Mother Teresa was quoted as saying, “The family is a special instrument in God’s hands, for it is chiefly through the family that God wants to tell us that we are created for greater things: to love and be loved. As our families are, so will our relations with our neighbors be, and so will our towns, cities and whole country appear. If the family becomes a place of love and peace and holiness, then our nations and our world too will live in love, in peace and in unity with God and with each other. (quoted by Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuck, 2002)
In many cities throughout the world, The Sisters look after people who are elderly and helpless. The houses are always very simply furnished but completely clean and the elderly people are remarkably cheerful with each other and with the Sisters. I mentioned this once to Mother Teresa and she asked, “. . . why do you think that in so many retirement homes all the people sit by the entrance and look at the door?”
She explained: “Perhaps because their sons and daughters put them in that home, where they have all the material things that they need. But in reality they have been forgotten there by their children. Do you see elderly people smiling in those homes? Often they are the poorest of the poor, because they have a great hunger, a hunger for love. We must always ask ourselves: Don’t we have some of the poorest of the poor in our own family? And we must remember that charity begins at home.”
Yes, in the family we experience what it means when Jesus says about Himself that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In Mother Teresa’s words: “What is true for each individual is also true for the family: When the family listens to Jesus’ word, it hears Truth: When we obey His commandments, we follow Jesus, Who is the Way. When we receive His sacraments, we live Jesus, Who is the Life.” ~Fr. Leo Maasburg,”Mother Teresa of Calcutta, A Personal Portrait”(Ignatius Press – Agustine Press, San Francisco) 88-89
(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.)
