With Great Love!

Friday, September 5, 2025

Col 1:15-20; Lk 5:33-39

The feast of Mother Teresa of Kolkata invites us to be witnesses to and heralds of Christian love. 

Mother Teresa’s vocation, which is often referred to as ‘the call within a call,’ and her selfless mission teach us that Christian mission transcends charity in the way it proclaims God’s love. 

There goes an anecdote that explains the meaning of the Christian truth. 

Once, Mother Teresa was asked if she did not think that the destitution she was trying to cope with in Kolkata required a government agency disposing of vastly greater resources of money and workforce than her Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity did or could. She agreed that the involvement of government agencies would certainly better the humanitarian service. However, she did not forget to differentiate between the service rendered by the government agencies and her order. What she and the sisters had to offer was something else – Christian love.

For this reason, Mother Teresa made it often clear that ‘Welfare is for a purpose; an admirable and a necessary one; whereas Christian love is for a person. The one is about numbers; the other is about a person who is also God. Herein lies the essential difference between the welfare services and the service of Christ.’

Mother Teresa was strongly convinced that the uniqueness of the Christian mission lies in its proclamation of God’s love. If it falls short of an evangelization of love, it does not originate from God. 

Deeply moved by this missional conviction, Mother Teresa mastered the art of doing small things with great love. 

Disseminating Christian love transcends pity, charity, and even empathy. 

Let us pray that we may forever be heralds of God’s love, walking in the footsteps of Mother Teresa of Kolkata. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar