From Mother Teresa’s book, ‘A Simple Faith’…
“We must grow in love and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts—the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love: little things like caring for the sick and the homeless, the lonely and the unwanted, washing and cleaning for them.
You must give what will cost you something. This, then, is giving not just what you can live without but what you can’t live without or don’t want to live without, something you really like. Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God. And sacrifice is useful if it is done out of love.
This giving until it hurts—this sacrifice—is also what I call love in action. Every day I see this love—in children, men and women. I was once walking down the street and a beggar came to me and he said, “Mother Teresa, everybody’s giving to you, I also want to give to you. Today, for the whole day, I got only twenty-nine paise and I want to give it to you.” I thought for a moment: If I take it he will have nothing to eat and if I don’t take it, I will hurt him. So I put out my hand and took the money. I have never seen such joy on anybody’s face as I saw on his—that a beggar, he too, could give to Mother Teresa. It was a big sacrifice for that poor man who’d been sitting in the sun all day and had only received twenty-nine paise. It was beautiful: twenty-nine paise is such a small amount that I can get nothing with it, but as he gave it up and I took it, it became like thousands because it was given with so much love.
The other day I received a letter from a small child in America. I knew he was little because he wrote in big handwriting, “Mother Teresa I love you so much I’m sending you my pocket money,” and inside the letter was a check for three dollars….
A young couple got married here recently. They decided to keep their wedding simple—she wore a plain cotton sari and there was just his and her parents’ present— and they gave us all the money they had saved from not having a big Hindu wedding ceremony. They were sharing their love with the poor. Something like this happens every day. By becoming poor ourselves, by loving until it hurts, we become capable of loving more deeply, more beautifully, more wholly.
~ from the book ‘Mother Teresa A Simple Faith’, p.100-101, Ballantine Books, 1995
Comment from Heidi Howcroft I’ll agree to disagree. WAY to often I’ve seen abusers use this thinking to take advantage of others. I’ve seen them completely manipulate this idea until it becomes a form of priestcraft. We are stewards of all we’ve been given and we need to give wisely. Not only that, were commanded not to run faster than we are able.
And answer: Point taken… This originates in an entirely different culture where poverty is almost universal. Giving until it hurts does bring blessings, but we still have to be careful as North Americans that we don’t facilitate degeneracy and criminal elements. That’s where our donations are safely given/used when we give time, money to, through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints… We know administration costs are perhaps the lowest of all charitable organizations simply because we have so many missionaries (including young people and retired folks from all walks of life) who use their own resources in their missionary efforts. Medical professionals go in teams to third world countries to do this also. You Heidi, already know this, but many non-members don’t. Thank you for the opportunity to add clarity. Kent
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
