Mother Teresa: ‘The Poor Can Be Wonderful’

Look at that lined, wrinkly face. Mother Teresa of Calcutta didn’t care about glamour.

Look at those gnarled, bony hands. Mother Teresa didn’t care about smooth, spotless skin or sex appeal.

Look at that small, fragile body. Mother Teresa didn’t care about elegance or carriage.

She cared about the people no one else cared about. She honored the dignity of the forgotten. She gave the gift of her attention.

She nourished the dying with her care, her love, her charity, her kindness — when most other people would look away or step around or refuse.

Related: Mother Teresa Never Gave Up on Life

In an age when none of us can walk down the street without an iPhone in our hands; when few of us feel adequate unless we’re wearing the latest suits or dresses or other stylish fashions; when we care an inordinate amount about our hair, our shoes, our bags, our jewelry, our watches and much more; and when we don’t feel complete unless we have a car, a TV, a music system, and on and on it goes ad nauseam — this amazing woman taught the world about what matters in the end.

Here is what Mother Teresa — canonized a saint by Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome on Sunday, Sept. 4, less than 20 years after she died — said during her lifetime:

“Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One day we went out and we picked up four people from the street, and one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the sisters, ‘You take care of the other three, I will take care of the one looks worse.’

“So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand and she said one word only — ‘Thank you’ — and she died.

“I could not help but examine my conscience before her, and I asked myself what would I say if I were in her place, and my answer was very simple: I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said, ‘I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain or something,” but she gave me much more. She gave me her grateful love and she died with a smile on her face.”

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About another dying man, she said this: “I’ve never seen that kind of joy — real joy — the joy that Jesus came to give us.”

And another time she said this: “The Jesus who is present in the breaking of the bread is the same Jesus who is present in the broken bodies of the poor.”

Said Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, in his new book “Mother Teresa: A Call to Mercy” that honors her life, “What was striking in her dealings with the poor was that her first glance and a word of comfort went to the most poor and dirty person in the crowd.”

Her example — her giving, her living, her generosity of spirit without a thought to her own comfort — is a lesson to us all in 21st century life.