The Saints Who Made Christmas: Teresa

It was an ordinary Christmas in the home of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. Mother Teresa, her sisters, and Monsignor Hnilica sat around a table, enjoying a simple Christmas meal together, laughing and talking and sharing the love of Jesus through their smiles. These women sitting around Monsignor Hnilica had an unearthly happiness about them. Even though they were not blessed with fortune and richness, they had what they needed, and they used it all to help those poorer than they. 

At one point in the dinner, the doorbell rang, and one of the sisters went to answer it. She returned a few minutes later, explaining how a woman had given it to her and run off afterwards.

“It must be money or food from a benefactor,” the sister said, handing the basket to Teresa. As she removed the clothes from the top of the basket, her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “Jesus has come to us this Christmas!”

Everyone jumped up from the table to see what Teresa was talking about. They gasped as their eyes fell upon the figure of an Indian child, sleeping soundly. The sisters wrapped him up and took care of him, doting on him all that Christmas Eve. 

This is what made Teresa and her sisters so happy. This is what caused Teresa’s famous radiant smile, which lights up the hearts of everyone who sets eyes on her. Teresa and her sisters saw Jesus in every person they met, recognizing Him in poor children who ran around looking for food all day, in women who searched through the trash to find things good enough to eat, in men who were covered in terrible sores from leprosy. Teresa saw Jesus in every person, knowing He was there, living inside them, even if they did not even know Him. 

Teresa lived her life for Jesus, quite literally. She lived it serving others, whom she knew were the Temples of the Holy Spirit. She loved them with a love she felt for Jesus, and now her love is famous. Everyone has seen photographs of Mother Teresa, the smiling poor woman from Albania who “gave up her life to serve the poor”. But Mother Teresa did not give up her life, as some people say. Rather, by her own accounts, she gained it. She found the source and fullness of her life, Jesus, serving the poorest of the poor in the filthy slums of Calcutta. She did not avoid them, as others did. Teresa went to them and healed not only their bodies, but also their hearts. 

Teresa, who died in 1997 at the age of 87, shows us that even in this modern time, we can still find Jesus. She shows us that it does not matter who you are, where you are from, or how old you are - all that matters is where you are going. Teresa went to the slums to find Jesus. Where can you find Jesus this Christmas?