Scottish Catholic Observer

‘The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty—it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God” – St Teresa of Calcutta.

For all the pomp and circumstance that will attend her canonisation at the Vatican today, for all joy and celebrations that will be seen on every continent, for all the millions of people that were and are inspired by Mother Teresa, at heart her message remains incredibly simple.

As the quote about suggests, she recognised that what human beings need is to be loved. And so she set out to bring more love into the world. And she succeeded.

In this week’s paper we have interviews with a range of people who met her, and who she inspired. Of course, her work with the poor is what most will first think of. It’s worth remembering that she left Macedonia to work in India, then left a job as a teacher to give her life over to those who had nothing.

Yet throughout her life she was guided by a profound spirituality. As one person who met her when she visited Glasgow said: “We interrupt what we are doing to pray. She interrupted her prayers to do what needed to be done.”

This is what underpinned everything she did for the needy; her spiritual life motivated all her material deeds.

Pope Francis has made no secret of the fact he wishes us to go and carry out acts of mercy in the world—in Mother Teresa we have the perfect inspiration. Her efforts, tireless and without ceasing, make her an icon of mercy.

She was the living proof that it’s not enough to think good thoughts. You also have to act.

For all her work with the world’s poorest, her analysis of the troubles of the West was profoundly astute. With technology, wealth and ego, we have isolated ourselves from love. Yet every one of us has the ability to break down those barriers. We are all capable of following in the footsteps of Mother Teresa and bringing love into the world. The need is acute. All of us, without hesitiating, will be able to think of those in our lives who are bereft of love, who are lonely, and may even be destructive. In her memory we must try to bring love to them.