When Mother Teresa of Calcutta...
Illustration
When Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity, first began their work in Australia they found that many of the Aborigines were living in terrible conditions. One day they came upon an elderly man who lived in the worst conditions of all. Mother Teresa went to him and began a conversation and asked the man to allow them to clean his house and to make his bed. After a time of objection the man finally agreed.
When Mother Teresa entered the house she found that it bore little resemblance to a home, yet, noticed a beautiful lamp covered with filth and dust. She asked him if he ever lit the lamp. He responded by saying, "For whom? No one ever comes to my house. I spend days without ever seeing a human face. I have no need to light the lamp." Mother Teresa quickly asked him if he would be willing to light the lamp if the sisters came to see him regularly. He answered, "Of course!"
So the sisters made it their habit to visit him every evening. The old man began to light the lamp for them and to keep it clean. He began to keep his house clean, too. He lived for two more years. Before his death he asked the sisters to give Mother Teresa a message. He said, "Tell my friend that the light that she lit in my life is still shining." Of the experience Mother Teresa recollected, "It was a very small thing, but in that dark loneliness a light was lit and continued to shine."
(One Heart Full of Love, Mother Teresa, Servant Books, Ann Arbor, pp. 7-8.) -- Angus
When Mother Teresa entered the house she found that it bore little resemblance to a home, yet, noticed a beautiful lamp covered with filth and dust. She asked him if he ever lit the lamp. He responded by saying, "For whom? No one ever comes to my house. I spend days without ever seeing a human face. I have no need to light the lamp." Mother Teresa quickly asked him if he would be willing to light the lamp if the sisters came to see him regularly. He answered, "Of course!"
So the sisters made it their habit to visit him every evening. The old man began to light the lamp for them and to keep it clean. He began to keep his house clean, too. He lived for two more years. Before his death he asked the sisters to give Mother Teresa a message. He said, "Tell my friend that the light that she lit in my life is still shining." Of the experience Mother Teresa recollected, "It was a very small thing, but in that dark loneliness a light was lit and continued to shine."
(One Heart Full of Love, Mother Teresa, Servant Books, Ann Arbor, pp. 7-8.) -- Angus
