Mother
Teresa is one of my great inspirations, a true heroine of Christian
virtue. I ask her intercessory help every day, especially as I serve the
homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill and displaced persons who come to
our little outreach called Casa Juan Diego.
Look at Mother Teresa’s hands. What famous hands they are! Why are they so famous? Because they touched Christ’s body every day.
But wait – Mother was not a priest! What do I mean? How can I rightly say this?
Although Mother was not an ordained minister
of the Holy Eucharist (i.e. a ministerial priest of Jesus Christ), she
indeed touched Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, in His members. She
became configured to Christ not only by the beautiful Sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation & frequent Holy Communion, but also by
imitating Him in the way she lived each and every day.
Mother made of her whole life a “eucharist”: a loving sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. We are called to do the same.
As
a holy missionary priest has often related: “The more you look at
something, the more you get into it; the more you get into something,
the more you become like it.” This could be television, movies,
internet, some activity or hobby, nature, people, or Jesus!
Yes,
we need to adore Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament in order to
become like Him; but we also need to love, serve, and feed His broken
body in our neighbors, especially the poor and needy. For we only know
ourselves before God when we recognize Christ present in the least among
us; and we only prove our love for God by loving our neighbors in a
concrete, incarnational and personal love that is not limited to the
pew, the pulpit, or the ‘pay pal’.
+Br. Philip Maria Allen, CFR
St. Felix Friary
Yonkers, NY, USA
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