The New Stonehenge

From Father Brian D’Arcy, a Catholic Passionist priest:

I’m delighted to be a tiny part of BBC’s special week of programmes dedicated to wonderfully diverse cultures of India.

I’ve never been there but I often met, and was inspired by, a holy woman whose name is synonymous with India – Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Although she was born in Albania, she spent over 60 years caring for the poor, the suffering and the dying throughout India and from there, the major cities of the world. When she died in 1997 she was given a state funeral in India. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

I interviewed Mother Teresa on many occasions. She was a small frail woman, bent over, worn out and dressed in a simple, white Sari. She kept her eyes cast down and spoke softly, in short sentences which were full of wisdom, but never answered my question.

“What should I do to help you in your great work?” I once asked. “God wants you to dedicate yourself to your own work; he doesn’t expect you to do mine.” she shot back. “Everyone has to find their own Calcutta.”

Earlier in her life she was headmistress in a school for well-off girls but on a train journey to Darjeeling she received what she recognised as “a call from God” to leave her post and to care “for the poorest of the poor.”

Like all people who live challenging lives, she had her critics, which she accepted as part of life. She shocked me during the last talk we had when she revealed that she was tempted daily to doubt her vocation. For over 40 years this woman of immense faith struggled in silence to believe in the God she dedicated her life to. “There are days when nothing touches my soul but I must keep on doing good,” she told me with obvious sadness.

An America TV crew accompanied her as she cared for suffering people on the streets of Calcutta. “I wouldn’t do this for $1M dollars” said the reporter. “Neither would I,” she answered. “But I do it willingly for the love of God.” What a life!