Material vs. Spiritual Poverty
“Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One evening 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 who 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, as she said one word only: ‘thank you’ - and she died.
I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: ‘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. Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said, ‘I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for.’ Then, after we had removed all the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: ‘Sister, I am going home to God’ - and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor.”
~Mother Teresa
“When Mother Teresa first came into the tiny room where we were to conduct the interview, I soon realized that although she was small in stature -- she stood only 4-foot-11-inches tall -- she was a giant to the have-nots of life that she ministered to during her six decades on the subcontinent of India, as well as others around the world. Her friends were the starving, the dying, the poor.
As a young reporter, I immediately warmed to this gentle woman who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, for she had seen more poverty than anyone I had ever met. Speaking in the founding, festering slum where she made her simple home, I was surprised to hear her express pity for the ‘poverty-stricken West.’
‘The spiritual poverty of the Western World is much greater than the physical poverty of our people,’ she told me, as the fan whirred above us, trying to alleviate the unbearable heat of that Indian city.
‘You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don't know what it is.
What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God.’”
~Mother Teresa (Dan Wooding reporting)
I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: ‘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. Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said, ‘I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for.’ Then, after we had removed all the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: ‘Sister, I am going home to God’ - and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this is the greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor.”
~Mother Teresa
“When Mother Teresa first came into the tiny room where we were to conduct the interview, I soon realized that although she was small in stature -- she stood only 4-foot-11-inches tall -- she was a giant to the have-nots of life that she ministered to during her six decades on the subcontinent of India, as well as others around the world. Her friends were the starving, the dying, the poor.
As a young reporter, I immediately warmed to this gentle woman who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, for she had seen more poverty than anyone I had ever met. Speaking in the founding, festering slum where she made her simple home, I was surprised to hear her express pity for the ‘poverty-stricken West.’
‘The spiritual poverty of the Western World is much greater than the physical poverty of our people,’ she told me, as the fan whirred above us, trying to alleviate the unbearable heat of that Indian city.
‘You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don't know what it is.
What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God.’”
~Mother Teresa (Dan Wooding reporting)
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