Mother Theresa is STILL a Saint

Luke 14:1, 7-14

There seems to be some confusion in the air lately about what a saint is. In a recent article from Time Magazine it seems that the exposure of Mother Theresa’s private faith, and the doubt therein, seems to have cast a pall upon the question of her upcoming canonization—otherwise known as sainthood.

[Read the following excerpt:]
[On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the "Saint of the Gutters," went to Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had grown from a one-woman folly in Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come to expect from her. "It is not enough for us to say, 'I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,'" she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had "[made] himself the hungry one — the naked one — the homeless one." Jesus' hunger, she said, is what "you and I must find" and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world "that radiating joy is real" because Christ is everywhere — "Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive." Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand." The two statements, 11 weeks apart, are extravagantly dissonant. The first is typical of the woman the world thought it knew. The second sounds as though it had wandered in from some 1950s existentialist drama. Together they suggest a startling portrait in self- contradiction — that one of the great human icons of the past 100 years, whose remarkable deeds seemed inextricably
connected to her closeness to God and who was routinely observed in silent and seemingly peaceful prayer by her associates as well as the television camera, was living out a very different spiritual reality privately, an arid landscape from which the deity had disappeared.]

Now, I must confess this is the kind of stuff that makes me cranky. :-)
Leave it to the US media to scandalize even Mother Theresa for the sake of increasing sales.

It seems that our world cannot handle the possibility that a saint could be, at the same time a sinner—-a human being—faced with the same human condition that the rest of us are faced with. This leaves my sermon for today begging to address the question: What is a saint?

So, what is a saint? What does one look like? What’s their story? Are they people born with halos? Are they people who continually make the right choices. As if in cartoon-like fashion they are the ones who are forever saying NO to the little devil on their shoulder and YES to the little angel? It seems that Time Magazine, as well as the general public thinks so.

Well, in today’s Gospel lesson Jesus gives us a very different description of a saint. Jesus actually gives us a definition of sainthood. Jesus says, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Now, what does it mean to be exalted? To be exalted is to be lifted up to a higher regard among others. However, the point of clarity from Jesus' definition here is that exaltation is not something that we can do for ourselves. Jesus says, "He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." We can not exalt ourselves, because to do that is to bring about humiliation—not true exaltation. Rather, true exaltation, is a gift given only by God to those who humble themselves for the sake of others. To be exalted is to be lifted up by God. To be lifted up by God is to be a saint. To be a saint, then, is to be a humble servant to others.
Contrary to public opinion, sainthood has nothing to do with personal doubt, faith, or piety. Sainthood is to do with humble service to others.

So, listen to this brief biography of Mother Theresa and you tell me if you hear a story of humble service to others. This is an excerpt from EWTN.COM
[Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, in the former Yugoslavia, she was the youngest of three children. In her teens, Agnes became a member of a youth group in her local pairsh called Sodality. Through her involvement with their activities guided by a Jesuit priest, Agnes became interested in missionaries. At age 17, she responded to her first call of a vocation as a Catholic missionary nun. She joined an Irish order, the Sisters of Loretto, a community known for their missionary work in India. When she took her vows as a Sister of Loretto, she chose the name Teresa after Saint Theresa of Lisieux.
In Calcutta, Sister Teresa taught geography and catechism at St. Mary's High School. In 1944, she became the principal of St. Mary's. Soon Sister Teresa contracted tuberculosis, was unable to continue teaching and was sent to Darjeeling for rest and recuperation. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her second call -- "the call within the call". Mother Teresa recalled later, "I was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. It was an order. I knew where I belonged but I did not know how to get there."
In 1948, the Vatican granted Sister Teresa permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and pursue her calling under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Calcutta. Mother Teresa started with a school in the slums to teach the children of the poor. She also learned basic medicine and went into the homes of the sick to treat them. In 1949, some of her former pupils joined her. They found men, women, and children dying on the streets who were rejected by local hospitals. The group rented a room so they could care for helpless people other wise condemned to die in the gutter. In 1950, the group was established by the Church as a Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese. It was known as the Missionaries of Charity.
In 1952 the first Home for the Dying was opened in space made available by the City of Calcutta. Over the years, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity grew from 12 to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. Mother Teresa created many homes for the dying and the unwanted from Calcutta to New York to Albania. She was one of the pioneers of establishing homes for AIDS victims. For more than 45 years, Mother Teresa comforted the poor, the dying, and the unwanted around the world.
In 1966, the Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded. Homes began to open in Rome, Tanzania, and Australia. In 1971, the first home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. Mother Teresa gained worldwide acclaim with her tireless efforts on behalf of world peace. Her work brought her numerous humanitarian awards, including : the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In receiving this award, Mother Teresa revolutionized the award ceremony. She insisted on a departure from the ceremonial banquet and asked that the funds, $6,000 be donated to the poor in Calcutta. This money would permit her to feed hundreds for a year. She is stated to have said that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world’s needy.
Beginning in 1980, homes began to spring-up for drug addicts, prostitutes, battered women, and more orphanages and schools for poor children around the world. In 1985, Mother Teresa
established the first hospice for AIDS victims in New York. Later homes were added in San Francisco and Atlanta. Mother Teresa was awarded Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award.
In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her native Albania (know known as Serbia) and opened a home in Tirana. By this year, there were 168 homes established in India.
On February 3, 1994 at a National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, in Washington, DC, Mother Teresa challenged the audience on such topics as family life and abortion. She said, "Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Give the child to me." Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. Her zeal and works of mercy knew no boundaries.

Based upon Jesus definition of sainthood, does that sound like a saint to you?

Here’s the true test of sainthood—-Jesus gives us a definition today that is very clear—the exalted are those who humble themselves to serve others. So, rather than asking the readers of Time Magazine, or even the high ranking officials of the church if they believe Mother Theresa is a saint, why not ask the poor in Calcutta? Ask the people she humbly served. Ask the children who died in her arms with AIDS if she was saint? Ask the poor who received care at the hospitals built upon her sweat and devotion if she is a saint? Don't ask the readers of Time magazine or church officials. Ask the people she humbly served. They will most surely tell you, She was and still is a saint to them.

Now then, to answer the question of what is a saint—-a more appropriate question is Who is a saint? For then the answer becomes plain. The saint is the one who by following the model of our Lord Jesus offered humble service.

My grandmother was and still is a saint. Time magazine wont be writing any articles about her, but I tell with all measure of truth my faith can muster that she was and still is a saint.

Who has been a saint for you?

More importantly--For whom have you been a saint?

A saint is someone who humbles himself in service to others. Today, you all have at least one opportunity that I know of to be saints. An invitation that is most obvious before us all today.
Today, you are given the opportunity to humble yourselves and offer the service of hospitality and welcome to our new friend and music director, Christian Tagoe.

In the end, there is one who models a living sainthood to all of us.
Jesus shows us the way. For by his death on the cross he humbled himself in obedience to God’s mission. And by doing so has opened the way of sainthood for all of us.

Mother Theresa’s memory lives on as an example of humble service for all.
For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, her example is that of what any mere human does when their life is modeled after Christ’s. With Christ’s love and passion for others in our hearts, any old sinner like you or even me can be a saint.

Amen