2016 St. Teresa of Kolkata Feast Day Mass

Published: September 5, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily during the annual memorial Mass for the now St. Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Mother Teresa of Calcutta) at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Little Rock on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. It was based on these readings: Isaiah 58:6-11; Psalm 33; 1 John 4:7-16; and Matthew 25:31-46.

Bishop Taylor

This year we are celebrating the great jubilee of God's mercy, and so it is appropriate that this would be the year in which the Church canonizes Mother Teresa, one of the greatest apostles of God's mercy in our time.

And that we would hold our diocesan celebration here in this parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel, the home parish of the Missionaries of Charity in our diocese and the home of our holy door, through which so many pilgrims have passed during this Jubilee Year. And in a church dedicated to Our Lady, who was so close to Mother Teresa's heart.

The major themes of this holy year all revolve around the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, and in fact the Corporal Works of Mercy are derived from the parable of the Last Judgment, which is the Gospel reading the Church has associated with this feast of Mother Teresa, and which you just heard — "whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

When I was on vacation last month, I read a book about Mother Teresa edited by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, the postulator of Mother Teresa's cause for sainthood titled: "A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve."

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has identified two basic paths to canonization: heroic virtue and martyrdom, but in fact all saints are heroically virtuous and all saints are martyrs — courageous witnesses for Christ — even those who give their lives without having to shed their blood, and of course Mother Teresa was both.

And how does the Church structure its inquiry into the heroic virtue — or lack thereof — of persons proposed for canonization? I can tell you from working on the martyrdom cause of Father Rother that the questions about heroic virtue all revolve around the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, of which Mother Teresa was such an inspiring example. Virtue is not just an inner reality, nor is it merely the avoidance of sin. Rather, if genuine, it will always bear fruit in works of mercy.

Therefore, Father Kolodiejchuk organizes his book around what Mother Teresa has said about each of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, and then provides the testimony of others regarding concrete ways that she give witness to Jesus by the way she embodied each of these works of mercy in her loving and courageous outreach to those in most desperate need.

But you know, the purpose of publishing a book and undertaking a process of investigation leading to a canonization is not to get Mother Teresa into heaven —she's there regardless of what we say or do or don't do.

The purpose of all this is to help us, inspired by her example, to make progress on the path of holiness ourselves, to follow Jesus more faithfully ourselves, to live lives of heroic virtue ourselves, living lives marked by the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy ourselves, martyrs — persons who give witness to God's great mercy offered to us in Jesus Christ — whether we end up shedding our blood for him or end up giving our lives for him in some other way.

In this, Mother Teresa is an eloquent icon of God's mercy and an inspiring example for us to follow. And so the Lord sends us forth from this celebration of Mother Teresa to feed the hungry like she did, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned and bury the dead.

And also to undertake the Spiritual Works of Mercy, instructing the ignorant like she did, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offenses willingly, comfort the afflicted and pray for the living and the dead. And to do all of this courageously, with a joyful heart and self-sacrificing love.

That's the point of this Year of Mercy and it's the great fruit that should come from this canonization of Mother Teresa: that we, having received God's mercy ourselves, should then go forth to live lives of heroic virtue ourselves, giving our lives in courageous witness to Christ.