Sharing With Others - Mother Teresa

1910–97

When you think of Mother Teresa, do you think of luxury? Probably not. The Catholic nun is known for her work with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. She’s known for working with lepers, those with AIDS, the homeless, and the dying. Luxury is not part of the Mother Teresa legacy.

It’s not that there wasn’t opportunity for Mother Teresa to indulge in some luxury during her life. As her ministry grew and she gained recognition in both the church and the world at large, she was, from time to time, offered some ways to make her life easier.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI gave her a Lincoln Continental limousine. It was the ceremonial car he had used on his trip to India. Instead of using the limousine as transport for herself and others who helped her with her work, she raffled the vehicle and used the money to help those she cared for in the leper colony.

When she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she didn’t partake in the traditional banquet that would normally be given in honor of a Nobel Prize winner. Instead she asked that she be allowed to use the money that would have been spent on a banquet to help feed the poor in India. The banquet money was added to the $190,000 in prize money to help feed countless starving people.

As part of her choice to become a nun, Mother Teresa took a vow of poverty, which isn’t necessarily a promise to be poor, but a promise to share everything you have with others so that a quest for wealth and stuff does not become a goal. It’s clear that Mother Teresa took that vow to heart.

Our lives are full of small luxuries—four-dollar cups of coffee, TV channels we pay for but barely watch, pizza delivery on Friday nights. . . . Have you ever considered giving up one of those small luxuries once in a while and using the money saved to help others?

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19-20