The Church this week will mark the feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta.

The world knew her as Mother Teresa (certainly easier to remember than her birth name, Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu), the diminutive ball of energy who came to personify charity to the poorest of the poor.

She went to her eternal reward in 1997, but as we know and as Jesus foretold, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11).

Call it the human condition, call it the vagaries of social organization—some people fall through the cracks and grapple with a hand-to-mouth existence.

It is to the poor that the Church shows a preferential option. Gospel charity demands that we make them a perennial concern.

This can weary us at times. No matter how much we do, no matter how much we donate, there always seems to be someone in need.

That’s where it’s good to recall that charity done for Jesus’ sake has immense value. We serve him through serving the poor.

The key is not to expect any final victories over poverty, at least in this life.

That seems obvious. Yet a danger is that people can simply get tired of the poor and the marginalized. The constant demands of the needy can tempt  the well-off to retreat into a comfort cave.

The needy can include all kinds of people: the immigrant, the homeless, the addict, the unwanted unborn. Indeed, to ignore them reflects another, deeper kind of poverty.

If we feel a need to rekindle a spirit of charity in ourselves, a helpful step would be to pray along with our Retreat Guide on St. Thérèse’s Little Way of Charity: Love One Another.

The two T’s — Thérèse and Teresa — can teach us much about having lives animated by love.

In Christ,

Father Edward McIlmail, LC
Ask a Priest contributor