SOMETHING  BEAUTIFUL
FOR  GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Something Beautiful for God.”

Today we celebrate Mother Teresa as a Saint - September 5^th. She died this day - September 5, 1997.

Pope Francis said yesterday - at her canonization - that she’ll always be known as Mother Teresa. I find myself thinking of her with that name - and not as St. Teresa of Kolkatta.  In fact, I am not sure how to spell Calcutta - with a K and an A.  I also can’t pronounce or spell her original name: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu.

Besides that we have those other two great Saint Theresa’s - Avila and Lisieux.

I was asking myself: “When did I first hear about Mother Teresa?”

I think it was when I heard about and watched Malcolm Muggeridge’s in the 1969 TV movie and documentary “Something Beautiful for God.”  It then came out as a book in 1971.

Here was someone doing something beautiful for God.  I assume we all added, “Something beautiful for the many people she helped: the poor, the dying, those with HIV/AIDS, the sick, the hungry,  the children, the homeless, the drug addicts, the alcoholics.”

I assume Malcom Muggeridge was one of the first publicists to put her into the public view - and once that happened - all of us felt urges to do something beautiful for those who were in non-beautiful situations.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SO FAR ABOUT MOTHER TERESA?

What’s your take on Mother Teresa?

The first thing was simply and dramatically to know about her and what she did with her life. The theme for our schools and parish this year is, “Go make a difference.”  Mother Teresa certainly did.

Next she founded the Missionaries of Charity - some 4,500 strong - working in a 133 different countries in the world. Her nuns are in Italy, India and Iceland. How about that? When I heard Iceland - I thought, “Surprise!”

I once heard someone say that religious orders in the Catholic Church make it if the founder of a new order is strong. Better if she or he is a dictator. No meetings - no discussion - just give orders and get going with what you’re being called to do. That’s a theory - that I never checked out - or read much about - but I assume is true -  at least as far as Mother Teresa is mentioned.  You get a lot of things done - and done fast - if everyone follows your orders.

I heard that she wanted every one of her sister’s convents to be the same. I heard that in one of her places - someone put in couches for the sisters and out they went into the street.

Next, the complaints…. and the criticisms.  She was a human being. We heard that her original order - the Sisters of Loreto where she started - some were glad to see the back of her.

If you don’t like someone, you’ll things you don’t like and vice versa.

She was a great fund raiser. Some complained about who gave her money and others complained about where the money went. Some was used to build new convents for her nuns. Of course …. Hello!

Some complained that she could have come up with better ways of keeping people alive - instead of having houses for the dying.

Some complained that they could have had better needles and cleaner places.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize and many, many awards.

One last comment would be the following.  I’ve heard nuns frustrated with priests and others who raved about Mother Teresa and didn’t give enough affirmation to nuns who were working their tails off.  The Catholic Church in the United States would not be what it is today - without all the work nuns did here and around the world. I could hear them saying, “What are we chopped liver - giving our lives in classrooms, hospitals, visiting the sick, etc.?

There was a nun in my sister’s order  of nuns, the IHM’s of Scranton, Sister Adrian Barrett [1929-2015] I never talked to her, but I spotted her a few times. She was short like Mother Teresa. She had a smile that was better than Mother Teresa’s smile. She did lots and lots and lots of service to lots and lots of poor folks and there was a TV Public Television documentary on her entitled, Sister Adrian, the Mother Teresa of Scranton. It was narrated by Martin Sheen.  I don’t know - but I wonder if she  and her sisters would prefer she be simply called, Sister Adrian a Great Servant of the Poor.

CONCLUSION

So that’s a few comments about Mother Teresa on her first feast day as a saint. In time what will be her title: Patron saint of the dying, those with AIDS, India, wrinkles, or what have you. Smile.