In the business world, the dilemma could be often: Money or Mindset – The choice is whether we go up vertically in status of power and affluence or whether we reach out horizontally the needy in the society. Mother Teresa lived out both the vertical and the horizontal aspects. She had two dynamical propelling forces: She had her gaze on God but she stretched out her helping hands to the discriminated and the neglected and abandoned. It is because she had the heart for the unserved, the neglected, and the discarded in the society. In her life what she saw, what she thought, and what she felt synchronized harmoniously well.
Very often the world might be different for different people. What is important is what we contribute to the world. Albert Einstein said: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” I remember the event that took place about 27 years ago – It was a story of success and failure; fame and shame at the same time for the same person.
In March 1993, photographer Kevin Carter took a trip to South Sudan. While he was there, he took a well-known photo of a starving little girl being preyed upon by a vulture. Her parents apparently left her to wait in the middle of nowhere, in order to get some bread from a UN plane nearby. Kevin Carter recalled later that the high-pitched whimpering sound of a toddler near the Ayod village attracted his attention. The girl was obviously hungry with an emaciated skeleton as her body. She was struggling to get to follow her parents to a feeding center. The photographer did not want to touch the child for fear of infection (as people have been warned). He confessed that he waited 20 minutes for the vulture to fly away but it didn’t. Carter, with the impulse of a photographer, snapped the child and then chased away the vulture.
The photograph was flashed in newspapers. The St. Petersburg Times wrote this about him: “The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene.” Instead of coming to the rescue of the practically dying child, he snapped the scene. His photo won the Pulitzer Prize. Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo but he couldn’t enjoy it. The memory of the child haunted him day and night. He regretted not helping the child in her need. He was consumed by the violence he had witnessed and haunted by questions about the fate of the girl. He told an interviewer that after this event he cried profusely. Three months after receiving the prize, Carter committed suicide. No one knows what happened to that child that was photographed (Cf. https://unbelievable-facts.com/2013/12/kevin-carter-committed-suicide-3-months.html).
In contrast Mother Teresa was propelled by compassion – She was a tiny nun but with a large heart. She not only felt for the other but she became the other. She felt she was ‘a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world’ – not letters of words but letter of doing something beautiful for the needy. Her altruistic love made her a great person, in fact a saint.
One day she did not have anything to give for the orphan children she was taking care of. In the neighbourhood of Mother Teresa, there was a shopkeeper who disliked her. Mother Teresa went to him and begged him: ‘Please, give something to eat for the hungry children’. The shop owner stared at Mother Teresa with anger and hatred and spit on Mother Teresa’s outstretched hands. Mother Teresa gently wiped the saliva on to her sari and said: ‘Thank you for what you have given for me. Will you now give me something for my children.’ The shopkeeper was shocked at the humility of Mother Teresa and he asked pardon from her. Then on he began to help regularly the orphan children. Mother Teresa moved his heart, which made him stretch out his helping hand to the hungry (Cf. http://datatorch.com/data/Mother_Teresa_gets_Saliva_from_Shop_Keeper).
Once someone told Mother Teresa, I would not do what you do even if I am given one million dollars. Mother Teresa immediately responded: Neither will I do. I do it because I see God in the suffering and dying people.
We have to learn a lot from Mother Teresa: She was entirely committed to a cause, the cause of helping the suffering and the neglected. She persevered through controversies and challenges because she was focused onto her mission and she stayed grounded. She sailed through all odds as she always remembered that only the dead fish swim with the current of the stream, as Malcolm Muggeridge would say in his biography of Mother Teresa Something Beautiful for God. For Mother Teresa life is the way of love, enriched with values for the good of the society (Cf. https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/galleries/6-life-changing-lessons-from-mother-teresa.aspx).
In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31), Jesus names the poor as Lazarus (meaning, whom God helps) but no name is given to the rich man. It is in contrast to the world’s practice of recognizing and celebrating the rich and the powerful, while ignoring and sidelining the poor. People look at the status of others, but God looks at the heart. In the parable, when both of them died, Lazarus was taken to the heaven, while the rich man was buried in the hell. The rich man was punished not because he persecuted Lazarus or ill-treated him, but he did not help the poor man in his need (I Sam 16:7).
One’s worth is evaluated, at the end of one’s life, not by what one has possessed but by what one has been. The measuring rod of life is love. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (I Cor 13:1-3). Mother Teresa also would say the same. In her own words: “I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?”… “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in” (Mt 25:35f). Our compassion is the scale to measure us up in the eyes of God. It is not just words, but in deeds.
We need to do this here and now. Thich Nhat Hanh in his inspiring book Our Appointment with Life would say:
Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is
In the very here and now,
The practitioner dwells
In stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Let us imbibe the spirit of Mother Teresa to be there where the needy expect us. And today we honour two such agents who keep the need of people in mind and who are mindful of quality service to humankind. UltraTech Cement, in spite of initial struggle, came out victorious to become number one brand in India; and Maruti Suzuki Ltd has become a very popular car because for many it is affordable. They have put people before profit and we congratulate them and wish them well to do more with their social responsibility for the needy. We appreciate them for excelling in business with ethics.
Francis P Xavier SJ
05 Mar 2020