In Distressing Disguise
I scanned the book list in class with an already negative attitude about having to do one more assignment over Thanksgiving break. I was hoping to do some reading for fun, but instead I would be stuck with this assignment. Then, I spotted one that actually sounded pretty good, so I signed my name by it and headed to the library to pick it up.
Something Beautiful For God by Malcolm Muggeridge is a book about Mother Teresa. I hadn't read three pages before I realized that I loved the book. I couldn't have picked something better if I had chosen a book to read just for fun.
This week, I have discovered that I want to be like Mother Teresa. For those of you who are wondering, no, I am not going to become a Catholic nun or start a convent, but I do love Mother Teresa's simple way of life. She expresses her theology in words that I feel came out of my own heart.
In interviews with Mother Teresa, people ask her mutliple, complex, deep questions, but she always gives the same answers. Through those answers she makes her faith seem so simple and her way of life so expected, so un-sepctacular. She talks about an amazing God and extraordinary love and the natural response to it all: a life of following and serving Him joyfully with everything that we are. And as she says it, it makes so much sense. When I read her words, I can almost hear her confusion at the questions being asked of her. Why do you think my life is so extraordinary? What do you mean when you ask me why I do what I do? The world doesn't get it, but she does. She knows God's heart, and her lifestyle is pure obedience to the love she found in Him.
One thing that she says often has been replaying in my mind. "The work is only the expression of the love we have for God. We have to pour our love on someone. And the people are the means of expressing our love for God."
She goes on to explain that she loves Christ, but cannot actually see and show her love to Him. However, she can always see her neighbors, and she does to them what she would do to Christ if she saw Him in the world. She chooses to see Christ in the faces of the poor. She calls them, "Christ in His distressing disguise."
She says, "Our hearts need to be full of Him and since we have to express that love in action, naturally then the poorest of the poor are the means of expressing our love to God."
We love because He first loved us. We love others in order to love Him. When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the weary, we do it for Christ. And in doing so, others will come to know Christ's amazing love through us. It's as simple as that.
Something Beautiful For God by Malcolm Muggeridge is a book about Mother Teresa. I hadn't read three pages before I realized that I loved the book. I couldn't have picked something better if I had chosen a book to read just for fun.
This week, I have discovered that I want to be like Mother Teresa. For those of you who are wondering, no, I am not going to become a Catholic nun or start a convent, but I do love Mother Teresa's simple way of life. She expresses her theology in words that I feel came out of my own heart.
In interviews with Mother Teresa, people ask her mutliple, complex, deep questions, but she always gives the same answers. Through those answers she makes her faith seem so simple and her way of life so expected, so un-sepctacular. She talks about an amazing God and extraordinary love and the natural response to it all: a life of following and serving Him joyfully with everything that we are. And as she says it, it makes so much sense. When I read her words, I can almost hear her confusion at the questions being asked of her. Why do you think my life is so extraordinary? What do you mean when you ask me why I do what I do? The world doesn't get it, but she does. She knows God's heart, and her lifestyle is pure obedience to the love she found in Him.
One thing that she says often has been replaying in my mind. "The work is only the expression of the love we have for God. We have to pour our love on someone. And the people are the means of expressing our love for God."
She goes on to explain that she loves Christ, but cannot actually see and show her love to Him. However, she can always see her neighbors, and she does to them what she would do to Christ if she saw Him in the world. She chooses to see Christ in the faces of the poor. She calls them, "Christ in His distressing disguise."
She says, "Our hearts need to be full of Him and since we have to express that love in action, naturally then the poorest of the poor are the means of expressing our love to God."
We love because He first loved us. We love others in order to love Him. When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give shelter to the weary, we do it for Christ. And in doing so, others will come to know Christ's amazing love through us. It's as simple as that.
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