What’s in a Name? by Scipio

When my oldest daughter was sixteen, she spent the summer of 1997 working in a Mother Theresa home in Calcutta, India. Before she left for India, her group were told Mother Teresa would not be there, so there was no expectation of seeing her. All I personally knew about MT at that time was she was a Catholic Saint working with the poor of India.

What I didn’t know was MT chose to work with the poorest of the poor in India, a group of people called “outcasts”.  “Outcasts” are outside of the Hindu caste system for presumably doing something bad in a previous life or for some ritual offense. Indian society looks down on them and in general will do nothing to help them.  They are homeless, ill kept, dirty and some are born and die in the streets where they were born.

Leaving her comfortable home in present day Macedonia at the age of eighteen MT joined the Sisters of Latero Order and left for India to teach.  After teaching seventeen years she felt God call her to offer aide to the “outcasts”.   She started a new order “Order of the Missionaries of Charity” where she attracted many to her cause, and eventually received the Nobel Peace award.

MOTHER THERESA’S BUSINESS CARD

Upon my daughter’s return from India, the family was gathered as she unpacked her suitcase handing out souvenirs to her siblings, mother, and me. She then said, “Oh BTW, we got to see Mother Theresa our last two weeks. She returned to India and asked our group to attend evening Mass with her in her private quarters.  She asked us to join her three different times, and I have picture of myself with Mother Theresa that I will show you when it gets developed.  She turned to me and sad “Dad, here is Mother Theresa’s business card she gave me for you.”

I never thought of this humble woman having a business card, but I thought, “well she is a Nobel Prize recipient and she probably has some large non-profit in Switzerland handling things for her”.  My daughter had worked for me in my office the summer before and she knew the importance of contact information on business cards.

I took the card and was shocked to see what it said.  It said simply, “Mother Theresa, Calcutta, India” I thought, “How many people in the world would expect to hear from someone if their business card only had their name and city of residence on it?” Yet, in a country of almost two billion people, I am sure any correspondence sent to her with just this basic info would get to her.  That is how famous she was.  She was not just famous; she was revered in India.  She was a national treasure. Everyone knew her name.

I turned the card over to see if there was more information on the back.  Business people often put more info on the back of their business card to let people know more about their services and/or products.  Sure enough, there was more info, it read, “Hail Mary, full of grace…”.  I stopped reading immediately because I understood what Mother Theresa’s “business” was.  Her business was to intercede with God on the behalf of India’s poor and their “outcasts”. What a simple but noble “business” plan.  Her “business” objective was eternal not temporal.

“MY DREAM HAS COME TRUE”

My daughter’s experience was so impactful, that twenty-six years later she still can’t talk about what she did.  She shared only one story with us upon her return.  She said her job was to help bath and clean wounds and sores of those in the home.  There was one old man in particular who had a deep smelly infected sore on his lower leg. I think it was gangrene based on her description. She said she cleaned it everyday and she was sure the process was painful, but the man only smiled at her during the procedure.  After the third day, my daughter asked an interpreter to ask him why he was always smiling.  He said, “I have spent me whole life in the filth, dirt, and dishonor of being an Outcast, living in the streets.  I always dreamed of dying clean in a safe place, and now my dream has come true.”

Mother Theresa died on September 5, 1997, less than a month after my daughter returned from India.  It was worldwide news that was, unfortunately, eclipsed by the news of Princess Diana’s death in a car crash five days earlier, and the world’s attention was focused mostly on the meaning of Princess Di’s life.  Although the Princess’s life was influential in humanitarian causes, it paled in significance to Mother Theresa’s life.  Someone said, “Princess Di’s life was a sign post on the road of life, Mother Theresa’s life was a giant monument.”

There can be a lot in a name.  It depends on what you put into it.