teresa was not a "nice" person in the usual sense of the word. She wasn't trying to be nice. She was trying to be good. But even her goodness had an edge to it. She was as good as a dentist probing decaying teeth, a parent warning a straying child, a priest urging a sinner to repent. She loved people, but she ultimately cared more about souls than feelings."
Teresa ran a pretty tight program filled with strict schedules including rigorous prayer times and some people disagreed with some of her decisions. But then again it is easy to stand back and scrutinize someone who has devoted their life to the sick and dying from our typewriters and airconditioned apartments.
Some people felt she should have been more politically involved like railing against the government to which was causing the poverty but she did not feel that was her duty or calling and if she would have she would have been kicked out of the country.
BTW Cach, I meant to ask "when did your Grandfather meet Mother Teresa?" blast! I really need to start re-reading.
Posted on 5/26/2006
Ooo Forky, i just re-read and that sounds like I was pointing my finger at you. Sorry, i just went off on a tangent. I just had this discussion with an Atheist friend of mine and you caught me all riled up. So, sorry if that came off as directed at you.
ahhhh these blasted blogalogues!!!!
to answer YOUR question, yeah, she could be difficult from time to time!
live long and prosper
Posted on 5/26/2006
Yeah, people's lives lived to be 'nice' don't have the impact of one lived in total surrender. Nice and good are different, as Into the Woods taught us.
Seth, my grandpa met Mother Teresa around 1985 I think. That's when he and my grandma were missionaries to India. He says they had a brief chat about the work he was doing, he thanked her for her good work, she thanked him for his, a group of them prayed together and everyone went to their next duties.
And I guess she would be a difficult woman. She lived a difficult life in a difficult place. I never expected to see woodland creatures following her wherever she went as the angels sang. I think sometimes difficult work requires difficult people. But like Seth and Sondheim said, nice is different than good.
Posted on 5/26/2006
I'd like to add Jesus to that list, too. Jesus was difficult. He made quite a stir the day He ran through the Temple, overturning the tables of the money changers. He talked about sin and Hell and a whole lot of uncomfortable subjects, with absolute frankness.
He basically said "This is who I am, this is the decision you must make, this is the result if you refuse", and that's very difficult. He came not to bring peace, but a sword. That's difficult.
(BTW, like Seth, I want to be clear that this isn't directed at Forky. Forky's point is valid, and the responses are hopefully understood as appropriate in the context of the conversation).
And in following Seth's theme about what critics of Mother Teresa complained about her -- yes, they said she dealt directly with the poverty without addressing the root causes of poverty. They said she accepted money for her work from unholy sources, including (gasp!) conservative Republicans in America.
I got to thinking about those criticisms and it occurred to me -- they said the same kinds of things about Jesus, the friend of tax collecters and sinners.
Posted on 5/26/2006
The pastor at the church I grew up in liked to mention Mother Teresa periodically in his sermons. He liked to remind everyone that, because of something he "read on her website about what she believed, she is in hell today."
Posted on 5/29/2006
People suck.
Posted on 5/31/2006
Indeed they do.
Posted on 5/31/2006