“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” –Mother Teresa
She is the epitome of kindness, a symbol of care and healing. Now in 2016, 19 years after her death, she is being canonized – a small way to show appreciation, gratitude and adulation for her work.
Mother Teresa, born in 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was an Albanian who came down to Kolkata and transformed the lives of many sick and impoverished. Indeed, she deserved the title then given “Saint of the Gutters” because she devoted most part of her life attending to the needy with much care and compassion.
But the miraculous mother showed her true powers even after she had passed on to the other world. In 2002, Mother Teresa was beatified (the first step to Sainthood) when an Indian woman suffering from an abdominal tumour was cured as a result of the supernatural intervention of the late Mother Teresa. Similarly, a second miracle was attributed to her when, in 2008, a Brazilian man suffering from brain tumour was unexpectedly cured from it after his priest prayed for him to Mother Teresa. But all these claims have come with a cost – at the cost of shaking the foundations of science and rationale as is evident in the critique and criticism she got at the hands of many.
In 2003, London-based physician Aroup Chatterjee published a blistering critique of the nun, after conducting some 100 interviews with people associated with the nun’s sisterhood. He flayed what he called the appalling lack of hygiene – reuse of hypodermic needles, for example – and shambolic care facilities at their homes, among other things. He, along with a handful others, also accused her of taking money from dictators and putting fame and piety before her healing work.
Her supporters have justified the funding, saying it did not matter where the money came from as long as it was used to help the poor. And maybe there is something in that. The Nobel Laurette might have taken the crooked way to reach her mission, but the atleast she did try to make a difference, she atleast tried to alleviate the suffering, became a hope for the poor and sick.
The Missionaries of Charity, founded by the mother in 1950, is a sisterhood which has more than 3,000 nuns worldwide operating hostels for people with HIV, leprosy and tuberculosis in more than 100 countries. It also runs soup kitchens, schools and orphanages for the poor. But above all it aims to spread the message of humanity across the world and to help the most unwanted.
So today, Pope Francis, regardless of all the criticism, went ahead and conferred the title of ‘Saint’ to Mother Teresa in front of tens of thousands of devotees at St. Peter’s Square as millions watched. Whether the claims on Mother Teresa are true or false, we hope that the faith in her by the people all around the world continues to give them hope and health.
