Unit 5: Understanding Compassion and Mother Teresa

• Unit 5: The Compassion People focuses on understanding and embodying compassion.
• "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." - Mother Teresa

Biblical reference

• Matthew 25:40 states, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
• Matius 25:40 says in Indonesian says the above quote.

Defining Compassion

• Compassion is defined as feeling sympathy/sadness when seeing others suffer.
• It involves not only sympathy but also empathy, understanding, and the desire to help.

Early Life

• Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 27, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia.
• Her parents, Nikolle and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, were of Albanian descent.
• Her father was a successful contractor, and her mother was a homemaker.
• Mother Teresa was the youngest of three siblings in a devout Catholic family.
• The family regularly prayed and attended church, showing concern for the poor.
• At age 12, she vowed to dedicate her life to helping the impoverished.
• She then joined the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin, Ireland.

Life in India

• After a year in Ireland, she went to Darjeeling, India, to join the Loreto convent.
• She spent 17 years teaching and became the principal of St. Mary's High School in Calcutta.
• In 1946, while on a train to Darjeeling, she had a spiritual experience.
• During this experience she felt a calling from God to serve the poorest of the poor.

Missionaries of Charity

• Mother Teresa received permission to leave her order and start her own school in Calcutta.
• With papal approval, she founded the Missionaries of Charity on October 7, 1950.
• Their mission was to care for the hungry, homeless, crippled, blind, and lepers, and also those who felt unwanted or unloved in society.

Caring for all

• Calcutta began transforming abandoned temples into homes for the dying which she renamed Kalighat
• Even the poorest could die and be buried decently, to identify with the impoverished, she wore a white sari with blue trim and a simple cross.
• She opened Nirmal Hriday (Sacred Heart), a home for the dying and Shanti Nagar (City of Peace), a place for lepers.
• Her mission expanded worldwide after 1965, with the Pope's blessing.
• They fed the starving in Ethiopia, assisted minorities in South Africa, and served in Albania after the fall of communism.
• During the 1982 war in Beirut, she brokered a ceasefire to rescue 37 sick children trapped in the conflict.
• Mother Teresa became a symbol of unwavering commitment to the poor and suffering.

Organization Statistics

• The Missionaries of Charity had 610 missions worldwide.
• It consisted of 4,000 sisters serving in 139 countries.
• They ran homes for patients with AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis (TB).
• Their work also included child and family counseling programs as well as orphanages and schools.

Death and legacy

• Even with declining health, she continued to travel and raise funds for the poor.
• She suffered from malaria, chest infections, and underwent heart surgery in 1996.
• On March 13, 1997, Sister Nirmala Joshi succeeded her as head of the Missionaries of Charity.
• Mother Teresa passed away on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87, and was remembered as the "Angel of Mercy".
• She received numerous awards and honors for her remarkable work.
• When awarded the Nobel Prize, she used the money to feed 400 poor children in India for 1 year.

Suster Nirmala Joshi

• Suster Nirmala Joshi was Mother Teresa's successor.

Compassion in the Bible

• The Bible provides a narrative involving Jesus and an expert in the law.
• Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
• A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked, robbed, and left half-dead.
• A priest and a Levite passed by without offering help.
• A Samaritan helped the injured man, bandaged his wounds, took him to an inn, and paid for his care.
• Jesus asked who was a neighbor to the injured man, and the expert answered that the one who had mercy was the neighbor.
• Jesus says one should go and do the same.

Types of love

• There are four Greek words for love:
  • Eros: romantic love.
  • Storge: familial love.
  • Philia: love between close friends.
  • Agape: unconditional, selfless love.
• Agape is the ultimate form of love that does not seek to benefit oneself, but rather focuses entirely on the well-being of the person being loved.
• Jesus demonstrated agape love through his sacrifice on the cross to atone for the sins.
• Mother Teresa also exemplified agape love.
• We should strive to show kindness and compassion to those in need.