Mother Teresa Mother Teresa - Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others

T he most beautiful thing
in the world is to love one another
as God loves each one of us. And
it is for this purpose that we are in
this world.

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Where There Is Love, There Is God is in some ways a sequel to Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. The latter presents Mother Teresas life from the perspective of her relationship with God and her commitment to those He called her to servethe poorest of the poor. Sent to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, she was to be identified with them, experiencing, in the depths of her soul, their struggle and pain. She embraced these persistent and intense sufferings with heroic courage and fidelity, giving evidence of her extraordinary faith in God and surrender to His will. The encouragement that the disclosure of this hidden aspect of Mother Teresas life has been to many led to the idea of making more of her insights available as they can teach us much in dealing with our own struggles and sufferings.

This publication is not an exhaustive anthology of Mother Teresas teaching. Where There Is Love, There Is God attempts, rather, to impart succinctly what she believed and taught about some of the fundamental issues of human life, particularly relevant in our times. Given her constant interaction with people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, no life situation was foreign to her, and she had many opportunities to pronounce her views on a wide range of subjects. She unflaggingly communicated her convictions as to where true peace and happiness are to be found, inspiring her contemporaries by the sincerity of her words, and even more by the authenticity of her life.

While she is more of an example and model for us in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, here her role is primarily one of teacher and guide. Through the practical and timely advice she offers, Mother Teresa sets us on the path to closer union with God and greater love for our brothers and sisters. Selections from her wealth of insight are compiled in the pages that follow with the hope that her example of love and her words of wisdom will help us to bring more love into our world and make it a little better place in which to live.

Introduction

If Mother Teresas entire life and message were to be summarized and described in only two words, without question those words would be God and love. In truth, God was the center of her existence, her very life, and lovefor God and neighborher message. But if pressed to use just one word, love would express it all, for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God God is love (1 John 4:7, 8). Mother Teresas simple statement, Where there is Love, there is God, chosen for the title of this book, reflects this profound truth.

God uses human instruments for His purposes and He used Mother Teresas hands and heart to manifest His love in todays world. By her life, words, and work, she proclaimed that God is real, that He is with us and that He still loves the world through you and through me. Specifically called to be a Missionary of Charitya carrier of His love to the poorest of the poor, indeed to each person she metshe did not think that this was a vocation uniquely hers. Every person, she believed, is to be a missionary of charity, a carrier of Gods love in whatever their state of life. She strove to make others aware of this fundamental call and invited them to respond generously.

Mother Teresas zeal in assiduously carrying out her mission was striking, even in her advanced years. What was the source of her dynamism and determination? Faith in God. This is what shaped her personality and permeated every aspect of her life. She spoke of God or of the things of God in virtually every conversation, for out of the abundance of the heart, [the] mouth speaks (Luke 6:45) and she did so spontaneously and naturally. Hers was not an artificial piety, aimed at impressing others. Neither did she cater to human respect, fearful of expressing her faith and convictions. She expressed simply and sincerely what she believed, with the sole aim of pleasing God and doing good to souls.

Mother Teresas upbringing and environment were conducive to growth in the Faith, and she developed an intimate relationship with God early in life. At the age of eighteen, she took the decisive step to pursue a life of total dedication to God, answering His call to become a missionary in India. After living as a Loreto nun for nearly twenty years, she received what she would term a call within a call, while traveling by train to Darjeeling for her annual retreat. God was asking her to be a Missionary of Charity, a carrier of His love to those who felt most unloved, unwanted, uncared for, those who often find it difficult to believe in His love because of their circumstances. Though it would entail a radical change in her life, she willingly embraced this new mandate.

The inspiration Mother Teresa received on the train gave her profound insight into Gods love. She understood as never before how much God desired, longed, thirsted to love and be loved: He thirsted for her love and for the love of each person He created, especially those most in need. Jesus words from the Cross, I thirst, were for her the expression of this intense love and, were always to remind her of the call she had received, a call to satiate His thirst. Satiating Jesus thirst for love and for souls implied a willingness to strive for ever greater intimacy with Him. It also implied a readiness to be a channel, heedless of the cost to self, through which Gods love could be communicated to His children. This call gave Mother Teresa a sense of responsibility and urgency toward her mission. If Divine Providence placed someone in her path, she would do all she could to help that person come to know God better and so enter into a closer relationship with Him.

Despite the obstacles she faced in responding to her new call, Mother Teresa enjoyed an abundance of consolations in the months following the inspiration. Yet, as she started her mission to the poor she was plunged into the dark reality of desolation that those whom she served experience: the feeling that God was no longer present, that He no longer loved her or cared for her. Nevertheless, she remained truly and profoundly united to God, even though her feelings suggested the opposite. She became one with Jesus in His agony and one with the poorest of the poor in their sufferings by experiencing their pain at being unloved, unwanted, uncared for. In sharing their sufferings, she was indeed taking upon herself something of the pain of those she loved.

Nearly half a century lived in spiritual aridity did not hinder Mother Teresas ability to perceive the hand of God in the ordinary as well as the challenging circumstances of life, and to respond to Him in love. An impressive manifestation of this was her ability not to get disheartened by the daunting hardships nor overcome by the sufferings or the evil that she witnessed daily. She deeply believed that God in His love could bring about a greater good even from apparent or real evil. In the midst of her own spiritual darkness, her unfaltering commitment to her mission and the constant smile that hid her pain attested to her deep faith that God, whom she no longer felt to be close, was still in charge. This unshakable faith carried her through life. No matter how demanding it was, she remained serene, and even joyful. In fact, the darker the darkness, the more tenacious was her faith.