Mother Teresa: A Biography (20 page)

On closer inspection, Mother Teresa appeared a contradiction, a walking paradox, and later, a woman out of step with the times. But that assessment dismisses her and her work much too easily. Mary Poplin, the journalist who volunteered for the Missionaries of Charity, tried to explain her understanding of Mother Teresa: 1 4 0

M O T H E R T E R E S A

Many writers have depicted Mother Teresa as someone who saw the poor and responded sympathetically to their needs.

That is not quite the case. Mother Teresa served the poor not because they needed her but because God called her to the work. She was obedient to God’s call, not to her social conscience. She often remarked that if God had told her what was to happen after she picked up the first dying person off the Calcutta street, she would never have done it, for she would have been too afraid.15

Mother Teresa called herself “a pencil in God’s hand.” What she meant was that she was simply God’s instrument and she did only his bidding, relying on his providence to provide for her order and the poor. Part of her success lay in her ability to tap into and inspire a large number of volunteers, many of them young men and women who needed help. Quite often, it was the more knowledgeable and qualified volunteers who had the most trouble working with and understanding Mother Teresa. But for many young people who had only high ideals but were not sure how to put those ideals into practice, Mother Teresa and her work were a good match. No matter if they stayed an hour, a week, or a year, they were always welcomed. For in the time they stayed, these volunteers made a difference to those around them and Mother Teresa was grateful for their gifts. For others, Mother Teresa was unique, not because of her work with the poor, but because for many people, she was doing what they wished to do. She was what they were not.

Her legacy is strong; at the time of her death, there were more than 4,000 sisters in the Missionaries of Charity, along with 400 brothers and thousands of others who have volunteered as Co-Workers, Lay Missionaries of Charity, and Missionaries of Charity Fathers. It is through these volunteers that Mother Teresa’s spirit lives on. Yet, Mother Teresa had her flaws as well: she was stubborn, difficult to work with, and demanding.

Perhaps she needed those qualities to carry out the work to which she believed God had called her. But Mother Teresa was also a woman who sang Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas, who regarded all life as holy, and who saw the face of God in the face of every human being she encountered. For Mother Teresa, her works came not from the strength of her intellect, but of the great power and love she had in her heart.

“ T H E M O S T O B E D I E N T W O M A N I N T H E C H U R C H ” 1 4 1

NOTES

1. Anne Sebba,
Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image
(New York: Doubleday, 1997), p. 122.

2. “Mother Teresa Dies,” BBC Politics 97, http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/

news/09/0905/teresa.shtml (accessed October 13, 2003).

3. Christoper Hitchens, “Ghoul of Calcutta,”
Nation,
April 13, 1992, p. 474.

4. “Mother Teresa: A Profile,” CNN Interactive, http://www.cnn.com/

WORLD/9709/mother.teresa/profile/ (accessed October 15, 2003).

5. Christopher Hitchens,
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa In Theory
and Practice
(New York: Verso, 1995) p. 7.

6. Christopher Hitchens,
The Missionary Position,
p. 41.

7. Christopher Hitchens,
The Missionary Position,
p. 10.

8. George Sim Johnston, “Mother Teresa and the Missionary Position,” review of
The Missionary Position
by Christopher Hitchens in
National Review,
December 25, 1995, p. 58.

9. Bruno Maddox, “The Missionary Position,” review of
The Missionary Position
by Christopher Hitchens in
The New York Times Review of Books
, January 14, 1996.

10. Robert Kee, “The Missionary Position,” review of
The Missionary Position
by Christopher Hitchens in
The Sunday Times,
November 10, 1995, p. 25.

11. Mary Poplin, “No Humanitarian,”
Commonweal,
December 19, 1997, pp. 11–14.

12. Parvathi Menon, “Mother Teresa,”
Frontline: India’s National Magazine,
September 20–October 3 1997, http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1419/

14190170.htm.

13. Mary Poplin, “No Humanitarian,” pp. 11–14.

14. Nelson Graves, “Mother Teresa No Stranger to Controversy,” Reuters: New York, August 24, 1996, http://library.bigchalk.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/

WOPrimo.woa/20/wo/JW75gJ4TBP1s3EEW9q71laknBdo/3.27.2.12.3.

15. Mary Poplin, “No Humanitarian,” pp. 11–14.

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1 4 4

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San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1997.

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WEB SITES

Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy, http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/mother.

teresa/

Nobel Museum: Mother Teresa, http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1979/

teresa-bio.html

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Paying Tribute to Mother Teresa, http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/

teresa/

Time
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time100/heroes/profile/teresa01.html

INDEX

Agagianian, Gregory, 95

Bangladesh, 110–11, 124

Ahmed, Dr., 68, 69, 71

Belfast, 106, 109–10

Aikemhead, Mary, 64

Bengal, 9, 10, 15, 24, 111

Albania, communist rule of, 95,

Berkol, Faruk, 113

116–17, 126, 129; diaspora, 2;

Besra, Monika, 138

history, 1–4; independence

Bihar, 34, 92

movement in, 3–5; Islam in,

Blaikie, Ann, 75

2–3; Italian occupation of, 95;

Bojaxhiu, Aga, birth of, 4; death

national identity of, 2–6; Ot-

of, 109; education of, 6; family

toman conquest of, 2–3; resis-

responsibilities of, 7; life under

tance to Ottoman Empire, 2;

communism, 95, 108–9

Roman Catholics in, 6; war

Bojaxhiu, Agnes Gonxha.
See

against Ottoman Empire, 3

Mother Teresa

Albanian League of Prizren, 3,4

Bojaxhiu, Dranafile (Bernai),

Ali, Tariq, 125, 127

character of, 7–8; death of, 109;

All India Institute of Medical

faith of, 6–8; health of, 108–9;

Science, 123

life under communism, 95,

Amnesty International, 114

108–9; marriage, 4

Arafat, Yassir, 124

Bojaxhiu, Lazar, birth of, 4; edu-

cation of, 6, 10; exile of, 95;

Balkans, Ottoman conquest of,

military career of, 11, 95; re-

1–3; war against Ottoman Em-

union with Mother Teresa,

pire, 3

95

Ball, Francis, 15, 16

Bojaxhiu, Nikola, character of, 4;

Band Aid, 120

death of, 6–7; faith of, 4, 6;

1 4 8

I N D E X

marriage, 4; political activity of,

Dachau, 95

4–7; profession of, 4

Dalits, 134–35

Bombay, 22, 92, 123

Darjeeling, comparison to Cal-

Boomtown Rats, 120

cutta, 18

Bracken, Katherine, 93

Das, Subashni, 45

British Broadcasting Company

Daughters of St. Anne, 18, 31

(BBC), 94, 102–3, 126

Day, Dorothy, 113

British East India Company,

De Berry, Andrew, 127

22–23

Dengel, Anna, 36–37, 94

British Empire, 15, 18, 22, 23

Dewali, 93

Brother Andrew.
See
Travers-Ball, Dominica, Frances, 64

Ian

Dublin, 15, 16

Brother Geoff, 100, 131–32

Duvelien, Jean-Cluade, 118, 126,

Byzantine Empire, 1

128

Candau, Marcolino, 94

East Pakistan.
See
Bangladesh

Calcutta, comparison to Darjeel-

English Civil War, 14

ing, 18; poverty in, 21, 29–30,

English Reformation, 14

32, 39, 40–43, 45–46, 60, 67,

Ethiopia, 110, 120, 129

79–80, 84, 94, 126–27

Calcutta Corporation, 60

Fernandes, Marcus, 74–75

Calcutta Medical College Hospi-

Fernandes, Patricia, 74

tal, 75

Fox, Robin, 130

Carmichael Hospital for Tropical

Fumosoni-Biandi, Pietro, 48

Diseases, 85

Catholic Relief Services, 84, 94,

Gandhi, Mohandas K.,

109

(Mahatma), 23, 101, 115, 137

Catholic Worker Movement, 113

Ganges River, 35, 70

Chafer, Peter, 104

Geldof, Bob, 119–20

Charles I, 14

Germany, 94, 95, 104

Charles II, 14

Gobra Hospital, 84–86

Chatterjee, Aroup, 125–26

Gomes, Albert, 44

Chiba, Shigeki, 138

Gomes, Monica, 44–45

City of Joy
(La Pierre), 124, 126

Gomes, Magdalena, 45