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Gospel: Luke 4: 31-37
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Today we celebrate a modern-day hero.
Not because she was the Wolf of Wall Street. Not because she became the world’s wealthiest woman. Not because she was highly educated or cured cancer.
In fact, she did none of these things.
We celebrate a woman who learned how to persevere in doing ordinary things – chasing after children abandoned by their parents and offering them a home, feeding the hungry, bathing dirty feet, and picking up people who otherwise would’ve died on the streets.
For seventy years, she did ordinary things with extraordinary love.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, affectionately known as “Mother Teresa,” became a global phenomenon, bringing poverty onto the world stage simply by being a Christian – doing the things that Christ commanded her to do.
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“Why do you do these things day after day?” She was once asked by an interviewer. “Don’t you ever tire of it all?”
Mother Teresa responded, “I’m not called to feed hungry people. I’m called to love Jesus.” Then she reached out, grabbed the interviewer’s hand, and on each of his five fingers, she repeated the words of Jesus: You – did – it – to – me.
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Much could be said about Mother Teresa – her history, her spirituality, her inexhaustible charity for the poor. But it was her love for Christ – and her knack for seeing him in her neighbor – that inspired her life and mission.
There’s a word in that for all of us.
Though we may not be surrounded by the sick, the hungry, the naked, the “losers” in this world, we are all invited to see Christ in our neighbor.
That doesn’t only include our family, our friends, and people whom we love. But also, those we’d rather avoid, those whom we disagree with, those who are different from ourselves.
Whatever we do to one another today, we do to Christ.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.
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Image credits: (1) Mother Teresa: The Life of a Saint, The New York Times (2) The Collector (3) The Collector