So I discovered one hot June afternoon during the late 1960s as I rode in a southern Ohio cab for an hour with Mother Teresa. I entered the cab drained, after a lecture in a stuffy auditorium, and cynical about the misguided enthusiasms that were Catholic fashions in those days. I left the cab renewed, energized, happy. Talking to Mother Teresa was like a weeklong retreat.
The subjects we discussed were not important. We could have talked about the Chicago Cubs and her effect on me would have been the same. For that hour ride I was in the presence of goodness the likes of which I had never encountered before, one that opened up new horizons of possibility in my life. I knew that I could never be as good as Mother Teresa but that I could be better than I was. I could be almost as radiantly happy as she was. That is the most vivid of my memories of our hour: she was the happiest human being I had ever met.
So is Mother Teresa a saint? Was her goodness saintly? If she is not a saint, then I don’t know who could be. One’s work does not necessarily make one a saint–as incredibly generous as that work might be. One might devote a lifetime to the service of the poor and yet somehow fall short of holiness. In Mother Teresa’s case, however, her work and her personal goodness interacted in such a way that they reinforced one another. Was she a saint because she served the poor so generously? Or did she serve the poor with such unstinting love because she was a saint?
The answer to both questions is yes.
Will the Catholic Church canonize her? Eventually. Formal canonization, however, is relatively unimportant–it took the church half a millennium to catch up with Joan of Arc. The world knows that Mother Teresa is a saint and hails her as such. She represents the Christian faith at its finest and the Catholic heritage at its best. She was a light shining on the mountain, a light that death cannot extinguish.
Sanctity does not mean perfection; it means only passionately generous love–like God’s love for us. Some feminists are angry at Teresa because they think she too easily dismissed women’s quest for equality. One may disagree with saints (though one should not question their good faith). One may even oppose them. Saints make mistakes, commit errors in judgment, succumb to minor human frailties, even commit sins. Mother Teresa was as human as the rest of us.
The question then becomes inevitable: are we all called to be saints, to be as impossibly good and generous as Mother Teresa? Was French novelist LEon Bloy correct when he said at the end of ““The Woman Who Was Poor’’ that there is only one tragedy and that is not to be a saint? We are all called to be better than we are, to do what we do in our lives as well as we possibly can and to do it with greater generosity and more forgiving love. But we do not all walk the same paths. Jesus told his followers that in his Father’s kingdom there were many mansions. Mother Teresa’s service to the poor was spectacularly unselfish, but it is not the only way to serve Jesus.
I suspect that God isn’t into comparisons. She will not say at the Great Accounting, ““You were not as holy as Mother Teresa.’’ Rather, She is likely to say with motherly affection, ““You were not as unselfish as you might have been.’’ If Mother Teresa’s death and burial are to be anything more than another media event, if her light on the mountain is to shine on us, that is the pertinent challenge for each of us. The only real tragedy is not to be as unselfish as we might be on our own particular path through life. Unselfishness is the only way to holiness and happiness.
When a Catholic who has had a reputation for holiness dies, the church must wait at least five years before any formal action on sainthood can be started. The process and some well-known saints:
STEPS TO CANONIZATION Informal Phase: A local group promotes devotion to the deceased. Investigative Phase: The local bishop appoints officials to Collect writings by and about the candidate. They hold tribunals in which witnesses for and against the “cause” give testimony. The Vatican cheeks its archives for anything that would prevent the cause from proceeding. Evaluation and Judgment Phase: Local bishops send testimony and other material to the Vatiean’s Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood. A relator who oversees the writing of a biography is appointed. Eight theologians and the promoter of the faith judge the cause. If it’s approved, cardinals and bishops of the congregation vote. If the pope approves, the candidate is declared “Venerable.” The Miracle Process: A candidate must have a miracle credited to his or her intercession. Only miracles that occur after the candidate’s death count. The evidence is judged by medical experts and then judged by a panel of theologians. Beatification: Once the miracle process is approved by the cardinals and the pope, the pope beatifies the candidate. Canonization: Before a candidate can be canonized, one more miracle is required. That miracle must have occurred after the beatification. Then the pope canonizes the saint. NOTED SAINTS 1. Stephen: Stoned to death. He was the first Christian martyr. 2. Agnes: Martyred at age 10 or 12 in 804. A virgin-martyr and patron of young girls. 3. Francis of Assisi: Born in 1181. Founded the Franciscans in 1209. Canonized in 1228. 4. Joan of Arc: Led the French Army against the British in 1429. Burned at the stake in 1481. Canonized in 1920. 5. Therese of Lisieux: Born in 1878. Joined the Carmelites at 15. Died in 1897 of tuberculosis. Mother Teresa is named after her.
