“People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered—love them anyway. When you do good, they’ll accuse you of selfish and ulterior motives—do good anyway. If you are successful, you will gain false friends and real enemies—be successful anyway. The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow—do good anyway. What you have built up over years of work can be destroyed overnight—build anyway. Your help is truly needed, but people may attack you when you help them—help them anyway.” (Mother Teresa)
Clearly, St. Mother Teresa both discovered and practiced in her life the way God our Heavenly Father loves people, for He causes the sun to rise on the good and the evil alike.
That is how it is: God’s love is simply there, and everyone is called to let it shine upon them and warm them. On her journey of following the Lord, the Saint discovered selfless love—that love which loves for the sake of love itself, which does good for the sake of good itself. She is not concerned with human recognition: such recognition may come, but it may also fail to materialize. Is that important? No!
What is important is to discover this love given to us by our Father and to learn from it. Then we will come to recognize more and more the beauty of this love, which is loved for its own sake.
Are we not then, step by step, encountering our Lord Himself?
Did He not love us even unto death?
Did He not pray for His persecutors and give His life for those who even hated Him?
And did He not exclaim, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”?
Mother Teresa fully embraced the adventure of selfless love. This invitation is also extended to us—each of us in the place where God wants us to be!